Saturday, September 03, 2005

After Ganapathy, A Ceasefire




This guy Prachanda is a freaking roller coaster ride.

First I receved the shock of the Baburam article: Baburam Bhattarai, Pramod Aryal, Ram Chandra Poudel. It shocked me for the enormous ideological leap it signalled. At first I could not believe it. It was so good. I was so pleased. It was manna from heaven.

Then, Prachanda dropped the Ganapathy bomb, out of the blue. And I am like, how foolish can you get? I seriously questioned my judgment. I was made to think Moriarty was right all along. These guys are Pol Pot's children. I have been taken for a ride. All my efforts to counter what I considered their demonizations I was beginning to regret.

And now, there is this ceasefire declaration, which is an even bigger news than the Baburam article, because this is something concrete, on the ground. And suddenly I am extremely happy again.

My mind is ringing hollow. I need to take some time off to digest these sudden turns by these Maoist freaks. Let me go grab a glass of water, with ice. I will be right back.

(I am back.)

Oh well. This is cause for celebration.

Maoists declare three-month long ceasefire The CPN (Maoist) has declared unilateral three-month long cease fire effective from today (Sep. 03).

And the news is a single sentence. This has got to be hot news. Just happened. I was about to go to bed but decided to quickly peruse the NepalNews page before hitting the sack, and I am so glad I did that. This is breaking news.

Suddenly I see peace all over the horizon again.

This gives the Nepli people time for Dashain, Tihar and Chhath, and this makes room for the democrats to wage the movement. With a Maoist ceasefire in place, the seven parties can wage a full fledged movement.

A ceasefire is the least the Maoists could do after both the UML and the Congress have come around to the Maoists' republican agenda.

Off to sleep. It is almost morning. Prachanda cost me a lot of sleep.

But that's okay. The latest news is tremendously good. And I have a weekend ahead of me.

The ceasefire also means no military aid to the army from the US. That is a good tactical move. And a great political move.

Congratulations Prachanda-Baburam.

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