Saorsa
2nd May 2010, 05:52
Avid ears soak in Red rhetoric
http://www.telegraphnepal.com/uploaded/gallery/pictures/gal_257870803.jpg
MAY 01 -
When Maoist Newa state in charge Hitman Sakya asked the crowd at Khula Manch to be silent in honour of the martyrs, the mood turned sombre. Leaders stood on the stage with heads bent while beyond on the ground thousands of fists were raised high.
There was pin-drop silence.
Later, members of the Maoist cultural troupe sang and danced. The lyrics were deeply political, hitting out at the NC, UML and India, projecting the Maoists as the only people’s party and wooing the security forces by depicting uniformed personnel shaking hands with Maoists ‘to build a new Nepal’.
The crowd was enthralled.
In political speeches, the narrative was carefully constructed but kept simple.
All leaders essentially said the same thing — we have brought this change; we are the most powerful and popular party in the country; we won the elections; the incumbent government is run by a set of losers who do not want peace or constitution; it is there only because of India; so we need to have a movement against this government for national independence; people in security organs are also sons of Nepali farmers and workers and will not go against us. But the tone alternated. YCL head Ganesh Man Pun dared anyone to ‘dissolve YCL which has tens of lakhs of youth’.
Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal warned of a Leninist insurrection and state capture and called the rest of the political actors ‘cow dung’. Prachanda himself stuck to a relatively moderate tone, appealing to different constituencies for support and urging the crowd to remain peaceful and disciplined.
The Maoists, during the four-hour programme, tried to cater to different human impulses. They talked about sacrifice to evoke memories of lost ones and instil greater revolutionary fervour. They entertained with a political message and tried to break the monotony of speeches by allowing the audience to have fun. In their speeches, they played hero, giving their support base a sense of victory and hope. And then they played victim, making people feel that they had been cheated and wronged. They were most visceral about certain ‘enemies’, thus tapping into the anger and rage of the underclass and directing it according to their convenience. And they framed the entire political situation as one of ‘us versus them’, where us was the Maoists along with the people.
If the art of political communication was one aspect of the Maoist show of strength, their organisational and managerial abilities was another, revealing an almost corporate-like structure of the party.
Tens of thousands of people have been brought to the capital, largely but not exclusively from neighbouring districts like what the Maoists call the Tamsaling state. They have been divided into smaller groups with commanders. In Kathmandu, strategic arcs have been carved out with people taking ‘shelter’ in public institutions and private homes. Kathmandu based cadres have been asked to manage these arcs, which includes arranging accommodation, feeding people, setting up health units and mobilising and controlling them systematically. Volunteers have firm instructions to immediately play a restraining role if any untoward incident occurs.
The crowds came in from 18 different locations on Saturday. They took over not only Khula Manch but all the surrounding roads, climbing trees and watching from the overhead bridges. For those who could not fit, big speakers were set up at different locations in the city. During the mass meeting, apart from one instance where crowds at the back threw stones when people in the front stood up and blocked the view, no untoward incident occurred. After the event, they queued up in small formations and headed back to their arcs.
The Law campus near Bhrikuti Mandap was part of one such arc; it is now home to party workers and villagers who have come from Sindhuli. Entry and exit is controlled. As you walk in, there is a big water tank with dozens of people swarming for their chance to get water. Big mats have been laid out in classrooms and people squeeze in to sleep there. The student union office is the health post. Sacks of vegetables are lying next to what is now a kitchen mess. And all kinds of people – old men and women, children, young – are sitting, chatting or resting. They seem ready for a long haul.
Just days before the CA elections in 2008, a senior Maoist leader had said, “People are under-estimating the Maoists. They forget we have run a parallel state and our invisible network is still in place.” Since then, the party has further honed its experience of running a parallel structure to challenge the state and its networks are firmly entrenched across social groups. Saturday, and the protests to ensue, are a reflection of that increased strength.
This time, an old man told us at the rally, “I will not go back without this government falling. Either we win or we die.” Will we again make the mistake of not believing what the Maoists say?
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2010/05/01/top-story/avid-ears-soak-in-red-rhetoric/207818/
http://www.telegraphnepal.com/uploaded/gallery/pictures/gal_257870803.jpg
MAY 01 -
When Maoist Newa state in charge Hitman Sakya asked the crowd at Khula Manch to be silent in honour of the martyrs, the mood turned sombre. Leaders stood on the stage with heads bent while beyond on the ground thousands of fists were raised high.
There was pin-drop silence.
Later, members of the Maoist cultural troupe sang and danced. The lyrics were deeply political, hitting out at the NC, UML and India, projecting the Maoists as the only people’s party and wooing the security forces by depicting uniformed personnel shaking hands with Maoists ‘to build a new Nepal’.
The crowd was enthralled.
In political speeches, the narrative was carefully constructed but kept simple.
All leaders essentially said the same thing — we have brought this change; we are the most powerful and popular party in the country; we won the elections; the incumbent government is run by a set of losers who do not want peace or constitution; it is there only because of India; so we need to have a movement against this government for national independence; people in security organs are also sons of Nepali farmers and workers and will not go against us. But the tone alternated. YCL head Ganesh Man Pun dared anyone to ‘dissolve YCL which has tens of lakhs of youth’.
Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal warned of a Leninist insurrection and state capture and called the rest of the political actors ‘cow dung’. Prachanda himself stuck to a relatively moderate tone, appealing to different constituencies for support and urging the crowd to remain peaceful and disciplined.
The Maoists, during the four-hour programme, tried to cater to different human impulses. They talked about sacrifice to evoke memories of lost ones and instil greater revolutionary fervour. They entertained with a political message and tried to break the monotony of speeches by allowing the audience to have fun. In their speeches, they played hero, giving their support base a sense of victory and hope. And then they played victim, making people feel that they had been cheated and wronged. They were most visceral about certain ‘enemies’, thus tapping into the anger and rage of the underclass and directing it according to their convenience. And they framed the entire political situation as one of ‘us versus them’, where us was the Maoists along with the people.
If the art of political communication was one aspect of the Maoist show of strength, their organisational and managerial abilities was another, revealing an almost corporate-like structure of the party.
Tens of thousands of people have been brought to the capital, largely but not exclusively from neighbouring districts like what the Maoists call the Tamsaling state. They have been divided into smaller groups with commanders. In Kathmandu, strategic arcs have been carved out with people taking ‘shelter’ in public institutions and private homes. Kathmandu based cadres have been asked to manage these arcs, which includes arranging accommodation, feeding people, setting up health units and mobilising and controlling them systematically. Volunteers have firm instructions to immediately play a restraining role if any untoward incident occurs.
The crowds came in from 18 different locations on Saturday. They took over not only Khula Manch but all the surrounding roads, climbing trees and watching from the overhead bridges. For those who could not fit, big speakers were set up at different locations in the city. During the mass meeting, apart from one instance where crowds at the back threw stones when people in the front stood up and blocked the view, no untoward incident occurred. After the event, they queued up in small formations and headed back to their arcs.
The Law campus near Bhrikuti Mandap was part of one such arc; it is now home to party workers and villagers who have come from Sindhuli. Entry and exit is controlled. As you walk in, there is a big water tank with dozens of people swarming for their chance to get water. Big mats have been laid out in classrooms and people squeeze in to sleep there. The student union office is the health post. Sacks of vegetables are lying next to what is now a kitchen mess. And all kinds of people – old men and women, children, young – are sitting, chatting or resting. They seem ready for a long haul.
Just days before the CA elections in 2008, a senior Maoist leader had said, “People are under-estimating the Maoists. They forget we have run a parallel state and our invisible network is still in place.” Since then, the party has further honed its experience of running a parallel structure to challenge the state and its networks are firmly entrenched across social groups. Saturday, and the protests to ensue, are a reflection of that increased strength.
This time, an old man told us at the rally, “I will not go back without this government falling. Either we win or we die.” Will we again make the mistake of not believing what the Maoists say?
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2010/05/01/top-story/avid-ears-soak-in-red-rhetoric/207818/