Nepal’s Maoist Prime Minister Resigns

Nepal’s prime minister resigned on Monday amid a power struggle over his firing of the army chief, saying he was stepping down to salvage democracy in the country and the peace process that brought the Himalayan nation out of a bloody decade-long civil war.

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Deepa Shrestha/Reuters
Nepal's Prime Minister Prachanda submitted his resignation arrives at the President's office in Kathmandu Monday.
In a televised address to the nation, the prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who goes by the name Prachanda, said that he was stepping down one day after Nepal’s president overruled his decision to fire the head of the army, Rookmangud Katawal.

“I announce, through this address, my resignation from the cabinet I have chaired so as to put an end to this difficult situation and create a positive environment for salvaging democracy, nationalism and the peace process that are currently at risk,” Prachanda, a former Maoist guerilla fighter, said in his 13-minute address.

Large clusters of people gathered in front of television shops in the capital, Katmandu, to watch the prime minister give his address, as many parts of the city didn’t have electricity due to an ongoing power crisis.

Prachanda’s party entered into competitive politics after signing a peace deal in 2006, ending a decade-long Maoist rebellion. He became prime minister in August after four months of political wrangling; in May, the nation’s elected constituent assembly declared the nation a federal republic, ending 239 years of Hindu monarchy.

But despite the Maoists’ rise to power, over 19,000 of their former fighters remain restricted to United Nations-monitored barracks under a peace accord.

Prachanda, whose name means “the fierce one” in Nepali, wanted the guerrillas freed and integrated into the military, as prescribed under a U.N.-brokered peace agreement. But the army chief resisted those efforts and sparred repeatedly with the government.

The disagreement over the army chief fractured the nation’s ruling coalition on Sunday, and analysts said it put a serious question mark over the government’s ability to keep the ex-combatants in their cantonments.

The Communist Party of Nepal, a unified Marxist-Leninist party that holds the second highest number of seats in the 601-member Constituent Assembly, pulled out of the government on Sunday, accusing the Maoists of acting unilaterally.

Earlier Monday, Maoist cadres held demonstrations in the capital to protest the president’s decision to reinstate the army chief. Activists with the main opposition Nepali Congress party held counter rallies in support of the action, which was termed as “unconstitutional” by the Prachanda government.

Anger against the government has been running high in Nepal, where much of the public blames the Maoists for power outages that can last more than 16 hours a day, fuel shortages that have created endless lines at gas stations, and rising prices for food and other household staples.

But the Maoists are still revolutionary heroes to many, especially among rural villagers who voted them into power last year in Nepal’s first elections.link....