Kathmandu, September 18:

Nepali Congress (NC) president Girija Prasad Koirala said today his party was born out of struggle and the party cadres should always have a revolutionary spirit .

Addressing the 11th death anniversary of the late Ganesh Man Singh, the supreme

commander of the 1990 people’s movement, Koirala said, “If we find our strength weakening, it means we have forgotten who we are.”

He said NC cadres were “like elephants but they were being tamed by the mahout,” as they were not aware of their real strength. Koirala said the NC and its sister organisations like Tarun Dal, Nepal Students’ Union and Nepal Trade Union Congress were all born out of struggle and revolution.

Recollecting his first encounter with Singh 62 years ago in Biratnagar, Koirala urged party leaders and sympathisers to draw inspiration from the “iron man.”

Ganesh Man, who was imprisoned during the first democratic movement in 1940, escaped Bhadragol jail and went to India to orchestrate the people’s movement in 1950 that overthrew the Rana regime. Koirala took a swipe at Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal for speaking against parliamentary system. “Prachanda talks of a fusion between democracy and communism. Socialism is what he is talking about. The NC has long been championing for socialism,” he said.

Stating that parliamentary democracy was the mother of democracy, Koirala said, “Prachandaji is a learned person, I do not want to give him a sermon, but he has been trapped in the game of words.”

The late Ganesh Man’s son and NC vice president Prakash Man Singh said people should respect Ganesh Man’s contribution to democracy. “He was the only person after Mahatma Gandhi in South Asia to reject the offer of PM.” He urged party cadres to play their role in bringing peace process to a logical end.

Prakash Man also flayed Minister for Land Reform Matrika Yadav’s unruly behaviour and said the CPN-Maoist was giving an impression that it was unable to take forward the peace process to a logical end.

NC senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba said the CPN-Maoist was dreaming of establishing a one-party totalitarian system in the name of “People’s Republic”. He also called for more role of youths in the party.

NC acting president Shushil Koirala said simple living and high thinking were the character of Ganesh Man.

He said the Maoist-led government would collapse due to inherent contradiction among the coalition partners and the NC needed to move ahead united.