2008

Two years after the conflict ended, the country prepared for the first election to the Constituent Assembly which under the peace agreement was to draft the new Constitution. Campaigning was fierce, with sporadic residual violence from the war.                                                                                            

Everyone was predicting a win for the NC and UML, the two established parties at the time, but when the results came out it was a near landslide for the Maoists.

Even Pushpa Kamal Dahal could not believe it. Analysts scrambled to explain the surprise win, and the conclusion was that it was a protest vote against the NC and UML that had taken turns to rule since 1990, their constant infighting and corruption and lack of accountability to the people. 

Even those who had suffered from Maoist violence voted for the party. Many of the votes were therefore not for the Maoists, but for peace – make them win so they do not go back to the mountains and become guerrillas.

Chairman Prachanda went on to become Prime Minister Dahal, and the first act of the Constituent Assembly was to abolish the monarchy and declare Nepal a republic. 

That very evening in June, king Gyanendra held a chaotic Narayanhiti Palace news conference, and said “Bye bye I’m off”, and drove away in his Jaguar to Nagarjun.

Nepal was in a no war no peace situation. There was prolonged wrangling about who would be president to replace the king, and the Maoist vanguard YCL was back to its old ways of extorting businesses. In government, the Maoists developed a thin skin against criticism, and started attacking the media.

Dahal told a Maoist mass meeting in Tundikhel in September: “I have told the editor of Kantipur that if he keeps on criticising us he will have to face the consequences because the people have now made us victorious.” 

The very next week, the YCL attacked the van carrying copies of that week’s edition of Himal Khabarpatrika that was critical of such activities and made a bonfire out of the magazines. 

And on 28 December, the former guerrillas vandalised the offices of Himal and Nepali Times and assaulted the CEO, editor and other staff.  

C K Lal wrote in his weekly Nepali Times column State of the State:

‘Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal lacks the moral authority to rein in groups that challenge the authority of the state. After all, he owes his political ascendancy to those who defied prevailing laws by force of arms under his direction. Welcome to the world of the post insurgency, moral-legal vacuum, where brute force is the only law.

The Maoist-led government’s inability to prevent the attack at Himal Khabarpatrika sends out a message that the media is not able to exercise their freedom. Unless the Maoists plan to go back to war, they need to understand that maintaining a peaceful society is their primary responsibility.’