Dear Readers:

On August 20, 2004 - the 3rd day of Kathmandu blockade, more than 150 newspapers/news-agencies reported News of Kathmandu blockade with heavy importance. This eerie news of Kathmandu was covered all around the world by well-known media sources such as Reuters, Voice of America from DC, Bloomberg from NY, "The Globe and Mail" from Canada, TVNZ from New Zealand, Al-Jazeera from Qatar, Channel News Asia from Singapore, Swiss Info from Switzerland, The Scotsman from UK, International Herald Tribune from France, Daily Times from Pakistan and Hindustan Times from India to name a few. BBC pushed this news to the headline of South Asian section on its website blaming the Maoists for being extreme while later "The Times of India", devoted an entire editorial of Aug 24, 2004, to the episode stating "The palace would be reluctant - to put it mildly - to liquidate itself. However, some concessions have to be made by both sides." This unprecedented flow of news about Nepal certainly indicated the seriousness of the matter.

If Maoists were conducting this blockade for publicity and pressure, they did a darn good job. However, if they were thinking of devastation for millions of innocent people living in the valley, one of whom was quoted saying "I have rice stocks only for 10 days.[Reuters]", they were committing a huge crime.

Even though Maoists have lifted off the blockade at present and life in Kathmandu valley seems to be shifting back to normal, the possibility of yet another stronger blockade is still plausible. In case of another such blockade, which could be considerably longer, how could the government cope and tackle the situation? Will they be ready?

With all this in mind, the people have started asking the questions "Is this the beginning of the end for the government? Are Maoists really ready to take over the Kathmandu Valley?"

Ujjwal Bhattarai
 
Editor/Co-ordinator
The Nepal Digest (TND)
(contact@theNepalDigest.org)