Pradipna Raj Panta

With the split in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), its leaders and cadres face difficult moment to side with one of two factions, led by Prime Minister and chairman KP Sharma Oli and another chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda. And almost every day, we tune in their speeches in which both the leaders try to clarify their positions on various issues. Common people and their rank and file are befuddled as to whose arguments are correct and whose not.

Ideology
Class and ideological characterisation of the NCP shows the operation of two or more competing ideologies within it. Former CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre got merged to create the biggest left force in the country. The former UML had adopted Janatako Bahudaliya Janabaad (People’s Multiparty Democracy) while the former Maoists had practised 21st Century Democracy.
The unified party agreed on people’s democracy as its guiding principle until a unity convention comes up with a coherent ideology. But three years have passed since they started working together and they don’t have any significant agenda or defined principles of change. This seems their unification aimed only at defeating the Nepali Congress. In the absence of coherent economic and social policy, the nation failed to see significant gains in the field of education, job creation and huge development projects.
The split of NCP is not a new phenomenon. Nepali communist parties have profound ideological crisis from the very beginning. They split over the minor ideological differences. But there is a line in “The Communist Manifesto” that, “the communists do not form a separate party opposed to other working class parties” but communist parties are not following this though in letter and spirit. There are many communist parties even today in Nepal and most of these parties don’t have any meaningful participation in electoral process. The Biplav-led communist party has adopted the path of armed struggle. So far, NCP has split more than 46 times since its inception in 2006 BS.
At the time of formation of NCP three years ago, leaders duo Oli and Dahal started out as close friends but now they turned bitter enemies. Their speeches undermine each other. The spoken words by our leaders are echoed by media commentators, in political discussion in friends and family, even in small tea stalls. Overheated self-importance with the defamation of differing viewpoints has become a cultural norm for talking about current political topics. Prachanda-Nepal group expelled Bishnu Poudel as general secretary of the party and demanded clarification from Oli. The actions and counter-actions have weakened the communist movement and frustrated the cadres.
With the NCP split, Nepali citizens have become skeptical of the government’s ability to institutionalise new federal political system. Some presume that the deposed king will come back to power. The results of the 2018 general election were anticipated by many. One of the anticipated consequences of communist victory nearly with two-thirds majority is that the communists will be eager to pursue the drastic agenda. In their joint poll manifesto, the two parties had promised to ensure good governance, strong nationalism and socio-economic transformation.
The people had expected that the nation will take the robust path of industrialisation and job creation. The NCP-led government was expected to give momentum to the socio-economic activities but its division has hurt such prospect, threatening the stability of the nation. They had historic opportunity to bring the nation on the path of stability, prosperity and happiness.

Incredible
The past year has also seen incredible changes in other area of Nepali politics. Now it is clear that only mind in election, two big communist parties merged. Undoubtedly, this has greatly helped the communist in the election, which has struck to its position of communist with majority in the parliament in Nepali politics since it was founded in 2006 BS. But such coalition only in the times of election may not work in the days to come. So its supporters need to be galvanised by political ideology. Once Marx said, “workers of the world, unite!” But to prevent the communist movement from damage in Nepal, they can follow this line of idea: “Communist leaders in Nepal, unite.”

(Panta is a contributor to The Rising Nepal)