Kathmandu: The poster boy of Nepal's Maoists, Prachanda has been caught lying on camera. The drama dates back to January last year when Prachanda was addressing fellow Maoists in Chitwan outside Kathmandu. There he admitted telling the United Nations that Maoist fighters numbered 35,000 when the actual figure was far less.
"We were around 7,000 fighters in the cantonment but we increased the number to become more strong," Prachanda is heard saying in the video.
Eventually, the United Nations fixed 20,000 as the total number of Maoist fighters, itself a grossly exagerrated figure and a financial settlement of around 6 lakh was made on that basis. The Maoists walked away - a rare case of ideology and profit going hand in hand.
The video records Prachanda admitting his goal of getting Maoist cadres into the army with the aim of taking it over. The Maoists remain committed to a peoples revolution in Nepal and they would never allow an election which they could lose.
The Maoists are also undercutting the Nepali Congress, backing for veteran communist leader Madhav Nepal as prime minister. They boycotted an all-party meeting called on Tuesday to form a new government by the weekend and threatened to disrupt Parliament if the issue goes to vote.
It's not clear yet whether they have been asked to unleash any violence because these cadre have proved they are capable of doing that and of holding a city and a country to ransom.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is also hearing a PIL on the manner in which President Ram Baran Yadav stayed the sacking of Army Chief General Katawal. Maoists are okay with that but the mood may change if the verdict goes against them.
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