Judiciary and the impermanence of stability

Ex-revolutionaries begin to fear revolution.
Mere mention of the term,
Makes them shiver in trepidation.
– Pawan Karan in "Range Adak"
 
The Rolpali Revolutionaries – call them Roarists, in recognition of their persistent roar – under the charismatic leadership of the enigmatic Pushpa Kamal Dahal, are centimetres away from becoming The Establishment in Nepal. The political and economic agenda of the Maobaadi show that the Chinese have all along been correct in their assessment of the armed insurgents south of Tibet: for the Roarists, Maoism was merely a ticket to ride on the escalator of political power. Once ensconced in Singha Durbar, the seat of the legislature, Dahal and his fellow travellers will most likely be little different from their predecessors in what was once the largest and most centralised secretariat complex in all of Asia.

Although they have offered mixed messages over the shape of the political economy in the days to come, the Roarists are emphatic about what they want to do with the legal system: restructure the judiciary, probably in their own image. While there is little doubt that the judicial system of Nepal could do with some much-needed reforms, the fear that the Roarists might try to transform it into an institution that will legitimate the decisions of their kangaroo courts, which have functioned in the countryside, has sent shivers down the spines of constitutionalists. After all, despite all their weaknesses, the last line of peaceful defence against excesses of the executive and the legislature is still the law courts.