Nepal is in news again.

Over 1000 protestors were arrested in Nepal on the first day of an Opposition-sponsored general strike against King Gyanendra’s direct rule even as 21 people including an Indian were killed in clashes between Maoists and security forces and a subsequent Army chopper crash.

Nepal’s sorry state doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to go away. The crisis which Gyanendra started by dismissing the government on the pretext of its inability to rein in the Maoists seems to have boomeranged on him. The Nepalese need to choose between Gyanendra and the Maoists, a tough task given the king’s various proclivities, some really alarming.

If that were the only option I have, I’d choose Gyanendra over the Maoists given their record of fighting for democracy. It is also cause for alarm and evidence of the (Nepali) Opposition parties’ defeat that they have tied up with the Maoists.

Nepal’s sidelined political parties reached an agreement with Maoist rebels last week to hold a mass pro-democracy protest in early April against King Gyanendra, who seized absolute power in February 2005.

While tens of these poor democracy-crusaders died during the riots that erupted today, Maoists exhibited dissent in their patent manner:

Maoists, who had declared support to the strike, raided government and security establishments in Malangawa, district headquarters of Sarlahi, 120 km south of the capital [..] The rebels also freed 108 prisoners from and abducted 10 security personnel.

The Battle for Nepal therefore is really the battle between Gyanendra and the Maoists. One can only speculate the complete destruction of Nepal’s unique Hindu culture if the Red Warriors take over. In fact, they have in a way, begun the process already.

Even as the interim government of Nepal attempts at opening channels with the Maoist leadership to negotiate peace, the efforts in no way have stopped the Maoist from going ahead with their calculated moves to capture the hearts and minds of the those in rural Nepal.

Intelligence sources say that the Maoists have moved on to the second phase of their campaign against the monarchy. During the past few months, sources say, the Maoists have been focussing on actually replacing whatever exists in terms of monarchical influence in Nepal’s villages.

One of the key target areas now is education. In a bid to ensure that rural children do not grow up with the idea of monarchy etched in their minds, the Maoists have introduced their own system of education in scores of villages across northern and central parts of Nepal. Gradually, sources indicated, the plan is to spread it across the rest of Nepal.

“Of course, they would start from the areas where their hold is the strongest. Once they find their experiment working, they would transport it to other parts of the country. This would be a slow process but its growing legitimacy is bound to make it difficult for monarchical democracy to appeal to the people in its present from,” a senior intelligence official explained.

Known as “Janabadi Education” this system has been devised by the Maoists over a period of few years. Now, they have even printed their own textbooks and have begun its distribution in large numbers. Humla, a district in northern Nepal, was the first area to experience the change. It is understood that the initial phase of the programme caters for education till Class IX.

The element of brutality, however, continues to punctuate all these initiative. It is learnt that a Class III student, Raju Tharu, was killed by the Maoists because he did not show “sign of interest” in the new syllabi. The Maoist insurgent labeled him an informer and then killed him in Bhimaru village of Bardiya district in central Nepal.

Intelligence officials here, who are yet to fully analyse the content of all the textbooks, say the Janabadi system is bound to strengthen the anti-monarchy propaganda and would, more importantly, solicit support to the Maoists among the future generations of rural Nepal.

Meanwhile, the Nepalese government, in a bid to strengthen its campaign against the Maoists, has ended all its international peacekeeping commitments. The last of the Nepalese forces, the Bir Dal Company, part of United Nations peacekeeping efforts in East Timor returned to the country recently.

A very typical Communist technique: capturing education. The parallel with India isn’t really striking, it’s obvious. Despite Nehru’s overwhelming influence on Indian politics, our homegrown Reds infiltrated the JNU and in general, the dissemination of education. And it worked for more than 3 decades for they caught ‘em young. Not very different from the poor, innocent lads that are taken into the Madrassas and molded into terrorists soldiers to fight for the Cause.

Nepal Maoists also have support from the Mighty New York Times.

Nepal Makes Mass Arrests of Pro-Democracy Protesters

A pretty bold headline, which conveys what it means to: voice of free speech are being strangulated. True, but partly. A deeper reading is in order. For it is co-written by a certain Somini Sengupta a journalist on her way to superstardom. She’s been featured earlier in the Acorn who calls her a (gasp!) terrorist apologist. But then, he’s a party spoiler, an obstacle in the way to her Journalistic Stardom.

Her article is an example on how to write an entire article about India-Pakistan peace process without once using the word ‘terrorist’. [...] And they become guerrillas again, even if in the very next sentence, the Indian prime minister describes them as ‘terrorist elements’. And Musharraf does not have a domestic constituency (in every sense of the word).

At this rate, she may even be able to write an article about 9/11 without using the word terrorist anywhere. Perhaps it was those suspected disgruntled flying school students who, according to American leaders, allegedly rammed what looked like an aircraft into some tall buildings.

But let’s examine what she says in this report covering the Nepal riots.

A four-day pro-democracy strike began here today in the world’s only Hindu kingdom

What does she imply? That Hindu kingdoms aren’t democratic or am I simply reading between the lines? A news item that is meant to merely report borders on taking sides. And this isn’t the first time the NYT has done it; for whatever reasons, it has hired anti-India columnists such as Pankaj Mishra to regularly dish out biased fare.

Maoist rebels said today they had shot down a military helicopter, which would be the first time they had succeeded in doing so in their decade-long rebellion. The government, though, said that the crash was an accident.

Now compare the underlined words with the reporting language used in the Indian Express.

Later, at least 10 Royal Nepal Army soldiers died when a chopper sent to carry out aerial raids on the rebels crashed in a river two km west of the town.

The difference is bare. And another gem from the NYT “reporting.”

Nepal’s king has been under continuing international pressure to restore democracy, from the United States, Britain and India, among others.

The clever method of shifting the blame on Gyanendra conceals nothing. As I noted earlier, between Gyanendra and the Maoists, the former seems better. Not that I advocate monarchial tyranny but it is far better than a Communist “revolution” that seeks to uproot everything from ground up.

If the Maoists are this keen on restoring demoracy, they should present at least some evidence–historical, contemporary or both. Their track record speaks otherwise. About 20 days ago, they put on another display of their definition of democracy.