The latest threat that Nepal faces is from Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists(CPN-M). “Come Deepawali, we will launch a fresh wave of revolution. And even the United Nations will back it,” he declared during an informal chat with ‘comrade journalists’ recently. His other, more aggressive, comrades in the party have warned that if peaceful methods fail to get power back to the fold of the Maoists, “we will go for other options”. A powerful leader of the Young Communist League (YCL) even declared that the party would physically target its enemies.

While Prachanda’s latest threat, if implemented, will mean unilaterally calling off the peace process, it has visibly embarrassed the United Nations, especially its two agencies, the United Nations Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) and the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (OHCHR) — often accused by other parties of being lenient towards the Maoists. UNMIN said it will only be acting in support of a peaceful democratic movement. OHCHR issued a statement asking the Maoists to hand-over its leaders, wanted in cases of individual and mass murder, to the police for trial.

But now, it is not only about how fair UNMIN and OHCHR have been to the role assigned to them. It’s more about the ineffectiveness of the UN in circumstances where other key actors are more power hungry, less committed to democracy and less committed to long-term peace. 85-year old G.P. Koirala — his body and stamina almost comparable to Morarji Desai’s, but his lust for power unparalleled — wants his daughter Sujata Koirala elevated to the rank of deputy prime minister (she is currently minister for foreign affairs) in lieu of his cooperation in the constitution-making process. He also said recently that he would go to the extent of sacrificing himself to save the country from disintegration. But Koirala’s words hardly enthused any hope among the people since he — in close company of and support from the Maoist chief — has rightly been blamed for the current impasse. Maoists have been demanding the creation of provinces on the basis of language and ethnicity with the right to self-determination. Not on one occasion in the past did Koirala, as the prime minister of the Maoist-backed coalition, warn Maoists that their policy was wrong and may lead to the disintegration of the nation. Koirala, like the Maoists, has of late, also tried to invoke “nationalism” by blaming India for much of the current mess that the country is in.

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