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| Kathmandu, Saturday February 15, 2003 Falgun 03, 2059. |
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UML’s
lust : For power or survival ?
By VIJAY B KUNWAR
The world communist
movement divided further into Soviet "revi-sionist" block minus Stalinism and
communist block based, and judged on Mao Tse-Tung thought. In the course of time, the
Soviet line was labelled as "Soviet socialist imperialism", with a propaganda
war launched by Beijing and its ideological allies worldwide. With the Cold War between
the world capitalists and the Soviet socialists, and with the growing wave of democratic
pluralism, the Soviet-designed communist regimes underwent an era of de-regimentation, in
some places as indigenous movements while in some countries with the penetration of the
capitalist world headed by the US.
BP Koirala never
accepted repeated proposals made by Pushpa Lal, the chief architect of Nepali communist
movement, for a joint struggle of his party and the NC against the Panchayati regime. But
after the death of both PL and BP, the NC agreed to join ranks and hands with the
communists in the movement for the restoration of democracy (MRD 1990) under the supreme
leadership of NC commander Ganesh Man Singh. The movement known as jana-andolan became
successful with the King lifting the decades-long ban on all political parties. This
achievement marked a new beginning for the communists, based on the "Marxism-Leninism
and Mao Tse-Tung Thought."
By now, one or two
communist parties still following the Soviet model of "revisionist" Khrushev
minus Stalinism, pro-Soviet parties lost their relevance in the Nepali context, which gave
rise to the pro-Mao parties. Gone are the days of the Cold War period and so are the
communists of the Soviet pre-Breznev era and Chinese pre Deng-Tsio Ping era. The communist
party led by Man Mohan Adhikary and the other a consortium of a few, regrouped first as
Coordination Centre and later claiming to be the mainstream communist party as CPN-ML (the
nucleus of Jhapali rebels), merged to be renamed as CPN-UML.
In the post-1990
elections, the UML got the reward of unification with the second largest place in the
House of Representatives. It once enjoyed the formation of a minority government after
emerging as the single largest party after the mid-term polls held in late 1994, thanks to
the inner party bickering of the then ruling NC. With the unethical commissioning and
decommissioning of about half a dozen short lived governments in the hung parliament, the
communists, specifically those the architects as well as vanguards of the
"revolutionary" ML were divided into two; one reverting to the same old name of
CPN-ML and the other remaining officially as CPN-UML. History was repeated. Amid sharp and
antagonistic rivalry, it was the NC that emerged a victor again with a clear majority
while the UML became the second largest party. To the dismay of the high flier dissidents,
the new ML scored a zero in the third general elections held within eight years of
parliamentary practice. Here again, the division of the UML deserves thanks of all
concerned that led to an anti-climax of the communist sceptre that was all set to haunt
over the nation as a full majority parliamentary communist government realized with the
philosophical ideals of "people’s multi-party democracy", a pragmatic
design re- invented by Madan Bhandari.
The Maoists are the
latest breed in the evolutionary process of the revolutionary communist brigade.
Ideologically equipped with the scientific principles of "Marxism-Leninism and
Maoism", the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist is a remake of smaller factions within
the fourth conventionists. Through an electoral exercise and a significant representation
in Parliament constituted in 1991, the United People’s Front (UPF) enjoyed its
outrageous voice against the "platform of the gossiping bourgeoisie". With the
tactical differences ripening within, the UPF again changed its guards; one group still
remaining in the mainstream parliamentary practice, and the other as a continuum of the
breakaway UPF as Maoists calling for the revolutionary overthrow of the semi-feudalistic
and pro-capitalistic state structure dominated by the semi and petit bourgeoisie class as
well as the "reactionary forces".
The Maoists took up
arms and ammunition, initiated attacks and sabotage on the police posts and dismantled the
places of public utilities. Cadres and sympathizers of the NC were the next target of
abduction and annihilation, as most of the times the NC was leading the governments,
though short-sighted and short-lived. After the NC sympathizers deserted their homelands
in the country side, it was the turn of the UML to face the consequences of the
People’s War, who at the initial stage of the Maoist sabotage chose to remain silent
and sometimes cooperative to the jana-karbahi (people’s actions).
After five years of
bloody war and death of around three thousand Nepalese, the Maoists became a party to the
process of peace-talks with the Deuba government. Republicans in the longer run towards
"Socialism", the Maoist agenda was reduced to the interim government and holding
of elections to the Constituent Assembly. After three hectic rounds of talks, the dialogue
failed. As a consequence, the nation lost the precious lives of another five thousand
during the past fifteen months alone.
In the meantime, inner
party squabbles, within the NC rank and file, led to the dissolution of the lower house
for yet another time in its short history, elections scheduled for November 2002. The
Maoist movement scaled to its all time high spirits, spread violently to almost fifty five
of the seventy five districts of the country. Deuba miscalculated his move to postpone the
general elections by another twelve months. The King immediately dismissed the Deuba
government on charges of inefficiency to hold elections as proposed by himself. The lower
house already dissolved, the King nominated a new government, sidelined the mainstream
parties who had had a full swing in the twelve years of multi-party functioning. But even
then the Maoist war went on to acclaim "significant achievements" by killing
more people, irrespective of whether combatants or non-combatants.
A new power equation
has come into existence; one represented by the King with the institutional backing of the
security forces, political parties representing in the dissolved house and the hitherto
minority but lately a major force emerging as the CPN-Maoist. Though not all agree on this
structure of equations, for the Maoists there are these days only two forces; one
represented by the King together with the pro-monarchical parliamentary parties and the
other being the Maoists themselves, who are fighting against all of the existing
reactionary and retrograde forces safeguarding the old regime.
In line with other
mainstream parties, the UML fresh from its Seventh Convention, is caught between the
predicament of the peace process, underway with the announcement of truce between the
warring forces. It has a cut-throat rivalry with the Maoist brigade, which the UML label
" ultra-left extremism". But the UMLs fail to recall their own blood stained
history written at Jyamire’, a small village in the countryside of Jhapa. The
frustrated "Jyamirepanthi" ultra leftist rebels were also very few in numbers
while following the foot trails of Naxalite uprising. But in course of time, the Jhapali
breed assembled in a revolutionary school of thought under the auspices of CPN-ML, its
arch rivalry with the Fourth Conventionists going on, both in ideology and line of action.
The ML emerged as a real force within leftists, and was considered as mainstream of the
communists until the advent of the Maoists.
The Maoists, though
differing sharply with the actions of the then ML, by resorting to violence and bloodbath
have become a strong force in high tidal spirits. Now with the prospects of peace and
normalcy ahead, the Maoists may establish themselves as the mainstream of all communist
movement, inspired and supported by the Revolutionary International Movement (RIM), a
union of international Maoist movement. It is evidenced by the volatile and mostly
controversial statements being issued every other day by the UML big shots who have very
recently spoken in support of the NC demand, reinstatement of the dissolved House; of
course later to form an all-party government and UML leading the peace-talks. This may be
a fresh strategy coined up for its very survival, while the lust for power remains as
usual.
It is the turn of the
UML to experience a heavy dent on the card holding cadres in the countryside, most of whom
already siding with the Maoist people’s militia.
(Concluded)
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