October 11, 2007:
The Maoists have forced the government to cancel the November elections,
by threatening to leave the government and resume the shooting war. In fact,
what the Maoists are trying to do is seize control of the country using street
demonstrations and gangs of violent activists to rough up and intimidate
opponents. The Maoist gunmen, and their weapons, remain in special camps, with
the political organizers are now leading the struggle to achieve a communist
dictatorship in Nepal. The Maoists are demanding an immediate end to the
monarchy. Any attempt to do that would risk a resumption of the civil war, but
the Maoists want more chaos as, according to their beliefs, that would make it
easier for the communists to take control. The democratic (and rather corrupt
and inept) parties are split between giving in to endless Maoist demands, or
returning to the civil war, and getting it over with. The democrats see the
Maoists as a bunch of bloodthirsty zealots nostalgic for a past that never
existed, and a future that will never be. The Maoists have rewritten the past
to fit their view of the future, but are concerned with splits in their ranks,
as more Maoist begin to lose the faith.