Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003
Maoists' bid to allay India's fears
By C. Raja Mohan
KATHMANDU: Basking in the new-found political acceptance amidst a tentative peace process in this war-torn mountain kingdom, the Nepalese Maoists have begun to signal that they are not hostile towards India.
Krishna Bahadur Mahara, one of the top leaders of the Maoist movement that has entered into negotiations with the Nepalese Government after a bitter insurgency, says: "India should have no reason to fear us." In an expansive conversation with The Hindu at his party's spartan office not far from the Singha Durbar, seat of the Nepalese Government, he says, "we won't let this soil be used against India by anyone".
The Maoist charm offensive towards India appears to be part of a major reorientation of the party's positions on domestic and foreign policies, as it gets within striking distance of the power structure in Kathmandu.
The Maoists had always projected India as a huge threat. In their 75-point manifesto, released as recently as August 2001, they had declared that "Indian expansionism is the principal external enemy and threat to Nepal and all countries of South Asia".
Asked about the manifesto's line on India, Mr. Mahara has ready answers. That pragmatism will prevail when they establish their own state or become part of a new ruling political coalition in Kathmandu is the underlying theme. "Nepal needs India's cooperation to achieve progress," says Mr. Mahara. "We can't change geography. We will have live with that reality."
He suggests that Maoist foreign policy will strive for good relations with both China and India. Both Beijing and New Delhi, he says, see the "monarchy in Nepal as the source of stability". But unlike the monarchy "which has played India and China against each other", the Maoists will not indulge in such games, says Mr. Mahara.
The Maoists remain firmly opposed to the Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty of 1950, which many in Kathmandu see as unequal. "We need a new treaty on the basis of equality," says Mr. Mahara.
What about the Maoist declaration to support "communist revolutionary and national liberation movements against Indian expansionism"? Will a future Maoist Government in Kathmandu support extremist and separatist forces in India? A Maoist Government will "offer no material support to groups opposed to the Indian state", declares Mr. Mahara; but he does not explicitly forswear ideological support to such groups. * * * Like many revolutionary and ideological parties in the past, the Nepalese Maoists are adapting to the ground realities as they edge closer to the seat of power. Not surprisingly, Mr. Mahara says the 75-point manifesto is a programme for "New Democracy" or "People's Democracy" as visualised by old style communist parties in many parts of the developing world.
Mr. Mahara, who has had a Rs. 35-lakh reward on his head until recently, says the party is focussed on building a less ambitious "bourgeois democracy". In other words, the Maoists now emphasise support to a multiparty system, transforming the monarchy into a republic, a mixed economy and reasonably pragmatic foreign policy.
"We are communists; but communism is far away. Even `new democracy' is not within immediate reach. We are for a `genuine bourgeois democracy', which we do not have now," says Mr. Mahara referring to Nepal's experimentation with democratic governance in the last decade.
* * * Diplomats here are carefully assessing the ideological evolution of the Maoists who are reaching out to a wider constituency in Nepal and beyond since the ceasefire and two rounds of peace talks.
Like most political leaders in Nepal many diplomats have empathy for the many social and economic demands of the Maoists. But their fingers are crossed when they contemplate the kind of political animal that the Maoists will eventually become.
A number of new factors have created an environment in which the Maoists could become part of the political mainstream. These include the strategic stalemate on the ground between the Maoist forces and the Government, the new global concerns about terrorism after September 11 and the broad international interest in the current peace process here.
The Maoists themselves have apparently approached a few leading diplomatic missions here seeking a dialogue. Some of these missions have agreed that it is premature to equate the Maoists with the Government and engage them in a dialogue. But these missions have authorised contacts with the Maoists at the lower level and the brief is to listen and convey the message that political violence is unacceptable.
* * * The Maoists are angry that the Bush administration has put them on the "watch list" of terrorist groups and have stepped up their ideological rhetoric against the US. While their guns were trained on New Delhi until now, the focus of their criticism is now Washington.
Some analysts here say that branding the Maoists as terrorists complicates the peace process which everyone wants to succeed. Others, however, argue that whatever be the bureaucratic politics that went into the designation of the Maoists as terrorists, it certainly has left the Maoists in no doubt that if they take up arms again there will be significant political costs.
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