In the last couple of weeks, at least two of our leaders have become the butts of jokes among the people. One was the Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda. The other was none other than our Prime Minister KP Oli. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, perhaps in what he thought was a satirical vein, dared the authorities to arrest him and other top Maoist leaders for war crimes. And the prime minister became a laughing stock when he said that Nepal will have its own flag vessels. He was ridiculed for dreaming the unthinkable and promising the sky without realising that his promises cannot be fulfilled anytime soon. But due thought needs to be given to these ideas that may seem far-fetched now but might come to fruition in the future.

This writer was assisting an American journalist working with the Newsweek  magazine who had come to Nepal and interviewed the then CPM-UML chief, Madan Bhandari. Telex, rather than the now-common internet, was in use then. As she typed the transcript, it was revealed that the communist chief had said that he would generate thousands and thousands of kilowatts of electric power and export it even to countries like the US to bring in the much needed foreign currency to Nepal. He was asked how that would be possible if India did not buy the generated power and did not allow transmission lines to pass through its territory. His reply was that there would possibly be new inventions by which power could be transmitted without transmission cables, much like radio and TV signals. We all laughed at the idea. But in recent times, progress has been made on this front and Japanese scientists have been able to transmit small amounts of electricity wirelessly. Research has been going on in this direction and possibly in the not-too-distant future such technique can be used for the benefit of landlocked countries like Nepal and Lesotho and of mankind in general. So some utterances of our leaders should not be laughed away.

Going scot-free

No matter how satirically he might have said it, Dahal’s challenge that he should be arrested for war crimes should not be taken lightly. The Maoist leaders, including Baidya and Bhattarai, have wanted to restrict the authority of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons. Dahal’s challenge is clearly meant to derail the process that has already begun and to place the blame for the war atrocities and disappearances solely on the shoulders of the then government officials. His point seems to be that the Maoists could have done no wrong while the government security officials committed all the war crimes. The gist of the Maoists’ rantings is that the commissions responsible for investigating people’s complaints should be restricted from looking into the role of the Maoists in  such incidents.  

The people’s war, or insurgency or whatever one calls it, took the lives of almost 18,000 Nepalis—be they the Maoists, security personnel or innocent citizens—in a ten year period. Thinking that the leaders—from both sides—are not responsible for these fatalities is absurd. There are many reports of innocent youths being forcibly dragged into the Maoist warfare. Similarly, there are many reports of government security forces torturing the innocents and even inflicting fatalities merely on the basis of suspicion. The Maoists too were said to have indulged in similar tactics when they suspected people of being government informers. Of course, all of this happened because of the leadership and to implicate only those directly involved in criminal activities is not enough. Top echelon leaders who ordered the actions should be held equally responsible. For without their nod, the atrocities would never have happened. That is why Prachanda’s challenge should be taken literally and put into action. This means that all the top leaders of the government from 1996 onwards, including king Gyanendra who became the effective ruler after 2002, and all big Maoist leaders need to be held accountable for the wrongs they did to Nepal and its people. But this is wishful thinking as the leaders from both sides are bound to go scot-free. Puspha Kamal Dahal’s utterances are therefore no laughing matter.

Flying the flag    

Nor is Prime Minister Oli’s dream of having Nepal’s own ships on the high seas. It is worth recalling that Oli is by no means the only one to put forward such an idea. The idea of Nepali flag-bearing ships cruising on the high seas had first been mooted during the Panchayat times by the late king Mahendra. If one is not mistaken, there is already a law in place regarding shipping vessels in Nepal. In fact, it is said that some Nepalis had already acquired a ship that was flying the Nepali flag but the venture had to be nipped in the bud because of a lack of proper harbour facilities and inadequate volume of cargo. Trade in the early 1970s was just a fraction of what it is today. But also different today are the conditions, including the manner in which some of our neighbours have behaved, which make a scheme to own and operate shipping vessels an expensive necessity. What is also necessary is the free and unhindered access to and from the coasts on the northern and southern sides. So are exclusive harbours in India and China. The high seas belong to all the countries including landlocked ones; international agencies and authorities need to ensure that coastal countries provide unhindered access to landlocked countries. Infringement on such rights, as recent events have shown, should be a crime against humanity. It is only fitting for a landlocked country to seek to free itself from the clutches of those who treat them as colonies. It is worth trying to be truly independent in this age of interdependence.