The feudal Nepali state was a perpetrator of structural violence. The Maoists, however misguided in their pursuit of an obsolete ideology, believed that only revolutionary violence could counter it. Had they tried to learn from history, they would have known that violence is never the answer, that it breeds a cycle of vengeance. So it is that today, the disgraced revolutionaries have no answer when posed with the question: “What was it all for?”
Nepal’s conflict had no victors and no vanquished. Neither side won, the Nepali people lost and the country’s development was pushed back decades. And we are left with a legacy of violence and lawlessness during this prolonged transition. Going from monarchy to republic cannot be called ‘progress’ if it doesn’t make a difference to the people’s living standards, doesn’t create jobs, or prevents us from being more inclusive and taking a great leap in development. The country was unilaterally declared ‘secular' without the people’s consent. Federalism, touted as the biggest accomplishment of the revolution, is just a slogan and has stopped meaning true devolution and autonomy. Instead it threatens to fragment an already disunited country. Whatever political progress was credited to a war fought in the name of the people was not worth the blood that was shed and the sacrifices made.
Now, a state composed of war mongers from both sides that visited such misery on the nation wants us to let bygones be bygones. Not only do they not want to say sorry, they are forcing Nepalis to forget the past, or else. Forget who executed your innocent father, don’t ask who raped your daughter, disregard the commissar or captain who disappeared your brother, don’t you dare name those who ran torture chambers. Because if you don’t, we will let the peace process collapse. So, they blackmail us with the threat of violence while the internationals look on. They vilify human rights defenders and those who seek justice, accusing them of being in the payroll of ‘foreigners’. They insult, even in death, a father who suffered untold pain by refusing to eat for nearly a year demanding that those who murdered his teenage son be brought to justice.