Get Ready!

We here at Blogdai have been calling this one ever since the King's takeover ("Blogdai and the Rumor Mill, Feb. 3, and My Favorite Rumor, Feb. 8) and now it looks like the most obvious of political alliances is about to stumble into being: Girija loves Mao. Ain't that sweet?

It makes perfect sense for the marginalized, irrelevant former politicians of Nepal to look for political traction anywhere they can get it. These are political animals who care only for power and leverage. They would make a deal with the devil if it restored their place at the trough of corruption.

So, old Girija finally fessed-up to meeting with the Maoists during his "medical" visit to Delhi. http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=43073 In perhaps the most ironic quote of the century Girija proclaimed:

"If they term the Maoist problem as a political problem and want it resolved amicably, then why should anyone object if we, leaders of political parties, take initiatives to bring the rebels to the dialogue table?" Koirala asked. "It is our duty - the government, international community and the parties - to bring the Maoists to the negotiating table."

This talk of duty coming from the man who single-handedly sabatoges the last nearly-successful peacetalks with the maoists by calling for a student protest. Should we be surprised? News accounts flourish where Girija openly contradicts his prior statements or actions; often within days of their occurrence. Girija never once showed any aptitude or desire to bring the Maoists to the table while he was in government. This latest action is his last greedy attempt at a power grab.

Yes, babu, let's reinstate you and all your cronies to government immediately. You cannot even agree on the procedures for holding a simple NC convention, http://kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=43365 but that doesn't mean we should doubt your ability to run a democracy, right? Hard to tell. It seems now that Democracy is not your cup of tea. The recently called municipal elections are a good baby-step towards figuring out what went wrong in the past; kind of a democracy do-over to wipe the slate clean and get it right, but, alas, you are now calling for a boycott of this restorative step. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL13969.htm. Wouldn't want any new fairly-elected officials sticking their clean hands in your cookie jar would you?

Blogdai feels we are getting closer to an actual Congress-Maoist merger date. Since China is starting to dump some heavy military metal in Kathmandu, our NC/Maoist heroes must be feeling the pressure. Prediction: Look for something approaching a formal agreement between the Parties and the Maoists within the month. The parties have even begun to set up sort of a Maoist dialogue office in Delhi. Yes, our boys are serious now. Everyone knows that decisions affecting Nepal can only be made in India, right? http://news.monstersandcritics.com/mediamonitor/article_1015930.php/Nepalese

Even the Yanks are worried. After being roundly criticized for playing golf with Paras, U.S. ambassador Moriarty's office expressed concern about this new potential alliance saying that such an alliance could "plunge Nepal into further chaos."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061800938_2.html So, if this gets the dull-witted Moriarty's attention then the Maoist/NC alliance must be far along indeed, as the U.S. embassy is usually about a month behind the intelligence curve on such matters.

So, here it comes. At least now we can group all the bad-guys together for less confusion.

-=blogdai

Note: blogdai is getting tired of using terms like, NC, congress, the Parties, corrupt former government officials, etc. From now on, for accuracy and brevity, we will refer to anything concerning the former government as: "Girija" -=blogdai

Update: June 20, Step one:

Prachanda directs cadres not to take action against civilians

KOL Report
KATHMANDU, June 20 - Maoist supremo Prachanda Sunday directed all his party cadres not to carry out any physical action against any unarmed civilians, even if they were “criminal” a statement said.
Prachanda’s statement comes one day after the seven parties called on the Maoists to abjure violence and support their agenda for restoration of democratic process in the country.
He also said he supported the decision taken by the seven parties to boycott the local polls and not to recognize the appointments made at local levels. (hb)

Update: June 21, Another Step: blogdai almost got the formal alliance he predicted one month early. All parties talking nicey-nicey now and talking about the inevitability of the alliance. http://news.monstersandcritics.com/mediamonitor/article_1018364.php/Nepal_parties_welcome_Maoist_view

July 21, Update: One More Hurdle Cleared: Well, now that they pesky issue of maoists laying down their arms before talks can begin is over, we can now call the parties an official armed resistance. http://kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=46368