Bhattarai comforts Indian capital, slams his Maoist party

This is a disturbing new interview from Baburam Bhattarai, who is vice chairman of the UCPN(M) and now Prime Minister of Nepal. He takes pains to insure Indian capitalists that their investments will be protected, despite the fact that Nepal has already suffered greatly from Indian economic and cultural expansionism. Unfortunately, he is far less generous to members of the UCPN(M).

 Bhattarai discusses the radical left  within the Maoist party, saying they will be outmaneuvered and marginalized:

“In a communist party, two line struggles are natural and we have successfully managed it so far and we will manage it in the future. I don’t see much obstacle. Even if some leaders and cadre may oppose or some splinter groups may move out, even then it won’t make much impact on the political line followed by the party.”

Bhattarai also claims that the recent decision to hand over the arms of the People’s Liberation Army to a Special Committee was undertaken at his “initiative”. Interestingly, he doesn’t claim that the decision was made through normal party mechanisms. 

The interview originally appeared in The Hindu

‘Nepal won’t jeopardize any genuine Indian interest’

by Prashant Jha

September 3, 2011

In the middle of negotiations over cabinet formation and the future of the Maoist combatants, Nepal’s new Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattaraitook time out for an exclusive interview to The Hindu on Friday afternoon at his office in Singha Durbar, the government secretariat. He spoke about the political challenges, the roadmap to achieve his stated objectives, and relations with India. Excerpts:

You had consistently argued for a consensus government, but are now heading a majority government. Why did efforts at forging a national consensus fail?

I am still for a consensus form of government because according to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the Interim Constitution, we need to take major decision through consensus. The Special Committee responsible for the integration process has to function through consensus and the constitution has to be adopted through a two-thirds majority. So to complete major tasks of peace process and write a new constitution, we need a broad consensus among the major parties. If we have a consensus government, it would facilitate those two processes. That conviction still prevails. But unfortunately, since that could not happen, the second choice was to start with a majoritarian and work for a consensus government. Even though I was elected by a majority, my efforts are directed towards forging consensus. Immediately after my election, I reached out to the Nepali Congress, UML and other parties. I hope it will bear fruit soon.

But how will this consensus come about?

I want the support of the major parties basically for the completion of the peace process, especially integration and rehabilitation of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) cadres. We have already chalked out a time frame of one and a half months. If we reach broad consensus, we can implement it and stick to the one and a half month deadline. By that time, NC and UML will also join the government and this government will take the shape of a national consensus government. That has been my effort.

News Flashes from Nepal’s Power Showdown

[1] Dahal sends PLA commanders to cantonments

KATHMANDU, Sept 3: Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Friday sent all the seven divisional commanders to their cantonments, cutting short their stay in Kathmandu in view of the likely untoward incidents in cantonments in the wake of the row in the party over the key handover issue. The divisional commanders had arrived in the capital for a general staff meeting of the Maoist PLA on Thursday and were supposed to attend a two-day discussion on technical aspects of integration. But the meetings have been cancelled as they had to return to their respective cantonments on Friday.

Nepali Maoists Kiran & Badal oppose turning over Weapons Keys

Kiran

Joint Press Statement by Comrade Kiran and Comrade Badal

“We express our gratitude to the patriotic and revolutionary people of Nepal who demonstrated their solidarity with us by symbolically protesting nationwide in the form of transport halt and torch processions. We also appeal to the distinguished people to carry this act of solidarity to a newer height.”

September 3rd, 2011

Let us oppose the decision of handing over the keys!

Let us implement the decision of dignified army integration!

The abrupt step taken at 5 pm on September 1 to hand over the keys of containers of the weapons in the cantonments to the special committee under the Council of Ministers is against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Interim Constitution and the decisions of the party’s central committee and standing committee. We, therefore, strongly demand that the concerned sectors immediately abrogate this decision.

Badak

So far as the responsibility of concluding the peace process is concerned, we are committed to accomplishing the part of our party’s responsibility. Army integration is an important aspect of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). In connection with accomplishing this responsibility, party central committee and standing committee have adopted the policy of integration of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with weapons and in group even if a mixed structure is to be created and developing this structure as an armed force. The issue concerning its chain of command is also under discussion. The party’s decision is clear that task of integration and regrouping for rehabilitation should be done only after the issue concerning the modality of integration was settled. The handing over the keys of containers of weapons is a step under the concept of disarming the PLA. The ‘Army Integration’ has been clearly incorporated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the Interim Constitution. Both the CPA and the Interim Constitution have not stated anywhere the concept of individual recruitment of the PLA members as civilian citizens by disarming them. The handing over the keys of weapon containers is a process of disarming the PLA members. We can never agree on this issue on ideological ground.

In this connection, the party chairman had put forth the proposal in the meeting of the standing committee held a few days ago regarding the handing over the keys. This proposal had been discussed thoroughly and rejected unanimously by the standing committee meeting as the standing committee reached a conclusion that such a proposal was against the principle and spirit of the Interim Constitution and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. After that an amended proposal was adopted by deleting and removing the words and phrase concerning the handing over the key. But the way the proposal concerning the handing over the keys of weapon containers, which was rejected by the standing committee, was implemented through the special committee under the government has seriously violated the minimum political honesty and morality. Even in the process taking such a step and decision, comrade Chairman had not only consulted with the office bearers of the party but has also not informed general secretary ‘Badal’, who is the in charge of the Security Department of the party. Thus, the decision has been taken in a mysterious way.