The Nepal Nexus: An Inside Account of the Maoists, the Durbar and New Delhi

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This fast-paced, comprehensive account traces the recent eventful and turbulent era of Nepali politics. In the short span of the last two decades, Nepal experienced the Maoist revolt, the palace massacre, the state of emergency, the royal coup, the people's movement, the republic, the Madhes uprising, the Constituent Assembly, federalism and the new Constitution.

Reflecting on these developments, Sudheer Sharma a argues that poverty, unemployment and oppression drove the Maoist revolt, and despite its ultimate failure, it played a decisive role in Nepal's socio-political transformation. Furthermore, the relationship between the Maoists, the monarchy (Durbar) and the Indian establishment (Delhi) is absolutely critical to understanding the trajectory of the changes. The Nepal Nexus examines the impact of each of these three strands and tracks the complex interplay between them.

On 17 May 2018, Prachanda, the communist leader who had spearheaded the decade-long Maoist people's war, turned towards a completely different path. That day he not only announced the dissolution of his party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), but, more significantly, also gave up his love for Maoism. He unified his party with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) which had been in the parliamentary mainstream since the 1990s. The new party was called the Nepal Communist Party or NCP, which was the original name of the party when it was first established in Nepal in 1949.

The NCP adopted Marxism-Leninism as its guiding principle. It abandoned the Maoist road map of grabbing power forcibly. And, it expressly committed itself to peaceful multiparty competition. This was a radical departure for Prachanda, who had till the recent past been dedicated to the cause of armed revolution.

Prachanda-his real name was Pushpa Kamal Dahal-started people's war in 1996 and joined the peace process ten years later in 2006. But the complexities of the subsequent decade-long political transition made him a disillusioned man. In this interregnum, his party led the government thrice. He himself became prime minister twice. During this process he and his comrades had handed over their arms to the state, his People's Liberation Army had merged with the Nepali Army and the cadres had integrated with Nepali society. The UN political mission, the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), that had come to facilitate the peace process in Nepal, had returned once these tasks were complete. But the party that had remained intact during the painful insurgency years, had split many times after it joined the political mainstream. His key stalwarts of the war days including Baburam Bhattarai, Mohan Baidhya and Netra Bikram Chand, had parted ways and floated their own separate outfits.

Consequently, the Maoist party was not only weakened organizationally in the open political space, it was also forced to share the same leftist constituency as another big communist party, the CPN-UML. It was clear that only one communist party could survive prominently in the long run.

This objective reality could not have escaped a politician as shrewd as Prachanda. Hence, in the first election for province and centre under the new Constitution, he was keen to join hands with the CPN-UML. When the UML and the Maoists declared their electoral alliance on 3 October 2017, they also announced their intention to unite. Initially, many saw it as a strategic electoral ploy, but within eight months, they created a single party. Having fought together, the communist alliance bagged a clear majority. The election results acted as catalyst to cement the Maoist-UML unity.

These were the objective circumstances under which Maoist Chairman Prachanda and UML Chairman K.P. Sharma Oli- who had had an antagonistic relationship till recently agreed to jointly chair the new unified party. As a result, Oli got to head the government with a clear majority and Prachanda became convinced that his political future would be secured by supporting Oli.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages