Baidya at Nepal Maoist Plenum: Time is Ripe for Revolt

photo: jed brandt

This article was published by  myrepublica.

We urge readers to remember that these reports on the Maoist Central Committee meeting are, at this point, still coming to us through the bourgeois press — who have their own motives and worldview.  No one should assume that these are accurate. We will post actual texts of the various positions and speeches as soon as they become available in English. Baidya is also known by his nom de guerre, Kiran.

Maoist Plenum – Baidya Threatens Revolt Against Party

Post Bahadur Basnet

Palungstar, Gorkha, Nov. 23: Maoist Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has threatened to revolt against the party if the official party line is not implemented.

“If the  party doesn’t become revolutionary and gets bogged down in revisionism, we will have to raise the red flag for revolution,” a party leader quoted Baidya as saying while presenting his separate political document  in closed session on Monday, the second of the plenum being held in Palungstar, Gorkha district.

Baidya warned that he would not remain in the party if it sides with revisionism.

On Monday, Baidya and Vice-Chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai presented their political documents at the jumbo meeting that kicked off on Sunday.

Baidya was agressive against Chairman Pusha Kamal Dahal for not implementing the official party line of “People’s Federal Democratic Republic” and achieving the goal through a people’s revolt, as decided during the Khariparti national conclave in 2008.

“The time has ripened for a revolt. We can capture state power through the fusion of a People’s War and a people’s revolt,” the source quoted Baidya as saying further while presenting his paper.

He said that he shares  many things with Dahal, but argued that such similarities in ideology alone are not enough. “The party line has not been implemented. Saying one thing in theory and doing quite the opposite in practice doesn’t lead the party anywhere,” he said in his nearly two-hour long paper presentation.

He stated that he was presenting the separate political document  to warn the party leadership against revisionism and to show a red flag to quide the party toward revolutionary goals. He argued that he doesn’t have any intention to snatch the party leadership.

Baidya also severely criticized  Bhattarai for his argument that “domestic feudalism” alone, not India, should be declared the party’s principal enemy. “Both domestic feudalism and India  have joined hands in the present context. So both should be declared the party’s principal enemy,” Baidya argued.

He said that he doesn’t disagree with Bhattarai  that the Maoists should push peace and the constitution, but ruled out the possibility of the country seeing the completion of the peace process and a new constitution due to the “regressive mindset” of other political parties, mainly Nepali Congress (NC).

“Other parties are against formulating a constitution in favor of the people; they are batting strongly  for issues like pluralism in the new constitution. If we agree with them, we will be dragged into revisionism ; we will follow the path of the CPN-UML,” he said.

Ruling out the possibility of achieving People’s Federal Democratic Republic through the ongoing peace process, Baidya has demanded  that the party complete “four types of preparations” — technical, ideological, organizational and political — and launch a people’s revolt.  It may be recalled that the Maoists had completed “four types of preparations prior to declaring People’s War” in 1996.

Similarly, another vice-chairmanm Dr. Baburam Bhattarai,  attacked Dahal saying the latter doesn’t have any ideological line and vacillates between the party lines of the two vice-chairman. “Both Baidya and I are clear about our lines, but the chairman is not. So he should clarify his line,” Bhattarai said, speaking for more than two hours.

He also criticized Dahal for giving the impression in the party that he himself is its headquarters. “Headquarters means collective leadership, not the chairman alone,” Bhattarai said.

Bhattarai pushed strongly for his party line of institutionalizing the political achievements made so far and completing the peace process and constitution drafting before taking another stride toward realizing communist ideological goals.

He also claimed that his line would ultimately prevail in the party. “History has proven that the line floated by me has always been correct,” he stated.

The Maoist vice-chairman also argued that the party cannot fight effectively by declaring both India and “domestic feudalism” as its principal enemy.

He argued that the nature of imperialism and expansionism has changed  in the globalized world. “Imperialism has spread its wings through the international finance system. There is no direct intervention by foreign countries. If any country directly intervenes in Nepal, I will be the first person to go to the battlefield,” Bhattarai stated.

Dahal is scheduled to present his document on Tuesday.  Leaders close to the Baidya and Bhattarai factions said that they would decide  their further move after listening to his synthesized document on the fourth day of the plenum. Party insiders say one of the two vice-chairmen is likely to register a dissenting opinion in the plenum.

The top leaders have agreed to pass a single document accommodating the similar views, let the two vice-chairmen register their dissenting opinions if any, and take up broader ideological disputes at the general conventions.