Proposes to drop Maoist Centre from his party's name to make it acceptable for others
KATHMANDU, MARCH 14
CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal has put forth a proposal in the party that 'Maoist Centre' be dropped from the party's name so that other political forces, who do not like Maoism, can join hands with it.
CPN-MC faces the heat of bolstering its organisation after its merger with the CPN- UML was nullified by the Supreme Court recently. This has created a situation where Prime Minister and CPN- UML Chair KP Sharma Oli suddenly sees his position strengthened in the party, as he has clear majority in the Central Committee and Parliamentary Party. Other prominent leaders of the UML - Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal, who had joined hands with CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal in seeking Oli's resignation as PM - find themselves in disadvantageous position.
CPN-MC member Shiv Kumar Mandal said Dahal was always in favour of unity among all communist forces of the country. He said if dropping the 'Maoist Centre' from the party's name could help unite communist forces then the party should be ready for that.
Mandal said there were many communist forces around the world who believed that the theory propounded by Marx and Lenin was the true theory of communism and 'Maoist Centre' could be a distraction for many who wanted to unify their parties with his faction.
"Our party chair had developed 'Prachandapath' as Nepal's own political theory, but when our party sealed a unity deal with the Narayan Kaji Shrestha-led communist outfit, Dahal readily abandoned 'Prachandapath' as that was a condition set by Shrestha's group," Mandal said.
Political analyst Uddhab Pyakurel said the CPN-MC that initially believed in Mao's dictum that 'political power grows out of the barrel of a gun' shed the idea when it signed the comprehensive peace accord in 2006 and started believing that 'political power comes through ballot'.
Pyakurel said that shedding the Maoist tag had become a compulsion for the CPN-MC. as it had unified with the CPN-UML that had imbibed values of liberal democracy.
"Dahal had sided with the Nepal faction of the UML and unity between Dahal's party and the UML's Nepal faction was still possible. It is because of this realisation that Dahal wants to change his party's name. The Nepal faction might not join the Dahal-led party as long as it carries the Maoist tag," said Pyakurel.
He said alliance between Dahal and other communist forces was possible any time before the next general election.
Meanwhile, the Nepal-Khanal faction of the CPN-UML today issued a joint statement accusing Oli of trying to end the communist movement and splitting the UML.
The joint statement was signed by Nepal, Khanal and nine other members of the party Standing Committee - Surendra Pandey, Astalaxmi Shakya, Yubaraj Gyawali, Bhim Bahadur Rawal, Ghanashyam Bhusal, Bhim Prasad Acharya, Gokarna Raj Bista, Yogesh Bhattarai and Mukunda Neupane.
A version of this article appears in the print on March 15, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
