Nepal: Basanta, a leader of revolutionary Maoists, on the “Prachanda-Baburam” betrayal of revolution
Comrade Basanta
[From the Basanta interview below: "Dissolution of the people’s power, submission of the PLA into the hands of Nepal Army through a kind of coup on April 10, 2012, returning of land to the landlords, signing of anti-national treaties like BIPPA and other shameful treaties on water resources with India etc. have made Prachanda-Baburam clique stand in service of Indian expansionism, the regional watchdog of the US imperialism, and their puppets in Nepal. Through this process this clique has betrayed the nation and the class as well." This is an important analysis of events in Nepal, and of great relation to the international MLM movement and people's struggles worldwide. -- Frontlines ed.]
Interview with Basanta
April 22, 2012
1 – How is the recent situation concerning the two line struggle in your party? Have any of the most important contradictions been solved? (Here you can describe the whole situation about the positions of each side, on which we already have a general idea, but also underline the points that are agreed on.)
For a communist party, the two-line struggle is the source of its life. As an object does not exist without contradiction in it, a communist party too does not exist when there is no two-line struggle. However, the two-line struggle does not always have the same level but varies depending upon the content of the issues involved in it. The two-line struggle in our party has sharpened mainly after the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, which established the federal democratic republic of Nepal. Monarchy has been abolished from Nepal but not feudalism. Nepal is still a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. External intervention is in the rise. The essence of the ongoing two-line struggle is centred on how to understand this situation and whether to continue with status quo i.e. the semi-feudal and semi-colonial condition beautified by cosmetics of the democratic republic or continue struggling to establish People’s Federal Republic in its place.
A few months before, when our CC meeting had just started, chairman Prachanda brought about a long interview in which he revealed so many things on the questions of line. In that interview he categorically said that there is no need now to make a new democratic revolution in Nepal, because the gap between the new democratic revolution and the socialist revolution has narrowed. The major part of it has already been accomplished and the rest can be accomplished when the socialist revolution comes in the agenda. He added that the major task before the party was to develop productive forces by creating conducive atmosphere for the donor countries. This way, he does not even stand in favour of national economy and the national bourgeois. In fact he has been integrated in the imperialist system.
Dissolution of the people’s power, submission of the PLA into the hands of Nepal Army through a kind of coup on April 10, 2012, returning of land to the landlords, signing of anti-national treaties like BIPPA and other shameful treaties on water resources with India etc. have made Prachanda-Baburam clique stand in service of Indian expansionism, the regional watchdog of the US imperialism, and their puppets in Nepal. Through this process this clique has betrayed the nation and the class as well.
When the leaders nakedly surrender before imperialism and their running domestic agents, then the two-line struggle does not remain an issue of the party alone. Rather it becomes an issue of the nation and the entire oppressed people as a whole. It must be taken to the masses so that their anti-people and anti-national crimes could be unveiled. Hence, the two-line struggle which we are taking to the masses now is an ideological and political campaign to make the entire oppressed class, nation, sex and region stand by the side of revolutionaries and expose the right revisionists who betrayed the nation and people in the garb of Marxism.
The last Central Committee meeting has taken up a method to deal with organisational problems. First, no committee at any level will take decisions on the basis of majority and minority and second, if there is no unanimity then either ideological group will have right to organise their separate committee meetings, take decisions and implement in their own. In other words, every ideological group in our party is free to take decisions and implement them in practice. Democratic centralism is not active in our party now. The line struggle in the party is now openly taken to the masses. We think the synthesis of this whole process will equip us with deeper ideological grasp to lead the revolution forward. Read more »
Nepal: Maoist factions agree on two-pronged policy
The rival factions within the UCPN (Maoist) led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya have reached an informal understanding to move ahead adopting a “one party two tactics” policy till May 27, the extended deadline of the Constituent Assembly.
While leaders said they adopted such policy to keep the party united, some influential leaders from the Baidya camp have opposed the idea, arguing that they should form a separate party. Speaking to journalists a few days ago, Dahal had said that the party would neither split formally nor remain united.
Leaders from the hard-line camp—Ram Bahadur Thapa, CP Gajurel, Netra Bikram Chand and Hitman Shakya—are in favour of splitting the party before May 27. But Baidya and Standing Committee member Dev Gurung are against a formal split until May 27.
With such an understanding, the rival factions will function in a parallel way with their own political line. “The party will function in a parallel way till May 27 with separate policies and programmes,” said Haribol Gajurel, a Dahal confidante.
The establishment faction headed by Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai will engage on the ongoing peace and constitution-writing process, while the hardliners will make preparations for a possible revolt. Read more »
Nepal: PLA commander demands high position in national army or “army integration” will not go forward
PLA demands post of Major General for integration |
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| Sunday, 08 January 2012 |
The spokesperson of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the UCPN (Maoist) Chandra Prakash Khanal has said that the integration process will not move ahead until the PLA commander gets the post of Major General in the NA while integrating the combatants.Speaking at a programme in Kathmandu on Sunday, Khanal said that the PLA will not go ahead for the integration until the political parties agree to integrate the top commander of the PLA as the Major General of the NA.Integration based on the personal qualification is not acceptable for us. We want respectful integration,” he added.He also said that if the combatants opting for integration are not integrated due to the limit of the agreed numbers, they should be provided compensation package.“Until the gap between the numbers agreed upon and the numbers opting for integration is not addressed, we will not discharge the combatants who have chosen for voluntary retirement,’ he warned. nepalnews.com
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Nepal: Bourgeois leader Koirala crows about Peruvian ex-Maoist’s call to Nepali Maoists: ‘give up the struggle for power’
[Bourgeois calls for revolutionaries to surrender often seize hold of the most tarnished and discredited tools--in this case, Abimael Guzman aka "Gonzalo" who was a founder and leader of the Communist Party of Peru until he was captured and renounced the people's war for power and for revolutionary transformation of Peru. While some in Nepal have already taken the path of surrender, Nepali revolutionary Maoists are having nothing of it, as the struggle for revolution against revisionism continues within the UNCN(M) and, importantly, in the streets and villages. -- Frontlines ed.]
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President of the Nepali Congress (NC), Sushil Koirala, asks Maoists to renounce revolutionary program, armed struggle, and to adopt peaceful reform
After Peruvian Maoist leader Gonzalo was captured, in time he sang a different tune of surrender, and denounced the Peoples War--winning him praise from reactionaries.
Koirala urges Maoists to follow Gonzalo’s advice
by SANTOSH POKHAREL, myrepublica.com
POKHARA, Jan 7: Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala on Saturday has urged the UCPN (Maoist) to follow Peruvian revolutionary leader Gonzalo´s advice to renounce violence and adopt peaceful politics.
Speaking at a function in Pokhara, President Koirala urged the Maoists not to go against the democratic system and derail the peace process. He urged the Maoists to adopt the path of peace and constitution to bring about prosperity in the country.
“Even Peruvian revolutionary leader Gonzalo, who orchestrated the killing of about 70,000 people the guerilla war popularly known as ´Shining Path´, has asked the Maoists to adopt the path of peace. Maoists should follow the path of peace,” he said.
Gonzalo, who is currently serving a jail term, had reportedly sent a letter to the UCPN (Maoist) through his aides.
“The leader who led once of the greatest armed rebellion also acknowledged the importance of peaceful means. The Maoists should also acknowledge the fact,” he further said.
Koirala also warned that the Maoists would perish if they try to impose dictatorship in the country. Read more »
Nepal: Disqualified combatants enforce shutdown mid-western districts
[Having turned their backs on the legacy of the People's War, conducted by the People's Liberation Army from 1996-2006, the Nepal government and the revisionist top leadership of the UCPN(M) callously dismissed many of the revolutionary fighters and "re-assigned" others. But these fighters, who have dedicated their lives to the liberation of Nepali people, remain focused on the need to complete the discarded and incomplete revolutionary struggle. So the struggle continues, quietly and boldly, in many forms and places. -- Frontlines ed.]
Friday, 30 December 2011
Daily life in large parts of Pyuthan, Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Dailekh and Surkhet districts have been adversely affected since early Friday morning due to a daylong strike called by former Maoist combatants in mid-western region.
The strike was enforced by ex-combatants who were discharged last year from the cantonments after being disqualified in the verification conducted by the United Nations political mission in Nepal.
Reports coming in say that most of the shops, businesses and factories in the affected districts remain closed. Similarly, very few short-route vehicles are seen plying on the road while long-route vehicles have been brought to a grinding halt in the affected districts due to fear of attacks by the bandh enforcers. However, protest organisers demonstrating in major thoroughfares in Nepalgunj, Dang and Surkhet have not been seen disrupting the vehicles.
The disqualified Maoist ex-combatants enforced the shutdown in mid-western region, demanding that the tag of ‘disqualified’ to describe them be removed and financial package comparable to those who have chosen voluntary retirement in the recent regrouping of the combatants.
The combatants in exclusion had enforced a daylong strike in nine districts of far-western Nepal on Thursday to protest against the UCPN (Maoist) and the government categorizing them as ‘disqualified’ and ‘depriving’ them of any benefit or rights.
4008 disqualified combatants were discharged from the cantonment sites. The government had only provided bus fares to them while discharging them. nepalnews.com
Nepal: Maoist revolutionaries (“Hardliners”) fire salvo at Dahal, PM Bhattarai
KAMAL DEV BHATTARAI, Kathmandu Post
The barb between the hardliners and the party establishment within the UCPN (Maoist) saw a new level of intensity on Wednesday as hardliners hurled personal broadside against party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, calling him a “comprador” and a “sell-out”. During the ongoing Central Committee (CC) meeting of the party on Wednesday, not even Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was spared from personal attacks. According to some leaders, the attack was one of fiercest in the party’s internal deliberation since the party entered peaceful politics in 2006.
“Dahal and PM Bhattarai are working under the guidance of expansionist and imperialistic forces, the signing of BIPPA is a classic example of it,” said Ram Bahadur Thapa, party general secretary and leader of the hard-line camp, in the meeting. He also accused Dahal of compromising with other parties on the core issues of constitution drafting in the dispute resolution subcommittee formed under the Constitutional Committee.
The group of four in the hard-line camp—Thapa, CP Gajurel, Dev Gurung and Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav’—used words such as “comprador”, “rightist”, “reformist”, “individualistic” and “feudal” to describe Dahal and Bhattarai during the deliberation. The leaders threatened to split the party, arguing that there was no point in staying together if the party leadership didn’t change itself. They said ideology and people were more worthy for them than the party. Read more »
Nepal: PLA members who have been disqualified plan new campaign of struggle
Nepal News: Disqualified PLA combatants announce nationwide protest programmes
The disqualified combatants of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) on December 18 announced nationwide protest programmes putting forth four-point demands including the cancellation of their disqualified recognition, reports Nepal News. Organising a press conference in Kathmandu Central Struggle Committee of the Disqualified People’s Liberation Army (PLA) combatants announced that they will take out protest rally in Dhangadi on December 23, Nepalgunj on 25, Itahari on 27 and Hetauda on 28. They also plan to enforce bandh (general strike) in all the development regions on different dates to be followed by Nepal bandh on January 4. The then United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) had disqualified 4,008 combatants, including 2,973 minors during the verification…..
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Disqualified PLA warn of stir
2011-12-22
HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE
DHANGADHI: Disqualified PLA combatants today announced their agitation saying the government had failed to do anything for them at a press conference in Dhangadhi, where they informed about their demonstration in Dhangadhi on December 23 and a Far-west bandh on December 29.
Speaking at a press conference, Bharat Rokaya, central secretary of Disqualified People’s Liberation Army said, “The party used us for ten years to fight in the people’s war and now it has left us in the lurch.”
“Even our own party is oblivious to our condition,” lamented another former combatant Prem BK, urging the party and government to take initiatives for their honourable rehabilitation or face more intense agitation. Read more »
Nepal: Establishment Maoists postpone day of reckoning, again
Thursday, December 22, 2011
UCPN (Maoist) puts off CC meeting, again
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POST B BASNET/KIRAN PUN
KATHMANDU, Dec 22: The UCPN (Maoist) has postponed its Central Committee (CC) meeting slated for Friday. It is the fourth time that the party establishment has put off its CC meeting. While the party establishment has attributed the postponement to lack of internal homework, the hardliners have accused Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal of continuously deferring the meeting to avoid backlash from the CC members for his “ideological deviation and moral erosion.” Though the party has rescheduled the meeting for Saturday, the radical faction led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya doubts if Dahal will hold any CC meeting anytime soon. “The party chairman has the strategy of deferring the meeting until he gains an edge over the Baidya faction. So I think the party establishment will continue to defer the CC meeting instead of facing the wrath of the CC members over Dahal´s handling of the party,” said CC member Maheshwar Dahal, who is close to Baidya faction. |
Nepal: Maoist student leader announces new revolutionary party initiative
Ex chair of ANNFSU-R announces to quit Maoist party
KATHMANDU: Lekhanath Neupane, the former chairman of UCPN-Maoist’s student wing All Nepal Independent Student Union–Revolutionary , said in Biratnagar on Monday that he will quit the Maoist party soon to set up a new communist party with its own army.
The Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) reported that the former student leader said he is leaving the Maoist party as it is on the verge of downfall because of the leaders who he accused of being brokers of foreigners.
Neupane crticised Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal for failing to maintain the UCPN-Maoist as a party. He expressed his frustration with the leadership saying he would not join the party had he known that “broker attitude” ruled a communist party.
Speaking at a press conference organised in Bargachhi of Biratnagar, Neupane argued that there is a need for new communist party as “one in the party can buy helicopter while the other(s) even cannot afford to pay the bus fare also.”
He came down heavily upon the party chairman, and claimed that preparations are being made to set up a new party and build up its army as Dahal surrendered the People’s Liberation Army.
Nepal: Baidhya warns of birth of new Maoist party
2011-12-11
Senior CPN-Maoist Vice-Chairperson, Mohan Baidhya
KATHMANDU: Senior Vice-Chairperson of the UCPN-Maoist Mohan Baidhya has warned of formation of new Maoist party if compromises were made to remain in power by sidelining the people’s liberation and changes.
Speaking at a program organised in the capital on the occasion of the 88th memorial day of the first literary martyr Krishna Lal Adhikari on Sunday, Baiddya, who leads the hardliners in the party, said lasting peace would not be established if the new constitution was not written in favor of the proletariat.
“During the people’s war, the land was seized to ensure the rights of the workers in the land and calls were made to put an end to foreign intervention and unequal treaties but it was unfortunate that farmers are being evacuated from the seized lands and ‘black’ BIPPA has been signed with India,” Baiddya said.
He feared that attempts were being made to continue the parliamentary system in the name of republicanism, geographical federalism and secularism in the new constitution.
He claimed that the Maoists were the true followers of Krishna Lal Adhikari, the author of ‘Makaiko Kheti’, had died in jail while serving the jail sentence on the charge of writing the same book during Rana regime. Read more »
Nepal: “Prachanda remains no longer Chairman of Nepal Maoist”: C. P. Gajurel
[Within the Maoist party in Nepal--theUCPN(M)--the challenges to the revisionist "peaceful road" of party chairman Dahal aka Prachanda have grown in intensity and sharpness, in political and ideological terms, and the organizational challenges to Prachanda's leadership in the party are now demanding his removal as chairman of the party. The revolutionary Maoists are charting the path forward for the Nepali revolution, which requires the removal of Prachanda and other "establishment Maoists" -- as this news article detailing a speech by Party Secretary Gajurel lays out. --Frontlines ed.]
Telegraph Nepal, Sunday, December 11, 2011
On ideological grounds, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ remains no longer the Chairman of Unified Maoists’ Party, so said Party secretary C.P. Gajurel while addressing a press meet in Nawalpur of Sarlahi District, December 10, 2011.
“Dahal has already abandoned the ideology charted by the peoples’ revolt…… How Dahal could continue claiming that he holds significant position in the party”, asked Gajurel and said, “He has no space in the party.” ……..
……… “Differences in the party have already crossed the toleration limit. Dahal is to be entirely blamed for the ideological aberrations”, Gajurel told the media adding, “It all started with the differences over petty issues. The differences have attained a new height following unilateral decision of the Chairman to return the seized properties, humiliating rehabilitation and integration of the PLA and the fresh controversial BIPPA agreement that Baburam signed with India.”
Gajurel also disclosed that majority of the party leaders were the adherents of his own panel.
“We are not at all against peace and constitution”, Gajurel claimed and concluded by saying, that “We want honorific and scientific integration of PLA in the Nepal Army.”
Every unnatural height has a definite fall.
Nepal Maoist party deplores Indian Maoist leader Kishenji’s killing
Telegraph Nepal, December 6, 2011
The Unified Maoists’ Party of Nepal has formally deplored the murder of Indian Maoist leader Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji by state led forces on November 24, 2011.
Kishenji was the military head and a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
The Unified Maoist Party’s international bureau head Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Tuesday December 6, 2011, issued a statement and said that the government of India in a cowardly act has murdered Kishenji.
“We deplore the act of the Indian government in killing an unarmed Kishenji,” reads the statement and adds, “We urge the Indian government to resort to peaceful means instead of brutal killings and bloodshed to solve the problems.”
In the meantime, a 22-member team of four constituents of the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organization in India have demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the killing and said that Kishenji was killed while in custody but not in what has been given to understand by the Indian government.
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Official Press Statement from UCPN (Maoist) on death of Comrade Kishenji Read more »
Indian Express: Kishenji’s Death not mourned by Prachanda
Kishenji was ‘contact’ of Nepal Maoists
Kishenji was apparently the main contact person with the Nepali Maoists, but the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) has preferred not to publicly mourn his death.
A senior Maoist leader, who did not wish to be named, told The Sunday Express that the UCPN-M has several times assured the Indian government that “the two Maoist parties have no link any more, and any official statement will give India fresh reason to doubt our statement”. But there is pressure from the ranks and file to take cognizance of Kishenji’s death in a ‘fake encounter’, he added. Read more »
Nepal: Revolutionary Maoists say, we will defend the landless peasants’ land reform
[The Revolutionary Maoists led by Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya are leading the fight against the "establishment 'Maoists'" (Bhattarai and Dahal/'Prachanda') who have reneged on their revolutionary oath to landless peasants and Dalits and agreed to return the lands which had been seized from vicious, abusive, and absent landlords during the People's War and were redistributed to peasant farmers. -- Frontlines ed.]
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Kathmandu Post: “Maoist row over returning property”
Revolutionary Maoists burning 7-point Agreement to return lands seized by landless peasants
KATHMANDU, NOV 07 – The Maoist hardline faction led by Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and party establishment camp are at odds over returning property seized or occupied by the party.
Return of property seized or occupied by the Maoists was one of the key points agreed to in the seven-point deal signed on November 1. The Baidya faction has, however, said it will resist every effort that is made to take away the land from the poor farmers and the landless.
A day after UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal issued a circular to the party’s lower organisations directing cadres to assist in the process of returning seized property, a gathering of the Baidya camp in the Capital on Sunday directed its activists to thwart the ‘takeover’.
“We will retaliate if anyone tries to take over the land from the farmers,” said Maheshwor Dahal, the Maoist central committee member of the Baidya faction. Read more »
Nepal: PLA commanders denounce “integration of armies” deal as surrender
myrepublica.com 
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Republica: “PM Defends Integration Model, PLA Labels It As Surrender” | ||
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