KATHMANDU , MAY 08 -
The UCPN (Maoist) national convention has not gone according to the
script, at least so for party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. His former
deputy Baburam Bhattarai not only stayed out of the final day of the
six-day meet in Biratnagar but has also warned that leaders close to him
will not join the party’s Central Committee (CC) before its ‘special
general convention’. Bhattarai went on record accusing Dahal of stacking
the committee with ‘yes men.’
When the convention, the first national-level Maoist gathering after
the November election defeat, came to a close on Tuesday, the party
looked far from unified. In fact, the Bhattarai faction has given the
impression that if their demands are ignored, they could even go on to
form a separate party at some point. They rule out an immediate split in
the party, though.
Leaders close to Bhattarai have put forth two major conditions to their
entry into the CC: date for the party’s general convention and
intra-party freedom to openly advocate for their political agendas in
the party. Bhattarai is in favour of transforming a war-time
over-centralised and monolithic party into a participatory
democratic-centralist party. There are also differences between Dahal
and Bhattarai on how to view current political revolution. Arguing that
party’s current ideology has become obsolete, he has called for an
intensive discussion inside the party to shape new ideology to retain
party’s lost position.
If Dahal agrees to address their demands, insiders say, the party split
will be averted in the short and medium term. The Bhattarai faction
wants a fresh convention immediately after the promulgation of a new
constitution.
The Dahal faction, however, has said that time is not ripe for the
convention. “It is true that party is passing through an ideological
transition but it is not possible to hold conventions every year,” said
Agni Sapkota, a leader close to Dahal. Bhattarai, who has a “weak
presence” in the party’s organisational set up, believes that if the
party allows holding discussion on his political ideology, it will
strengthen his influence in the party. “We would like to see a system of
two-line struggle inside the party so that our views are also given due
space,” said Kumar Poudel, a leader close to Bhattarai.
“Our reluctance to join the CC should be taken as a pressure tactics
for now, we still hope that Dahal will take measures to transform the
party into a new political force,” Poudel added.
But, Sapkota said ‘excessive freedom’ proved detrimental to the party
in the past and it is hard to meet Bhattarai’s demands. Due to the
freedom and two-line struggle, senior leader Mohan Baidya split the
party and we want to avoid such circumstances in the future, he said.
Dahal has called party’s CC meeting beginning May 15 to discuss the
intra-party rift. The Bhattarai faction is also expecting that Dahal
will bring some concrete proposal to address their demands in the
meeting. “Bhattaraiji has assured to work for the rebuilding of the
party while remaining outside the CC, which is positive,” Dahal said on
Wednesday. “We will start to address the demands of Bhattaraiji and
speed up the party rebuilding process.”
No comments:
Post a Comment