Updates on Nepal Revolution

Collated articles from mainstream news outfits in Nepal, revealing the line struggle within the UCPN (M) to which path the Nepalese revolution is to take, with the advent of the deadline for Nepali Constitution in May 2011



Baidya document lambasts Dahal

KIRAN PUN

KATHMANDU, April 23: Expressing dissent over Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s political document, Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya presented a separate document at the party central committee (CC) meeting on Friday, demanding preparations for an immediate revolt to capture state power and write a ´people´s constitution.´

“The chairman has deviated from the party´s revolutionary goals. If the party is to agree to a constitution without ensuring socio-political changes, why did we ask so many to sacrifice their lives,” a leader quoted Baidya as saying at the CC.



Baidya was of the opinion that the country already had the 1990 constitution and the sacrifice of so many people cannot be justified if the party is to accept the spirit of that constitution.

In tones of someone badly cheated, Baidya accused Dahal of “revisionism, eclecticism, reformism and dishonesty”, and said the chairman had betrayed the proletariat and deviated from the party´s goals.

Baidya, who leads the party´s hardline camp, is not for concluding the peace process and constitution drafting through compromises with other parties.

“We should not opt for an integration process that humiliates PLA personnel,” a leader quoted Baidya as saying.

The chairman has deviated from the party´s revolutionary goals. If the party is to agree on a constitution without ensuring socio-political changes, why did we ask so many to sacrifice their lives?
--Baidya The Maoist senior vice-chairman argued that the Maoist leadership doesn´t want to become mentally prepared to launch a revolt, though the objective situation is conducive for this.

“The reactionary parties are undergoing political crisis while the people are enraged by the government´s inability to solve the problems the country is facing. So the ground is becoming ready for revolt, but the party lacks preparations for that,” he said.

The Baidya faction has argued that the central committee cannot overturn a decision taken by the party plenum. The party CC held immediately after the Palungtar plenum last November endorsed the line of revolt.

"We would not accept an anti-people constitution and the silence of the grave. Otherwise we had better follow the line of Mohan Bikram Singh and Madan Bhandari,” said a leader close to Baidya.

Party hardliners say they would see how the chairman reacts to Baidya´s document and then chart out their strategy.

“The floor is now open. It is yet to be seen how the chairman embraces the message of the Paluntar plenum, and we´ll forge our strategy accordingly,” said Kul Prasad KC of the Baidya faction.

At the CC meeting, Dahal presented his political document proposing that the party defer the line of immediate revolt and focus on completion of peace and the constitution.

Acknowledging deepening differences among the leaders, Maoist Chairman Dahal said that the party can hold a general convention by next February to settle to all outstanding feuds.

General convention will be the right solution to fix ideology differences that has weakened the party and created several cracks, a leader quoted Dahal as saying.

The faction led by Dr Baburam Bhattarai has long been demanding a general convention, which is 20 years overdue. The party establishment has been postponing the general convention citing an unfavorable political situation.

Dahal swings back to peace, constitution


KATHMANDU, April 20: Ditching the official party line of revolt, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has swung back to the line of peace and constitution floated by Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

In his three-page political document presented at the party politburo meeting on Wednesday, Dahal emphasized the need to conclude the peace process and constitution-drafting to safeguard the political achievements made so far.

“There is a real risk of counter-revolution if we don´t put in best efforts to conclude the peace process and constitution drafting,” a politburo member quoted Dahal´s document. With constitution-drafting deadline just a month away, Dahal was hard-pressed to choose between peace and a revolt.

The Maoist chairman, who keeps on vacillating between the lines of Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and Bhattarai, put forward three ´compelling´ reasons for changing his ideological posture.

First, the objective reality for revolution has undergone massive changes since the Palungtar plenum held last November. Second, the ´counter-revolutionaries´ are raising their heads and hatching conspiracies. And third, the party has not done enough homework for a revolt.

The Maoist party had adopted the line of revolt through a majority vote at a central committee meeting held a few days after the Palungtar plenum.

“The chairman´s document has deviated from the line and spirit of the Palungtar plenum,” said leader Kul Prasad KC who is close to Baidya.

Earlier, breaking his ideological alliance with Bhattarai, the Maoist chairman had swerved to the hard-line camp when he fell out with Bhattarai after the infamous Khanna garment episode.

In the politburo meeting on Wednesday, Bhattarai threw weight behind Dahal´s proposal, while Baidya launched lacerating criticism against Dahal and accused him of ´deception´. What irritated Baidya all the more was Dahal´s statement that he never proposed changing the party´s line to revolt in a true sense.

“A serious ideological deviation has bedeviled the chairman. The journey of rightist deviation starts from this point. It is a grave betrayal against the proletariat and their dream of revolution,” a leader quoted Baidya as saying.

Baidya also accused Dahal of being a man without any ideological line. “Your claim that you have your own ideological posture between the extreme right and extreme left has been proven wrong. Now there are two lines only [his and Bhattarai´s],” a leader quoted Baidya who also argued that the politburo doesn´t have any right to change the party line adopted by the CC after the Palungtar plenum. The party has called a meeting of the CC for Friday to discuss the issue further.

What next

The Dahal and Bhattarai together command a comfortable majority in the CC and the new document is likely to be endorsed by a majority vote.

“Now it is Baidya´s turn to register a note of dissent,” said a leader close to Dahal.

The hard-line faction is not likely to accept the document easily, and Baidya is likely to present a separate political document in the CC.

“We will not remain as spectators if the document is passed through a majority vote as was the case while sidelining Bhattarai last time. We will demand a plenum,” said a leader close to Baidya.

But there is virtually no possibility of holding a plenum as the constitution-drafting deadline approaches. “The disputes would be over for now after Baidya registers a note of dissent,” said a leader close to Dahal.

Party hardliners say they never fully trusted Dahal, who has always been dillydallying to bring out programs for a revolt.

The party endorsed the line of revolt in the famous Kharipati meeting, but the party establishment never charted political programs to implement the line. “He is against launching a revolt. We did not fully believe that he would embrace revolt as official line of the party. And he showed his true colors today,” said a leader from Baidya faction, which believes that Dahal had joined hands with Baidya for the latter´s organizational strength.

2011-04-20

Crossroads to war and peace

I had little time to digest what I saw in Nepal last December. Maybe because when I arrived in Manila, at once I was fuming with impatience after finding out that my luggage was lost by the airlines.

From the airport, I was even packed with worry because I have yet to find out where is the venue of the year-end meeting I need to go to, with other comrades being already there and their phones I couldn’t reach. Plus after the meeting, I hurried back to my home province only to be trapped there by ravaging rains, landslides, bringing devastation and displacement to the lives and livelihoods of many of our kababayans.

Without opportunity for evasion, I must report-back and this is also what I promised the Nepali young revolutionaries that I’ve met. I told Suman, one of closest friends I’ve made with while there, that we have to tell the stories of hope and struggle that the promise of revolution and socialism await the Nepali people, in the short time that I witnessed it or at least in contrast with the mainstream media blurring or sometimes distortion of it.

Not a holiday

I was not like some ostentatious tourists eager to tell their adventures in the Himalayas or some of the A-grade tourist spots like Pokhari or the city of temples in Kathmandu. The last time Nepal hit the Philippine news, it was when Garduce and Philippine mountaineers’ team reached the summit of Mt. Everest in March 2006.

There was live coverage by major outfits glorifying the climb but utterly oblivious of the raging struggle against the autocratic absolute monarchy in Nepal that time. The Nepali peoples uprising failed to even land in the sideline news.

Before leaving Manila I have acquainted myself of the would-be scenarios; the life-and death situation (of course topic of peoples’ war entails blood) that I could possibly encounter, though I’ve learned that the revolutionary communist movement in Nepal entered into a Peace Pact with mainstream bourgeois parties after the monarchy was toppled in 2006.

“Lal Salaam”

At the Kathmandu airport, I was recovering from the sensation of being up in the air for too long. The captain suspended the plane for a ten-minute treat for some tourists to have a glimpse of Himalayas from a higher altitude. From the top, the imminent Nepali storm is obscured.

I was met by Bijay at the immigration queue and whisked away directly to the opening of the 18th Convention of the All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) at the Tribhuvan University. ANNISU-R is identified with the politics of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) which is in peace process and members of current Constituent Assembly (CA) to establish a republic and pro-people Constitution since the fall of the monarchy.

On the way there, I was told by Bijay to prepare a short greeting to be addressed at the convention opening. I asked him what the translation of “revolutionary greetings” is in the Nepali language. And he said I could simply say “Lal Salaam!” which means “Red salute”.

I wasn’t able to deliver my short piece when I arrived at Tribhuvan University so I simply waved and raised my fist when my arrival was announced in front of around 10, 000 members of the ANNISU-R. Other international delegates had already spoken and at that time some district student leaders of ANNISU-R were already speaking in Nepali language.

The winter air brought a distinct feeling of warmth. Speeches were not simultaneously translated to us, but every speech is punctuated with applause and raised fists from the crowd.

The next day, mainstream broadsheets front-page's like The Himalayan Times carry the photo of the Maoist leaders present in the ANNISU-R convention opening, including Pushpa Kamal “Prachanda”, Mohan “Kiran” Baidya and Baburam Batarrai with a caption “The Big Guns”.

I asked one of our student guides, Suman, about the caption. “It might be because of Prachanda’s speech,” he said. “He told the ANNISU-R and the revolutionary youth to get ready now more than ever because the political situation is becoming serious.”

Lately, there has been increased uncertainty in Nepal. There has been no formal government for around six months now in this poor land-locked country of around 23 million people.UCPN-Maoist contender parties in the CA namely the Nepali Congress (NC) and Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist-Leninist (UML) accuse the Maoists of adhering still to violence after the 2006 Peace Accord was hammered out.

“Prachanda said we must ensure to finish the peace process but also be ready to take power if the reactionaries maneuver, for this not to happen.”

Suman added that’s why Prachanda’s speech was received with the most thunderous applause, aside from his being the chairperson of the UCPN-Maoist.

When I asked Suman what he thought of Prachanda’s exhortation, he said that violent confrontation is inevitable in Nepal if real change is to be achieved. “If we want a People’s Republic and socialism, I quote Mao,‘Political power comes out from the barrel of a gun.’”

I apologized for the many questions I asked Suman and he said with smiles not escaping his face, “Revolutionaries are patient for our struggle is protracted.”

Suman, a freshman law student, and unarguably juggles his role as our translator and program manager, explains that we have to open our ears wide open because we will soon encounter “contrasting ideas” during our program for the day.

Our conversation was interrupted, when the bus came to pick us up from the hostel where we were staying, to the Tribhuvan University. We met at the lobby the other delegates from Greece, India,Turkey, Norway, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Australia greeting each other with our new-learned greetings: “Lal Salaam!”