Kathmandu Dec 26 : The General Convention of the Maoist Center is starting on Sunday with the slogan of ‘New Revolutionary Thought and Revolutionary Party Building’. Everyone is interested in the direction that Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Prachanda who has been the party chief for more than three decades, will take the Maoists from this General Convention.
Prachanda continuously claims to have come up with new ideas based on the experience of 10 years of armed struggle and one and half more long decades peace process. Interview with Chairman Prachanda Nepalpage Editor.
Once your party was first, now it is third. How did you review this situation especially on the occasion of convention ?
The Maoists are a party with a very different background, ideas, culture and style than the traditionally developed party in Nepal. Which played a decisive and important role in bringing Nepal to the people’s war, peace agreement, Constituent Assembly and republic. Today, the differences with other parties are disappearing. It is a party with a historical legacy of dedication, loyalty, sacrifice, penance and sacrifice for the people and the nation for a definite idea and purpose. But now we are looking for the reason for this weaker situation.
As the leading leader of this movement, especially the In the peace process, there have been some weaknesses, due to which our party, like others, seems to be striving for position, prestige and self-interest, as if it was gradually cut off from the people. We did not go to specific and determined ideological issues as we should have done. We are discussing whether it did well.
I believe that review will lead us back to the people, to reconnect with production, labor and the working class. There is also the question of how to connect it. What I am trying to propose in the discussion now is that the party should now go to the places where there are working people or the general public in villages and cities.
It means living with the people, eating with the people, working together, participating in the production work together with villagers, making a schedule of all the leaders and cadres from the main leader to make it a transformation. Leaders and workers sit with the people and engage in anti-corruption activities. We are moving towards the belief that the nation and the people cannot be brought to prosperity unless we change ourselves. Now we go to the people once again and run a campaign for the development, construction, prosperity and good governance of this country. This makes it necessary for the honest cadres of other parties and other communist parties to be concentrated in one place. I believe that the communist movement will become once again and we can lead the people towards fulfilling the dream we saw in the past.
Is the party’s program a national political campaign or a continuous movement?
There is a national campaign on behalf of the party. Some may think that we are leaving the current process. This does not mean leaving the process. People, nation and revolution means to be dedicated to change. The issue of production brigade was discussed at the Hetauda General Convention. But it could not be implemented. Because our focus was more on constitution making. There was a situation whether the constitution would be made or not. Then it broke down rather than the need for elections. We now want to connect that broken link in a new way.
You made peace agreement without complete success of the revolution. Do you now feel that the agreement has failed?
We have signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for the establishment of a Federal Democratic Republic, which has been confirmed to be in the interest of the nation, the people and democracy. We have united the nation to draft the constitution and take it to the election process. When I was the Prime Minister for the second time, I was able to play the role of bringing all the Terai-Pahad-Madhes together in one campaign. Our peace process is successful. There is nothing wrong with that. Nepal’s peace process is uniquel and successful. But there is more work to be done. There is still some work to be done, including TRC (Truth and Reconciliation).
There is talk of changing the name of the Maoist party from time to time. Is this discussed in the General Convention?
We are not convinced that the name should be Maoist. It has been known since the formation of the CPN .As the supreme court has dissolved the NCP and again declared the Maoist center, we will not follow the name now. we are open to discuss about it and to rename also.
It has been alleged that you are conservative in the internal competition of the party and those who try to compete or disagree with you, are not allowed to stay in the high command of the party ?
First of all, there was a lot of propaganda that I do not want to hold elections within the party. I also felt a little unhappy. I’m not like that. I have already elected the committee and elected the office bearers from the Biratnagar Conference. The result has been happily accepted. We made all the preparations for the election by making a constitution. But the policy was to try to reach a consensus as much as possible.
I did not ask him to be the chairman of the ward. But friends from all over the country agreed. But the media spread propaganda that Prachanda did not want to hold elections in the party. Then I asked my friends in Bagmati and Province No .1 to show me by contesting the election. We are not afraid of elections. In reality and innerly you can easily find out only our party is the more Democratic Party as well me as a leader.
he agenda of the MCC agreement is complicated within the ruling coalition. are you ready to approve this agreement from the ongoing session of Parliament ?
The then Pm KP Oli and finance minister Yuvaraj Khatiwada worked together to bring the agreement to the parliament, that is where the mistake was made. The agreement signed by Gyanendra Bahadur Karki the then finance minister in My government in 2017, was not to be brought in the parliament. The two governments(Nepal-US) agreed, money would come, work would be done. Another thing is that some issues are unclear in the later implementation agreement. Discussions are ongoing. We do not want the MCC grant to be returned.
Therefore, I would like to ask the Prime Minister to resolve this issue by holding an all-party meeting, holding consultations, inviting intellectuals, editor-in-chiefs, citizens, seeking advice and reaching a conclusion. Even with the MCC officials, I have said that the understanding about MCC is so bad that it is not easy to do so without clarification and without creating an atmosphere of national consensus. The coalition meeting has formed a task force to make it easier to untie the knot.
The members of the task force are collecting the material. Then we will discuss. I can’t guarantee whether the MCC agreement will be tabled in this session or not. We do not mean to destroy it, we do not mean to close our eyes.
You have formed an electoral alliance with UML and later united the party but it did not sustain. How do you review it ?
Some say party unity was a mistake. But I understand that party unity was not a mistake. Our aim was to maintain political stability in the country. I proposed with the dream of taking Nepal on a journey of social justice and prosperity and unity is possible. The people and cadres approved it, almost two-thirds popular votes.
Sometimes leaders play a very big and great role in history, sometimes they even play a big counter-revolutionary role. There are also leaders who lead to regression and counter-revolution. We also saw that in Russia and Eastern Europe. KP Oli played a similar role counter revolutionary role in our country.
Even now, I am in favor of the unity of communist movement and national unity, in favor of further modifying this change which we are achieving.
Is the possibility of unity or working with electoral alliance with UML again?
I do not see the possibility of working unity between UML and us. As long as KP Oli remains or KP Oli does not come to a new conclusion after self-criticism of everything or in plain language I do not see that possibility in the coming election. But this depends on the Congress to some extent.
If the entire Congress party goes like this as PM and president of NC, Sher Bahadur Deuba is trying to take this alliance forward, then there is no need for immediate discussion with UML. Current ruling alliance is to go smoothly. Now, if Oliji breaks the alliance and the Congress gets caught up in saying that we support you, then the situation will be like ‘why don’t you die’.
so we do not ignore contextual circumstances and time many possibilities have to be explored.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्