Communism is on the run all over the world. But high in the Himalayas of Nepal, it has staged a small comeback, democratically.
The Communist Unified Marxist Leninist Party came in first in elections, though falling short of a parliamentary majority, and is trying to form a government. Communists have never ruled Nepal. Nepalese voters hardly know what they are, but elected them for what they are not. They are not the Congress Party, which won the elections of 1991 and ruled since then with rising corruption and unpopularity. Congress came in a fairly close second this time.
And the Communists are also not the monarchists, who enforced the absolute rule of King Birendra until rebellion in 1990 converted him into a constitutional figurehead who is now called on to ask the Marxist Leninists to try to form a government. The monarchist party came in only a distant third place in the voting but it may yet hold the balance of power in parliament.
Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries, squeezed between the giants India and China. Especially during Congress Party rule, Nepal has looked to India for protection from China, which suspects it of harboring Tibetan nationalists. Whether a Communist-leaning government can disarm the suspicions of China's Communist rulers remains to be seen.
It has been said in defense of Nepal's Communists, as previously of others in Asia, that they are really not Communists but rather crypto-socialist nationalists. The difference is that in Nepal this may actually be true. In any case, the UML as the Unified Marxist Leninists are called, came in first in an election that was rigged if at all in favor of the Congress Party.
Rules are rules and democracies are supposed to play by them. The UML is no threat. Everest still stands and Yeti, the abominable snowman, remains out of sight through the mist on the next high ridge. Nepal is still Nepal.
It's nice that the Cold War is over and that we good people of the West do not have to get overly disturbed any more about this sort of thing, as long as it is kept in moderation.