POPULAR STRUGGLES IN NEPAL AND BOLIVIA

First Movement for democracy in Nepal

®         1990 Nepal became a constitutional monarchy after democratic movement.

®         King Birendra, became constitutional monarch.

®         King Birendra, killed in a mysterious massacre of the royal family in 2001.

®         On 1 June 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra  murdered his father, King Birendra his mother

             Queen Aishwarya and several other members of the royal family. Later he shot himself.

            Gyanendra the brother of Birendra became King.

®        In February 2005, the Gyanendra dismissed the then Prime Minister and dissolved the popularly elected Parliament.

The Second movement for democracy in Nepal (April 2006)

®        All the major political parties in the parliament formed a Seven Party Alliance (SPA).

®        Nepalese Communist Party(Maoists) who wanted to overthrow the government through an armed revolution joined SPA.

®        More than a lakh people who gathered almost every day on the streets of Kathmandu to demand restoration of democracy.

®        The number of protesters reached between three to five lakhs on 21 April.

            Three demands

            (1) restoration of parliament,

            (2) power to an all-party government

            (3) a new constituent assembly.

            Result

®        On 24 April 2006, king was forced to accept demand.

®        Girija Prasad Koirala selected as the new Prime Minister of the interim government.

Bolivia’s Water War

®        Poor country in South America (Latin America)

®        The World Bank pressurised the government to give up its control of municipal water supply.

®        The government sold these rights for the city of Cochabamba to a multi-national company (MNC).

®        People received monthly water bill of Rs 1000 in a country where average income is around Rs 5000 a month.

®        Movement launched by people against the privatization of water.

®        In January 2000, a new alliance of labour, human rights and community leaders organised a successful four-day general strike in the city.

®        Next strike in February, police resorted to brutal repression

®        Another strike followed in April and the government imposed martial law.

®        The power of the people forced the officials of the MNC to flee the city

            The contract with the MNC was cancelled and water supply was restored to the municipality at old rates. This came to be known as Bolivia’s water war.

Democracy and popular struggles

®        The movement in Nepal was to establish democracy.

®        The struggle in Bolivia involved claims on an elected democratic government regarding a policy.

®        However in both cases the struggle involved mass mobilisation.

            Conclusion:

            (1) Democracy evolves through popular struggles.

            (2) Democratic conflict is resolved through mass mobilisation.

            (3) Spontaneous public participation becomes effective with the help of organised politics. There can be many agencies of organised politics. These include political parties, pressure groups and movement groups.

            (4) In Nepal the SPA was not the only organisation behind this mass upsurge. The protest was joined by the Nepalese Communist Party (Maoist). Many other organisations like the organization of the indigenous people, teachers, lawyers and human rights groups extended support to the movement.

            (5) The protest against water privatisation in Bolivia was not led by any political party. It was led by an organisation called FEDECOR. This organisation comprised of local professionals, including engineers and environmentalists. The movement was supported by the Socialist Party. In 2006, this party came to power in Bolivia.

            (6) Thus in a democracy several different kinds of organisations work behind any big struggle.

Kittiko-Hachchiko movement (1987) in Karnataka

®        Kittiko-Hachchiko (meaning, pluck and plant)

®        In 1984, the Karnataka government set up a company called Karnataka Pulpwood

            Limited. About 30,000 hectares of land was given virtually free to this company for 40

            years.

®        Much of this land was used by local farmers as grazing land for their cattle. However the company began to plant eucalyptus trees on this land, which could be used for making paper pulp.

®        People started a non-violent protest, where people plucked the eucalyptus plants and

            planted saplings of trees that were useful to the people.

           

Pressure groups

®        Pressure groups are organisations that attempt to influence government policies. 

®         Pressure groups do not aim to directly control or share political power.

®        Pressure groups are formed when people with common occupation, interest, aspirations or opinions come together in order to achieve a common objective.

Movements

®        Examples: Narmada Bachao Andolan, Movement for Right to Information, Anti-liquor Movement, Women’s Movement, Environmental Movement

®        A movement attempts to influence politics rather than directly take part in electoral competition.

Sectional interest groups and public interest groups

            (1) Some groups are sectional because they represent a section of society: workers, employees, businesspersons, industrialists, followers of a religion, caste group, etc.

            (2) Some organisations are not about representing the interest of one section of society. They represent some common or general interest that needs to be defended. Bolivian organisation FEDECOR is an example of that kind of an organisation. This second type of groups are called promotional groups or public interest groups.

 How do Pressure groups and movements exert influence on politics?

            (1) They try to gain public support and sympathy for their goals and their activity by carrying out information campaigns, organising meetings, file petitions, etc.

            (2) They often organise protest activity like strikes or disrupting government  programmes.

            (3) In some instances the pressure groups are either formed or led by the leaders of political parties

            (4) Sometimes political parties grow out of movements. For example, when the Assam movement led by students against the ‘foreigners’ came to an end, it led to the formation of the Asom Gana Parishad. The roots of parties like the DMK and the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu can be traced to a long drawn social reform movement during the 1930 and 1940s.

Note

            BAMCEF (Backward and Minorities Community Employees Federation) is an organisation largely made up of government employees that campaigns against caste discrimination.

            Land rights protest: farmers of West Java, Indonesia. On June 2004, about 15,000 landless farmers from West Java, travelled to Jakarta, the capital city. They came with their families to demand land reform, to insist on the return of their farms. Demonstrators chanted, “No land, No vote” declaring that they would boycott Indonesia’s first presidential election if no candidate backed land reform.