The comrade PM

Rama and Seema had grown up together in Biratnagar and moved to Kathmandu for college at about the same time. Though they had family in Bhaktapur they had decided to live together in Kathmandu by themselves, sharing a two-bedroom apartment. To pay for that they worked at several places after college.

So it was not the biggest surprise when Seems declared that she had a new job. They switched between jobs all the time, it wasn't a big deal generally. This one was important however because they had told her that they were looking to hire someone for a full-time position for twice the pay later. She hoped she'd be able to grow to the job and take over the position when she finished college

It was not to be.

The revolution that was fomenting in the background would upend everything. The communist government was being fiercely opposed by organized group of landworkers and daylaborers from across the country. What was even more unfortunate for the party -- and the government by extension -- was that the opposition had roped in its traditional enemy, the entrepreneurs, to the movement. Millions of hardworking Nepalis who had paid for their upward mobility in sweat tears and blood abroad had returned after the global economic slowdown and collapse of the Gulf economy. They were middle class economically but were fully on board with their working-class brothers and sisters. Kathmandu, never a bastion of a communist government, that was in name only, that had also gradually dismantled civil liberties and institutions to thwart any criticism of its actions, had joined in quick. The party was still the most popular, but the numbers were dropping quick as it was besieged on all sides.

The day after Seems accepted her new job, protests broke out in the five largest cities of the country. They continued for three weeks, without any violence, until the teargas cannisters fired in Maitighar struck a teenager passing by and broke her head. She passed away two days later. The movement was set aflame, and riots broke out. The government deployed special police force and threatened the use of Armed police paramilitary men. The threats backfired, the protests got increasingly violent as the protestors braced for an increase in violence from the government's side. Three of the members of the party high-command had their second and third houses torched outside the valley. They took it personally. Armed police was mobilized to quell the protests.

Exactly seven weeks after Seems accepted her first job, there had been a total of five protest-related deaths. In the week following, there were twenty-two deaths, a result of the heavy-handed tactics of the APF which was not experienced in crowd control. All the remaining support the government vaporized instantly. Anyone associated with the government or the party had to be escorted by heavily armed men or they risked being pelted with stones or worse. The party's behavior had taken the morale inside quite low, the fear of retribution made it worse -- the membership numbers dwindled to a mere fifteen percent of what they had been three months previously.

Comrade PM knew the next election was a lost cause. Or the one following that. And his political career was likely over forever. Even the King hadn't caused as many deaths. It was possible they would come after his head later. He decided to take protective measures. He dissolved the parliament and declared a state of emergency, banning all civil meeting and suspending the civil liberties his government hadn't gotten around to dismantling yet.