Indefinite closure

Maoist party of Nepal has called for indefinite closure from May 2nd but the country has remained closed since May 1st with the demand of resignation of the Prime Minister. United CPN- Maoist came to the main stream politics after the decade long war was called off in the year 2006 after the famous People's Revolution II. During that period, continuous 19 days the country's overall activities were called off and curfew was common then. But they came to consensus by signing the Comprehensive Peace Accord and overthrew the King, and consequently Constituent Assembly election was held after postponing the date of election twice. After the CA election Nepali were delighted that finally the Peace zone will be peaceful, but the ongoing bargain among the political parties does not give any hope to Nepali and they continue to live their life awe.

The results of CA election were surprising as the rebelling party was able to secure more votes and thus made them the biggest party of Nepal. But still there was a lot of struggle to balance power within the cabinet and was settled later on. Then again the Maoist party targeted the Chief of Army and that is when the whole story of power balance collapsed and Maoist left the government thus deserting the peace process and constitution making process.

Now after one year they have declared the revolution against the government and it is the fifth day that they have been on streets. The people on the streets are brought from various districts to the capital and most of them do not have any idea why they are here in the capital. Moreover, they do not have money or food so they are eating beaten rice and staying in the streets for the whole day. On 30th April, almost all the shops of the city area were closed so as to prevent them from forced donations as asked by the Maoist party but they have denied the fact of asking donations with the general public time and again.

The new constitution should have been drafted by May 28th but with no efforts from the political parties the country has entered into the state of political vacuum. Most of the Nepali people are in the state of awe and are ignorant about what will happen next. Recently getting out from a decade long armed conflict and the terror of getting into again in the vicious cycle of conflict has further terrorized the mind set of each and every Nepali.
It had been three days since I was stuck at home due to indefinite closure called by the United Communist Party of Nepal- Maoists (UCPN-M) and it was same for most of the people in Nepal. I tried to convince my parents for the last three consecutive days to let me out of the house but never got through. They are scared that if the crowd gets violent the situation might get worse from bad at any moment. Their concern is also valid as the people involved in decade long armed conflict which resulted in 13,000 casualties were on the streets demonstrating. But I could not confine myself within the four walls of my house as I felt that my country needs me at this time of crisis.

We all were discussing about the current political process on facebook, but we could not come into consensus about what would be our next step. So we decided to meet somewhere at the centre point of the city. I took my camera and informed my parents that I was finally leaving after much struggle and moved towards my destination. My house is at the countryside of Kathmandu and the meeting point was almost 6 kilometers away from my house but it did not stop me to move.

After walking for about 10 minutes I met people who looked at me suspiciously and their gesture told me that they were surprised to see a girl walking all alone in this uncertain situation. Then I crossed pass the group of men discussing the same political uncertainty in Nepal and a woman listening to them sitting behind them, this reminded me that woman are still not participating in debates and discussion that concerns them.

I saw people looking with eyes filled with hope whether few shops were open so that they could buy vegetables for their evening meal and there were children playing badminton at the middle of the road. I stopped and talked to them whether they like this closure, bandh, they all laughed and said yes but they said they are missing their schools and friends too. It had been four days since everything has closed down and if this trend continues then what will be the future of the children of this country? We just got out from the decade long conflict but the struggles of power balance between the political parties are posing a severe threat to this nation and its citizens.

During my visit I saw many people in the street walking towards their destination with much difficulty. There were children playing, women learning cycling and time and again ambulances blowing their siren moved from one place to another. The vehicles that could only be seen today in the busy streets of Kathmandu today are of ambulances, police vehicles, development agencies, press and those of human rights defenders. The Maoists' cadres popularly known as Young Communist League were threatening cycle riders too. In one of the places I saw them threatening a boy of around 10 years to crash his bicycle; the innocent child was so scared he rode back so quickly it left me alarmed. I looked at those cadres and saw there is a rage within them and don’t know whether they will outbreak and the nation will enter into the civil war.

Four of us met at the centre of Kathmandu and planned to unite to address the current crisis of nation in our own way. We decided to form groups of non political youth who are neither represented nor are allowed to participate in the state's development process. We are the unheard voices who have been struggling to make difference in the society. We decided to contact youth like us through facebook and has gathered a big number of youth to address the current issues and pressurize the government and the rebelling party to come into consensus as soon as possible and draft the constitution within the given time frame. The group met today at the same place as that of yesterday and discussed at length about their role in this situation. This group will act voluntarily and will not seek any financial support from any group as this group believes that they need to contribute to their nation and if we fail to act now we will be failure throughout our lives.

The people of Nepal has suffered a lot during the process of conflict and its transition phase but now what a simple Nepali dreams about is the country where they can move freely, work without threat and live their life peacefully. They don't aim for lavish life and are satisfied with what they have so it is the time to respect the feelings of Nepali and restore peace in Nepal.

Every night I pray to god that the other day when I wake up, I wake up in peaceful Nepal as it was when I was a child but now I am scared that my dreams will never be fulfilled. Nevertheless, I haven’t lost hope as sometimes the last key in the bunch will open the lock.

P.S. If you have any suggestions on how to proceed on this, please let us know, thanks, your suggestions will help us make Nepal a peaceful country