Nepal Prime Minister G.P. Koirala must be ruing the day he allowed his Seven Party Alliance to be conned into negotiating with Maoist leader Prachand. Mr. Koirala has given respectability to a bunch of armed thugs, agreeing to bring them into an interim regime and allowing them to dictate an interim constitution along with the timetable for the election of a new constituent assembly to decide the monarchy’s future. Unease over the implications of such fundamental changes in the Nepalese civilizational template are now spreading, as evidenced in the rise of pro-monarchy sentiment.
The suspicions are not misplaced. The 18 December wildcat strike in which Maoists unleashed six hours of terrible violence in Kathmandu to protest against the appointment of envoys to fourteen countries, indicates that Prachand intends to dominate the Himalayan kingdom through the barrel of the gun. Any doubts on this score were settled three days later when 5000 armed rebels walked out of their camps in Ilam and Morang districts in a show of strength that rattled the aged SPA leaders, who have realized that the forces that instigated them to unseat King Gyanendra have used them like a railway service to reach another station.
Those forces want the political dominance of Prachand, through the ‘good offices’ of an obliging United Nations, which helped America break up Indonesia and create Christian East Timor. Their success is likely because of Ms. Sonia Gandhi’s total commitment to the intrinsically anti-Hindu Western agenda. Thus, a civilizationally Hindu India has abandoned a civilizationally Hindu Nepal, because a White Christian dominates an effete Indian government and wants to help a covert Christian illicitly ascend the throne of Nepal.
Like India today, Nepal tomorrow will have a ruler who does not share the dharma of the people and does not respect their traditions and culture. Unlike Sonia Gandhi, Prachand is an ethnic Nepalese, but his ascension puts Nepalese civilization in peril. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which has finally got its national agenda together under the promising leadership of Mr. Rajnath Singh, would do well not to neglect developments in our neighbourhood. Prachand is pressurizing Mr. Koirala to implement the new constitution in just ten days, dissolve the SPA and form an interim government with Maoist participation, failing which he will unleash mayhem in the Himalayan nation.
Under the 21 November peace accord, Maoists agreed to confine their cadres to 28 camps and lock up their arms under UN supervision. But the sudden violence of the past few days prevented a UN-Maoist joint monitoring team from beginning inspections, and now reports of extortion and intimidation are pouring in from all over the country. The most bizarre aspect of the truce is the SPA’s agreeing to let UN monitor the arms of both the Maoists and the Nepal Army, putting the nation’s legitimate security force on equal footing with a gangster mob. There is no justice in the demand to confine the Nepal Army to barracks, and obviously a dubious foreign hand is behind this mischief, which will deny Nepalese village folk the sense of security needed to vote freely in the elections.
Elimination of the Nepal Army from the national scene will give the Western-dominated UN a free hand to do as it pleases in the polls, a situation New Delhi must resist. India’s Election Commission will not be able to ensure free and fair elections there unless the Nepal Army or the Indian Army keeps Maoist arms and cadres under lock and key; by current estimates Maoists can win just about 10 out of 205 seats in a fair election. The UN must either be kept out or its mission manned exclusively by adherents of non-monotheistic faiths. As the main opposition party, the BJP must speak up for the civilizational integrity of Nepal and resist Ms. Gandhi’s subversion of our traditional foreign policy.
Given the steep rise in conversion activity in India since Ms. Gandhi’s ascent, the BJP would do well to scrutinize missionary activism among the capital’s Nepalese population as well. According to reliable sources, Maoists in New Delhi have close links with Christian groups. In Baljit Nagar, Moti Bagh, and Mehrauli areas, secret churches have been established in houses occupied by Maoists. One church, with a banner proclaiming ‘World Unification Movement,’ was visited by an unidentified White man who spoke about the political situation in Nepal.
Sources suggest the gentleman could be from the US-based Republication International Movement (RIM), which is active in Asia. This seems likely because a Meerut school, Thomas Child Academy, which is caring for the orphan children of Nepalese Maoist cadres, is known to display the RIM flag on occasions. Nearly one hundred Nepalis have been provided employment in Indian churches and are luring fellow Nepalis to the congregations every Sunday, where the Maoist newspapers, Dishabodh and Dishanidesh, are distributed free.
A Nepali attending a meeting was shocked to see the pujari of the Nepali mandir in Baljit Nagar, Mr. Puran Sharma, who is close to the Maoists, leading Christian prayers in Moti Nagar! This kind of subterfuge permeates the movement. While second-in-command Baburam Bhattarai and his family are openly Christian, Prachand does not proclaim his religious affiliations but his wife’s entire family is Christian. His guru, Chandra Pradesh Gajurel, was a Christian preacher. Sources estimate that the 42000-strong Maoist army would be 30 percent Christian, but the cadres are kept in the dark that the top leadership is predominantly Christian.
Nepal’s temporary constitution recognizes all religions, but Hindus are apprehensive about the changes desired by the rebels. A US-based organization, Global Recordings, has intensified its conversion activities and is propagating the Gospel in all tribal dialects. Nepalis ask that if the Maoists are not Christian, why would they attack and close down all Sanskrit pathshalas (only 2–3 survive) and stop compulsory Sanskrit education in school? There is harassment at Hindu festivals and Brahmins have been forced to eat beef; who would kill the cow in a Hindu kingdom? Then there was the attempt to make the rhinoceros the State animal, instead of the holy cow. Unnerved, religious groups want Nepal to be declared a Hindu state again, and to retain the Hindu King, a demand India should heartily support in its own interests.
The Pioneer, 26 December 2006