After A Revolution
Post Civil War Nepal
People's War: Nepali Civil War
People's war,the decade long civil war of Nepal began in Feb, 1996 when Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) announced insurgency against the constitutional monarchy of Nepal.
The Maoists were led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda.
From 1996-2001, Maoists launched a low profile attack but in 2001, while attacking an army barrack, they got hold of modern weapons. Soon the Nepal army got involved and it became a full fledged civil warfare.
In Feb 2005, King Gyanendra took absolute power and in Nov, 2005, Maoist joined alliance with the seven main political parties.
In April 2006, King Gyanendra gave up power amid wide protests from the people and congress party leader, Girija Prasad Koirala becomes the Prime Minister.
In Nov, 2006, Maoists sign a peace deal and end the civil war that killed around 13,000 people.
Jan 2007 - Parliament scraps old constitution and adopts new interim constitution.
Dec 2007 - The ruling alliance and the Maoists agree to abolish the monarchy after the elections.
When will I get to vote?
Currently Nepal is in a political deadlock. In the early May,2012, the interim constitution assembly was supposed to finishing writing the constitution draft.But due to conflict between ideas and policies of different political parties and groups, the assembly couldn't reach an agreement and thus, couldn't draft the constitution on time. Since then, many deadlines have come and gone, but Nepal still remains without a actual constitution. The constitution assembly now led by Maoist leader Babu Ram Bhattarai and the president of Nepal is Dr. Ram Baran Yadav.
People are getting frustrated with the government as instead of obliging the deadline for the drafting of constitution, all the political parties mainly care about their own agendas. There have been many rallies and protests, both peaceful and violent to pressure the government to draft the constitution and hold the elections based on the constitutional laws.
There are many youths like me, who have never been able to vote due to the constant political deadlock. The video in the left shows a peaceful rally to pressure the government to draft the constitution before the deadline. The above sketch is an editorial cartoon where the people say the only type of wheat that doesn't grow in Nepal is constitution. This is because both wheat and constitution in Nepali end with "dhan"-wheat.
