This just in: The Nepalese people overwhelmingly reject the monarchy in their latest elections by voting for … Maoists!
The Maoist government will proceed to dismantle the pillars of Nepal’s feudal structure and will take recourse to radical economic and political reforms based on distributive justice and egalitarian principles. That is bound to catch the attention of impoverished Indians in the sub-Himalayan belt sooner or later. The Indian states (provinces) bordering Nepal are notorious for their misgovernance.
More details:
The South Asian political landscape will never be the same again following the Maoist victory march in Nepal’s elections to a new 601-seat constituent Assembly last Thursday. It may take several days before the election results are fully known, but available trends indicate that the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is surging ahead. By Monday, the Maoists had secured 89 of the total declared 162 seats for which results were declared.
So the Nepalese people voted for equality, democracy, and an end to the fuedal state in the most direct way they could – voting for the Maoists. Now, before people start red-baiting, remember that the CPN(Maoist) will only be one party in a multi-party parliamentary democracy. We’re likely not going to see “Cultural Revolution” or Stalinist brutality. What Nepal probably will experience is a more socialist, economically egalitarian state.
This is a great blow for freedom and against dictatorship, at least so far. The CIA better not mess this up.
I’m sure we have some international students here at Brandeis from Nepal. What’s their take?
The GeoPolitical implications are fascinating. As far as I can tell, the new reality is this: India can no longer rely on Nepal as a vassal state. The US hoped to use Nepal as a pressure point against China. Instead, Nepal will try to cultivate good relations with China and India. So the Nepalese win, the Chinese win. The Indians have to stop being complacent regarding Nepal, but they’re still OK. The US, on the other hand, messed up again:
Nepal has proved to be an unhappy experience for the United States and India in their newfound interest to coordinate and harmonize their regional policies. While India managed to keep its options open in a developing situation, the US policy finds itself in a cul-de-sac. It was predicated on the naive belief that Nepal could be made a geopolitical pressure point on China’s soft underbelly. Nepal becomes the latest link in the chain of the George W Bush administration’s foreign policy misadventures. The Maoists of Nepal still figure in the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.
We really need a new foreign policy vision in the White House.