Conservative Donnybrook

The Nepali people have thrown off the chains of monarchical government and declared themselves a republic!  The monarchy ruled for the past 239 years.  Yet there wolves in the shadows, communist wolves. 

Maoist rebels fighting the monarchy for a socialist/communist state agreed to lay down arms and join the provisional government to oust King Gyanendra from his throne.  The former rebels are more transparent than they believe.  Soon after the declaration of the republic, the communists announced that 20,000 youth volunteers were converging on the city to “help control celebrations.”  These youth “volunteers” are essentially ruthless soldiers well known for their brutality.  Further cause for concern follows from successive days of bombings in the Nepali capital of Katmandu in which two civilians were wounded.  The bombings appeared to be aimed at pro-democracy demonstrators and activists.

The scene in this south Asian nation is much like the one that developed in February, 1917 in Czarist Russia.  There a provisional republic was created after deposing Czar Nicholas II.  Soon after seeking power, pro-democracy forces freed imprisoned and exiled Bolsheviks in the hope that they would join their cause.  Instead, the Bolsheviks seized power, imprisioned the pro-democracy officials and embarked on a nearly 75 year reign of terror and murder.  Similarities between the Russian Revolution and the current Nepali situation abound.  And dreadfully, as in Russia, Nepali communists seem poised to grab power.

Making the situation worse, if not possible in the first instance, is Nepal’s location.  Red China sits directly to the north of this small and agrarian nation.  Communist forces have and will continue to receive arms and funding from their ideological neighbor.  It appears the fate of Nepal is sealed, at least for the foreseeable future.  Nepal will be communist soon.