The communist curse on Nepal's development

Nepali communists need to transform themselves and prove that they are not anti-development.

On February 4, 1996, when the Maoists were all set to go underground for the "people's war", Baburam Bhattarai, chairman of United People's Front-Nepal, then the legal face of the Maoist organisation, presented a list of 40 demands to the government then headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba who, incidentally, is the current prime minister as well. Along came an unequivocal ultimatum that if the government did not take "positive initiatives by February 17, 1996", they would "be forced to adopt the path of armed struggle". The demands included the abrogation of the 1950 Nepal-India Treaty, ban on all vehicles with Indian number plates from entering Nepal, ban on Hindi films, stoppage to "invasion of colonial and imperial elements", elimination of corruption, and the practices of middlemen, among others.