2006
After 10 years of agonising war, and three weeks of spreading street protests, by the stroke of the midnight hour on 24 April 2006, king Gyanendra finally restored Parliament. Girija Prasad Koirala was reappointed prime minister and mobile phone service was restored, FM radio stations could broadcast news again. It would take three more days for the Maoists to declare a ceasefire with a mammoth victory rally at Tundikhel.
The page 1 foldout of a Nepali Times Special Edition that week carried an iconic photo by Ajay Joshi of a student protester wearing a paper crown and ridiculing Gyanendra with an impersonation. Such an act would have surely meant imprisonment a day previously, but the laughing faces in the crowd were proof that the fear was gone. Gyanendra’s time was up.
But politicians being politicians, the formation of the interim cabinet was delayed because of competing demands for powerful portfolios among the SPAM (Seven Party Alliance + Maoists). The following months of 2006 shows that the People’s Movement had changed the regime without changing the mindset of the leadership to show vision and action.
By the end of 2006, there were ominous signs of things to come. As Nepali Times wrote in an editorial printed on 22-28 December:
‘The euphoria over the ceasefire of the past nine months is now being replaced by a worrying sense of foreboding about ethnic, separatist, and religious fissures that are opening up. Part of this is caused by reaction and resentment that was welling up after the restoration of democracy. Partly it is also identity politics where the radical fringes of the Maoist and other parties have taken to extreme and militant rhetoric to leapfrog into the political arena.’
The Maoists needed to be demobilised, disarmed and reintegrated, and the United Nations was called upon to (with New Delhi’s blessing) which led to the formation of UNMIN to supervise the process. Ian Martin, who was with the OHCHR office in Kathmandu was deputed to head the team that grew to manage the mammoth task of arms management in camps for the former guerrillas across the country.
This cartoon (pictured, above) about the peace process by Rabin Sayami from page 1 of the 8-14 December 2006 edition showed Girija Prasad Koirala scrubbing the dirt of corruption, and Prachanda washing the blood from his hands.
Between 2002-2006 the paper carried the syndicated comic strip, Yak Yeti Yak by Miku (pictured, below). It starred a talkative Yak and a Yeti with an existential crisis. Often absurd and sometimes deeply philosophical, the strip had a cult following of readers who chuckled briefly every Friday morning. Go to Nepali Times Archives to access the toons.
2006 also saw the monumental tragedy in which the pioneers of Nepal’s internationally-acclaimed conservation movement were all killed in a helicopter crash in Ghunsa. The chopper was carrying 24 passengers, all of them perished including Chandra Gurung, Harka Gurung, Mingma Sherpa, Dawa Tsering. Yeshi Lama. The headline of issue #317 simply said in big bold letters: VOID. The editorial ‘Still Among Us’, urged the need to carry on:
‘In a country where there is so little to celebrate, it is a cruel blow to take away the little that stood out. The people who boarded the helicopter in Ghunsa on Saturday morning were all enormously talented, experienced, and dedicated. We owe it to them to continue their work, to innovate and prove by doing that nature conservation and economic progress can go hand in hand.'
A week before the crash, the Times ran an article on how the conflict was affecting conservation. As the Maoists had stepped up their activities, forest guard posts had been abandoned, game scouts had been killed by landmines, and abduction, ambushes and extortion had forced conservationists to stop their work. Poaching had intensified.
The Comprehensive Peace Accord was signed on 21 November, 2006 codifying the ceasfire, bringing an end to the decade long conflict that cost 17,000 Nepali lives.
While it is easy to be frustrated with Nepali politics, looking back with the benefit of 25 years of hindsight leads to the realisation that progress, while slow, is taking place. Peace has reigned for the most part, and the vision of multiparty democracy and federalism has been realised even if they need some tweaks. It also warns against hastily bringing the king back, it must not be forgotten what it took to get him out in the first place.