Loktantra Andolan

Complete text of interview

Samrat Upadhyay said something very important last night on the NewsHour that I've hoped would be said for quite some time. He was cut off by the segment host before he was finished, but what he said was this:

For the United States I would like to make the appeal that I think for America the question of democracy should be the most important...because if America can go to a country like Iraq and invade it and talk about democracy there, what is happening in Nepal is that there's a spontaneous outburst of people who are fighting for democracy in their own land. There are no foreign powers involved in here.

Unfortunately, this is not the perception in the US State Department. Last year we gave twenty million dollars to King Gyanendra (for those not paying attention, he's the evil king who ordered pro-democracy protesters be shot on sight, as well as a total declaration of martial law, and dissolution of the Parliament; orders which he was forced to reverse yesterday) under the pretense of putting down the Maoist democratic insurgency. Don't be fooled by the name, though, as China has condemned this group. And we all know how right China usually is (to say nothing of evil kings and the US State Department - with endorsements like that, you know you have to be doing something right).

To be sure, it doesn't take a Maoist to be a democratic insurgent. Indeed, they are only one faction involved. Political disunity doesn't seem to be a problem in Nepal, as, in addition to the Maoists, the Seven Party Alliance (composed of nearly all of the dissolved Parliament) has banded together with the insurgents to successfully regain some control over their country, despite the United States' attempt to help crush them.

As I am nearing the end of this post without having mentioned bones or blood or anything especially gruesome, I will leave you with a look at what American tax dollars are going to.



I hope everyone got their taxes in on time! With your help, maybe we can kill a few hundred more brown Democrats!