When Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda visited Girija Prasad Koirala at a hospital on March 17, Koirala told him to shoulder the big responsibility of the peace process.
Probably Koirala, who passed away three days later, foresaw his demise and wanted leaders to know the importance of peace process and the need for unity [his last audible words were, according to his daughter Sujata Koirala, ‘national consensus.’]
The grandfather of Nepali politics is no more. The peace-broker is gone.
And, now, it’s time for the Maoists to fill in the role he was playing.
Why Maoists (or why not any other party or leader)? There are a few reasons.
Koirala did not tell any other leader to shoulder the responsibility of the peace process. Why? Because he knew nobody is capable. His own Nepali Congress is left with managers or leaders [but no statesman]. CPN-UML is seriously lacking the good leader. And, the two parties are more likely to be involved in internal scuffle rather than working united for the nation.
Even Maoists are not the best right now; but then there are leaders who could become the statesmen, and they lead the largest party which also happens to be a major player of the peace process.
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai said it was mistake in their part for not electing him the first President of Nepal. It would of course had been a fitting responsibility for Koirala, but Maoists played childish failing to understand that the politics is the game of balance rather than domination.
It looks like now they have understood it [unless they translate Koirala’s shouldering responsibility statement into leading the government meaning]. It’s up to Maoists now to try for national consensus and the successful conclusion of the peace process.
If Bhattarai can write that ‘we bowed our heads in reverence to GPK’ for his statement before the CA Elections [“I know my party is going to lose the elections and you people will win. But I will be happy if the elections are held in a peaceful and democratic manner.”]; he and his party should also think that ‘they should be happy if the peace process comes to a successful conclusion’.
For Maoists, it’s an opportunity to lead the nation. For Maoists leaders, it’s an opportunity to transfer themselves into the statesmen.
Maoists, lead now.
