Democracy Now!
Rallies and prisoner releases mark Nepal’s 'Magna Carta' as the king is sidelined and the Peoples' Movement takes power.
By Kevin Sites, Tue May 23, 1:12 AM ET
DHANGADHI/KATMANDU, Nepal - After having spent 10 months in jail, 20-year-old Laxmi Rawal doesn't rush home to see her family on the day she is released.
Instead, her forehead anointed with red vermillion powder as a sign of victory, she and 18 other newly freed members of Nepal's Maoist party march down the main street in the western town of Dhangadhi. They shout slogans and sweat in the midday heat.
Laxmi says the turning point for her — the reason she joined the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) — came after soldiers of the Royal Nepalese Army pointed their guns at her and threatened to kill her when she walked home from school.
Marching to political freedom » View
"I thought, 'If I'm going to die anyways, I might as well die on behalf of poor people,'" she says.
Laxmi says her political activities with the party got her labeled as a terrorist even though she says she did nothing wrong. Of all the political prisoners in the Dhangadhi jail, she served the longest.
"I was sick with jaundice the whole time," she says. "But I wasn't treated badly. They admitted me to the hospital several times."
She says even though the conditions in the jail were good, she sometimes felt like her mind was suffocating.
She was one of a handful of women among the Maoist prisoners there. Fifteen-year-old Bijaya Kuwar was another.
Bijaya, whose name means "victory," says she was charged and jailed without cause as well, just because she was politically active. She spent three months behind bars and is now ready to go back to school, she says. But first, she joins her cadre in their boisterous march, while the people of the village watch in surprise.
Out of prison, onto the streets» View
The jail's warden, Tara Prasad Pathak, says the regional government sent him a list of names of prisoners who were to be released, and so that's what he did. There seem to be no hard feelings between the former prisoners and the warden. As the local media looks on, Pathak sits chatting with the recently liberated in the courtyard.
All over the country, dozens of political prisoners are being released as Nepal's House of Representatives takes charge, following a pro-democracy "peoples' movement" that helped force Nepal's king to cede back the powers he had amassed after dissolving the parliament in 2004.
Many in Nepal are calling recent developments Nepal's own Magna Carta. The House of Representatives voted last week for sweeping democratic changes: cutting the king's powers back to little more than a ceremonial role, bringing the army under its control, and stripping the royal references from both its name and the name of the government — from "His Majesty's Government" to the Nepal Government. Also, Nepal, previously a "Hindu" state by constitution, was declared secular.
The massive changes are bringing people into the streets for rallies around the nation, including four recent rallies in the capital alone.
"The people have spoken." » View
The flags of the seven-party alliance, including the dominant Nepali Congress party and the Unified Marxist-Leninist party (UML), are displayed prominently by marchers around the city. About 3,000 people gather in Durbar Square — smaller than the crowds that appeared during the violent conflicts with the king's police in April, but still enthusiastic — with many singing revolutionary songs and dancing in the streets.
"I'm so happy the autocracy is gone," says Sarada Dhungel, holding a large red flag with the communist hammer and sickle, the flag of the UML.
Shankar Pandey, a member of parliament, walks through the streets barefoot. He says he has done this for the last 28 years in symbolic protest against the absence of democracy in Nepal.
"Once the new constitution is ratified," he says, "I'll put my sandals on again."
Political change sweeps Nepal» View
Meena Koirala, a student activist with the UML, was one of the demonstrators who clashed with police during the peoples' movement in April. On this day, she is singing and cheering on those same streets.
"After 10 years of struggle the people have been successful," she says.
When asked if she's worried whether the king will fight back — whether there could be a coup — she shakes her head vigorously. "No, I'm pretty certain the changes are here to stay. The people have spoken."
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