| REPUBLICA, 18 January 2013 |
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| The newly-formed CPN-Maoist party has recently convened its seventh general convention which decided on ´people´s revolt´ as the party´s political line. The convention also elected a 51-member central committee under the chairmanship of Mohan Baidya. | ||
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Republica´s Kiran Pun spoke with Baidya. Excerpts:
You have been elected party head again after 28 years. How do you feel –is there something new or difference, as you have been elected both times during critical periods? I was elected a central committee member at four general conventions and I was elected party general secretary at the fifth national congress in 2041. I now see very high hills of challenge, challenge for the people and the country. The question is how to move forward facing these negative and positive challenges. I am now in such a place where both renown as a revolutionary as well ill fame are possible. And I remember a quote from Comrade Mao, that people can fall very far down after reaching very high. I can go on facing the challenges if I get the help of party cadres and the people. The question is how can I accommodate the line of the masses and the interests of the people.
Although you were elected both times in very critical circumstances do you feel any difference between the two occasions? I have always been for the idealist way of revolution. I thought Prachand was also for this. I had thought that I would not again assume the main leadership of the party after the arrival of Prachand in the party´s main leadership. I came into the main leadership unexpectedly. But this was natural, as such things can happen if necessary. Is it easier to be a leader or to make a leader? Both are complex. In the sense that you made Prachand the main leader… It is a very difficult thing to understand human beings. Prachand was not such a person and how he has changed. We do not know how human beings change. It is a very difficult thing. You also mentioned that it was a mistake to hand over leadership to Prachand. Why? I left the leadership over the Sector scandal. Dahal also made a mistake. The incident happened in 2043 Bikram Era but I left in 2046. Comrades raised questions in 2046 asking whose mistake it was. I would just say that it was not my personal mistake and it was a mistake to leave the leadership over this scandal. [Ed. note: 2043 Bikram Era = 1996 CE, and 2046 Bikram Era = 1999 CE] UCPN (Maoist) leaders say that there is in the main no difference between the two Maoist parties. After the general convention, would you say there are differences? There are various differences. We follow the new democratic revolution but they have left that path. We talk about national sovereignty but they have abandoned it. We have been saying the constitution should assure the rights of women, dalits and ethnic groups. But they have abandoned that also. UCPN (Maoist) is converting itself into a party of the elite classes but we are trying to make ours a party of the proletariat. These are the main differences. You can see it in the political documents. Continue reading |
Tag Archives: Mohan Baidya
Nepal: CPN-Maoist on the struggle vs comprador capitalists, Indian expansionism, and US / multipolar imperialist system
CPN-Maoist names new principal enemy |
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| by KIRAN PUN, MYREPUBLICA.COM | ||
 Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Chairman Mohan Baidya KATHMANDU, Nov 1: In a major policy shift, the CPN-Maoist, the breakaway faction of the UCPN (Maoist), has named a combination of political, bureaucratic and ´comprador´ capitalist elements ´protected and guided by Indian expansionists´ as its principal enemy. According to a political document presented at its central committee meeting by party Chairman Mohan Baidya this past week, the main contemporary contradiction of the Nepali people is with compradors, bureaucrats and capitalists guided and protected by Indian expansionists. The newly-formed Maoist party also said that a significant change in the political and social situation seen during the past two years had compelled the party to redefine its principal enemy. Defining of a principal enemy in a communist party´s official document carries special significance because all the activities of such a party are designed and executed to defeat the “principal enemy”. According to commentators, this latest process of redefinition floated by the CPN-Maoist demonstrates a major shift from a policy adopted two years back when the UCPN (Maoist) party was united. The party had then defined Indian expansionists blended with domestic reactionary forces as the party´s principal enemy. Further explaining the nature of the presence of the principal enemy in different state organs, the CPN-Maoist said that a section of all major political parties including the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and Madhes-based parties are protected and guided by Indian expansionists. Continue reading |
Nepal: A “party within the party” for revolutionary Maoists
[The line struggle within the UCPN(M) between the “people’s revolution” faction vs. the “bourgeois republic” faction has now led to separate organized forms within the overall-dysfunctional party. While debates have led to organizing separate, and opposing, programmatic paths, the issues remain largely unsettled. Chief among them seem to be: to re-ignite and carry forward the people’s revolutionary armed struggle, OR to squander the remaining (disarmed) PLA forces on ever-shrinking plans for integrating PLA fighters and officers into the Nepalese Army; the question of advancing land reform of the peasants against the feudal landlords, OR to permit the return of lands and privileges to the feudal system in the countryside; whether to advance the struggle for New Democracy with revolutionary communist leadership, OR to retreat further into the opportunist swamp of the bourgeois republic and neo-colonial/comprador relations. Revolutionary politics once shaped and crystallized the mission of the people’s war; then, with the abandonment of the PW in 2006, the questions became confined to inner-party struggle. Now the questions and debates and actions are returning to the streets and villages. The revolutionary Nepalese people are looking to leaders like Kiran, Gajurel, and Thapa to step forward, and lead. — Frontlines ed.]
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Mohan Baidya "Kiran"
Nepal’s Maoist leader fires a salvo at his own party government
by Prashant Jha, The Hindu, Kathmandu, March 26, 2012
People are being betrayed on the Constitution, says Kiran
Senior vice-chairperson of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’ has said if the integration of the People’s Liberation Army is not “respectable” and a People’s Federal Republican Constitution is not drafted, the Nepali people will have a “right to revolt” again. In an exclusive interview to The Hindu, Mr. Kiran reiterated the demand for the resignation of the government, led by his party colleague Dr. Baburam Bhattarai.
Saying there was an ongoing battle in the party between “right-wing revisionism” and “revolutionary Marxism”, Mr. Kiran said: “We are not against peace and Constitution. But the debate is if our party has made anti-people compromises.”
Hari Bol Gajurel
‘Mistakes’
Mr. Kiran said while the goal of a “democratic republic” — set by the Maoist party in 2005, which led to an alliance with other parties against the monarchy — was tactically right, it could not solve people’s problems and the party should have aimed to establish a “People’s Federal Republic” or a “People’s Democracy’. Asked if this meant one-party rule by the Maoists, he said: “Parliamentary democracy is also class hegemony where five per cent rule over 95 per cent. In people’s dictatorship, it would be the other way round.”
Pointing to mistakes committed by the party, the Maoist ideologue said that during the war they had created an “army, base areas, people’s governments”.
The base areas were opened up and the parallel governments dissolved soon after the Maoists entered open politics in 2006. Mr. Kiran claimed this was wrong and not in favour of the people whose issues Maoists had raised.
Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal'
“On integration of our army, the party stand was it should be collective and armed integration of combatants with the chain of command of PLA intact. But what is happening now is disarmament. A national security policy should have been framed first, but we did not pay attention to that either,” he said.
To have a people’s Constitution, Mr Kiran said, there be provisions for “ethnic autonomy; right to self determination; special rights for Dalits, Muslims and women; right to food, education, health and work; revolutionary land reform; and a proportional representation based electoral system”. “But we fear that Nepali people are being betrayed on the Constitution as well.”
Mr. Kiran also reiterated the demand for the government’s resignation. Accusing it of “surrendering to India”, he said: “It signed the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement [BIPPA] with India without consulting anyone. We had opposed unequal treaties in the past. But the Energy Minister of this government, from our own party, went and approved the Pancheshwor agreement in Delhi recently. They are now talking of a DPR [detailed project report] for the Kosi high dam, despite popular opposition.”
Party unity
The political rift within the Maoists has translated into operational disunity, with the establishment faction of chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai calling meetings of their own loyalists while Mr. Kiran’s dissident faction holds parallel meetings. Separate committees have been set up at all levels, separate offices are used as a base and independent programmes are held.
Admitting that it was an “unnatural” situation, Mr. Kiran called it a situation of a “party within a party, organisation within an organisation”. Asked if the party would split, he said: “That depends on the principles, political roadmap, tactics and strategy which the party will undertake. There is a complex two-line struggle at present. Can we take that forward and resolve it positively? Revolutionaries don’t split; they revolt. If the leadership turns opportunist; a federal, anti-imperial, pro people’s Constitution is not made; and if PLA is not respectfully integrated, Nepali people have the right to revolt.” Continue reading
Nepal: 2 newspaper reports on Maoist party’s struggle over its strategic direction
My Republica, November 30, 2010
KATHMANDU: “This is the first time in the party´s history that your political document has failed. What do you have to say, comrade?”
When a journalist shot this question at Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal during the news conference held at the end of the weeklong party plenum in Gorkha last Saturday, the latter looked disappointed while the face of Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who was sitting cross-legged nearby, lit up.
Vice-Chairman Mohan Baidya "Kiran"
Challenged by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and Bhattarai simultaneously, Chairman Dahal was pushed into a defensive position. Both the vice-chairmen, who represent two extreme and opposite ideological lines, not only attacked his “centrist line”, but also accused him of misusing “power, authority and finances” to increase his hold on the party.
Chairman Pushpa Kamal Damal and Vice-Chairman Baburam Bhattarai (rear, unsmiling)
The sixth plenum turned out to be different from those in the past as both Bhattarai and Baidya abandoned their support for Dahal simultaneously, and the two-way intra-party conflict of the past turned triangular. Without the support of Baidya or Bhattarai, the Maoist chairman appeared weak as never before. Result: the sixth plenum rejected Dahal´s synthesized political document.
Bhattarai had sharp differences with Dahal on the issue of naming the party´s principal enemy, though both leaders shared the ideological view that the party should work to institutionalize the political achievements made so far. While Dahal stated that India should be declared the party´s principal enemy, Bhattarai had argued that the party should first defeat “domestic feudalism” instead of launching struggles against India. “We could not agree with the chairman as he prepared his synthesized document, mixing dissimilar ideas. It is an act of eclecticism,” says Maoist leader Ram Karki, who is close to Bhattarai.
The Maoist chairman had hoped that he would get the support of Baidya as he had accommodated most of the latter´s views in his synthesized document.
The meeting showed that Dahal is also losing his grip on the Maoist People´s Liberation Army (PLA), which is still indirectly headed by Dahal himself.
But Baidya appeared more aggressive than Bhattarai against Dahal. Baidya, who leads the hard-line camp in the party, attacked Dahal for not launching a “people´s revolt” to establish a “People´s Federal Democratic Republic” in Nepal, the line passed by the Kharipati national conclave. He even threatened to take over the party leadership. “We could not agree with the chairman as we not only had sharp ideological differences, but we also saw a gap between the chairman´s words and what he has been doing in practice,” says Maoist leader Khadga Viswakarma, who is close to Baidya.
During the plenum, Baidya had the strongest hold among the cadres, while Dahal´s position weakened significantly. There was no one to speak in favor of Dahal in the party´s foreign affairs department. Continue reading
Nepal: On the eve of UCPNM CC Plenum, Bhattarai’s meeting with party cadres blocked
UCPNM Vice-Chairman Baburam Bhattarai
MyRepublica, October 29, 2010
BIRATNAGAR: In apparent manifestation of brewing conflict among the top party leadership, the UCPN (Maoist) Kochila State Committee has barred party Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai from holding meetings with party cadres in its area.
Kochila State Committee In-charge Haribol Gajurel issued verbal directives to party cadres not to hold a meeting on Thursday shortly after party leaders and cadres under the state committee were asked to attend a Jaycees function on Saturday at Tankisinuwari, Morang.
The move comes after Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya objected to such meetings, saying Dr Bhattarai was trying to solicit support to consolidate his ´hold´ at the party plenum. Leaders close to the two senior leaders said party leaders cannot hold meetings on individual basis.
Chairman Dahal and Vice-chairmen Bhattarai and Baidya presented three separate political papers on the party´s future course, at the central committee meeting in August. As unanimity on any of the papers was elusive, the central committee decided to table three papers at the plenum to finalize the party´s course. Continue reading
Nepal: Important UCPN(Maoist) Meeting to Discuss Separate Papers
UCPN(Maoist) Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya {"Kiran")
Kathmandu: The Maoists have decided to take separate political documents prepared by the top three leaders — Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice chairmen Mohan Baidya and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai — to the party plenum, scheduled to begin November 14 in Gorkha district, for debate and discussion. A meeting of the top office bearers took a decision to this effect recently.
The last central committee meeting of the party had decided that Chairman Dahal would accomodate the views expressed in the separate documents prepared by Baidya and Bhattarai and prepare a new one for presentation at the plenum. As per the decision, the vice-chairmen duo will present their documents at the plenum if they are not satisfied with Dahal’s new document. “The leaders agreed to take the separate documents to the plenum as that would be more democratic,” said Maoist politburo member Narayqan Sharma.
In the past, party chairman Dahal mixed the lines floated by Baidya and Bhattarai, but both leaders have strongly pushed for their own line this time around and are against the “fusion of ideas”.
“The plenum will consider all the lines floated by the leaders. The line that gets a majority will be the official line of the party, while the views that fall in minority will also be recorded in the party’s history,” said Sharma, who is close to Baidya.
Leaders say the plenum, slated for November 14 in Gorkha, holds special significance as Baidya and Bhattarai are preparing to challenge Dahal’s new document. “Both Baidya and Bhattarai are against diluting their views, and have so far rejected the idea of fusing them,” said a leader close to Bhattarai. Continue reading
Nepal: 4 years after ending People’s War, Peace deal is stalled–Maoist party sharply divided
Between extremism and opportunism
Saroj Dahal in Himal Khabarpatrika, 17-31 August, 2010
The battle raging between Lalrakchyak monthly (which supports Maoist supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal) and the Samayabadha bimonthly (which supports Mohan Baidya) clearly points to mounting internal tension within the party. Though the comments seem to pit Dahal and Baidya against each other, there is another common target here: Vice Chairman Baburam Bhattarai. Factionist politics in the UCPN (Maoist) has led leaders to brand each other extremist, opportunist and rightist, while the country is held hostage to their infighting.
Leaders are still divided over whether to support the constituent assembly or to go for a revolution to establish a people’s republic. Bhattarai wants to pursue the first path as was decided in the 12-point understanding and so is criticised by the hardliners in the party for being rightist. Baidya sees the current change as meaningless and wants to revert to the extreme leftism of the past.
In between them is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who swings between both lines, using the conflict between the two factions to his strategic advantage. A Central Committee member close to the Baidya group says that even though Dahal favours Baidya during decision making, he supports the ‘rightists’ while implementing policy. Continue reading
Nepal: Maoist Vice-Chairman Baidya for “People’s Revolt”
Nepal News, September 12, 2010
A senior Maoist leader is of the view that the party should stop cooperating with the “parliamentary parties” and make preparations to wage a fresh “people’s revolt”. Mohan Baidya “Kiran”, who is the senior Vice-Chairman of the UCPN (Maoist) and is considered a party hawk as he leads a hard-line faction of the party, made the stark proposition in his latest political dossier presented at the ongoing Central Committee meeting of the party held on Saturday.
During the discussion held on his political dossier at the meeting, Baidya argued that the party line adopted after the crucial Chunabang meeting has been proven to be a mistake and that they should wage a fresh people’s revolt. The Chunbang meeting, which took place during the conflict period when Baidya was languishing in an Indian jail after being arrested there, had decided to cooperate with the parliamentary parties to establish a republican set up in the country.
Presenting a contesting dossier, party Vice-Chairman and ideologue Dr Baburam Bhattarai said that the party should continue to move ahead on the basis of the decisions taken by the Chunbang meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that it is impossible for the party to chart its future course of actions by merging the contesting dossier presented by the Baidya and Bhattarai and that the final decision on the matter would be taken after sending the dossiers to the state and district committees for discussion.
Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle 