| Biswo |
Posted
on 13-Jun-01 08:55 PM
Baburam is neither a popular ideologue among Maoists, nor a
leader with persuasive power. People's view about him has been
beclouded by the mystique of People's War, and a few have started
to define him as the most charismatic leader in Maoist Party.
In my college era in Ascol, I used to hear about him a lot. In my
hostel, there were a couple of people who later became violent
Maoist student leaders who had praised him a lot. Strangely, the
political strength of Dr Bhattarai came from his proven adeptness
in his acadamic years. The boys told me he was very smart when
he was young. No other things.No Akhil told me he became Akhil
because of Baburam's persuasion!A few, in fact, accepted that
the leader has weak persuasive power.
I went to listen to his speech once in Bharatpur. It was organized
by left-leaning Buddhijibi parishad. Baburam's speech was drab and
platitudinous. I was engrossed more in cracking the roasted peanut
rather than listening to his speech.
I had seen him a couple of times in KTM. He used to wear sandles,
and he also became famous for that. Raghu Panta once wrote a
famous article in Bimarsha "Baburam ko chappal ra naulo janawaad":
the article was classic example of intra-left intolerance. I saw
him once in his party office, at the time he was red with anger
with one of his party activists in Lalitpur who was asking money
for one of their huge cloth banners.
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Most notable praise for Baburam came from Khagendra,who is brother
of Dr Upendra Devkota. It was strange because I had heard about
rivalry between Upendra/Baburam. Once the Maoists attempted to
kill Bachaspati Devkota by throwing a boulder above his van when
he was in Gorkha.Anyway, the overall picture of Baburam became
gradually clear in my mind: an intelligent poor student from the
village, who was impressed by the slogan of equality and equal
opportunity to all. Good cause, no doubt.
Baburam was a good activist in left circle. I was a regular
reader of Jhilko, which used to publish insightful analysis of
economics. It is published no more, I guess. Baburam had wide
access in the national intellentsia. He was once a leader of a
national party.Unlike his strange bedfellow Prachanda, he was
never elusive, nor he practiced that wild brand of underground
politics.
Prachanda, a fellow Chitwane, was elusive all the time. His
articles are mostly inaccessible Sanskrit laden slogans, and
while talking about capitalists, reminds Stalin's/Lenin's epithets
to the oppositions.I ran into one of my classmates back in
highschool two years ago in Tandi. He was Upa-commander of
Maoists in Jajarkot and was still underground. He and a few others
who had occasionally made their foray into Maoists had testified
that it is Prachanda who is the helmsman inside Maoists.
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"The birth of a nation" was a silent movie made in 1915. It is
still very famous, and available in video stores. This movie
is pro-KKK movie. It portrays blacks as villains, and KKK members
as hero.It was criticized by NAACP, but it is still getting
criticle kudos in USA. And is not banned.KKK, I have heard, used
to show this movie while recruiting members.
Baburam's article should be viewed in the same perspective.Arrest
of Kantipur journalists may be tantamount to arresting the owner
of Blockbuster.
People talk about democracy, but can't tolerate the limits of
democracy.Democracy is faith in people. Nepalese people are not
dumb. It is only those frustrated intellectuals who come up with
fraud/implausible ideas, and get rejected by mass or can't
persuade the mass and look for short cut who thinks Nepali people
are not smart,or mature.
Intellectuals should understand that intelligence lies not only in
innovating new thing,but also in persuading that the new
innovation is worthy. In Nepal, intellectuals can't win election,
because they can't persuade the people about their motive.
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