The arrest on August 7 of Khadga Bahadur Biswokarma, better known by his nom de guerre Prakanda, is indicative of the ruling communist government’s commitment to crack down on ‘anti-national’ activities and extortions. Prakanda is the spokesperson of the Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplab’-led Communist Party of Nepal. He has been charged with using violence to try to disturb last year’s local and provincial elections and of extorting various businessmen. The same charges have been levelled against his party, which is the reason chairman Chand has been in hiding since the government issued an arrest warrant against him in February. It was in 2012 that Chand and his mentor Mohan Baidya ‘Kiran’ decided to break away from the mother Maoist party led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, accusing the party chairman of abandoning the ‘incomplete Maoist revolution’ and of caving in to ‘status quoist’ forces. But in 2014 Chand would part ways with Baidya’s new party, too, as Baidya, in Chand’s reckoning, could not adequately justify splinter­ing from the mother party. He then formed the CPN. It rejected the new constitution and threatened to disrupt the three tiers of elections.

 

Since it was a marginal force the party had to adopt radical ways to come to the public notice. It started dispensing ‘people’s verdict’ and humiliated people’s representatives by smearing their faces with black soot. It bombed LPG plants it excused of extorting people. A transmission tower of a ‘tax evading’ telecom provider was similarly bombed. It was also under the pressure of CPN that the concert of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan in Kath­mandu had to be cancelled earlier this year. These populist moves, CPN hoped, would earn it the goodwill of at least a segment of the Nepali society.

 

But Chand and company seemed blithely unaware that after witnessing nearly 17,000 deaths in the decade-long Mao­ist insurgency most Nepalis had had enough of the politics of violence. Its violent actions, which included nationwide shutdowns, were roundly condemned. The only way it could survive in this context was by shaking down rich business­men. In order to credibly threaten them the party needed to engage in public show of force, like bombings. A vicious cycle was thus set in motion.

 

Even though there is a level of sympathy for Chand and his party in the ruling Nepal Communist Party, it will be hard for Chand’s former Maoist colleagues to openly back criminals. Politically, CPN is fighting a lost cause. Signs are that its days as a criminal racket are also numbered.