http://www.telegraphnepal.com/opinion/2012-11-28/nepal:-i-could-not-even-shed-tears-when-my-dad-prachanda-was-slapped.html
Nepal: I could not even shed tears when my dad Prachanda was slapped
TQ1: Is it that you Mt. Prakash Dahal have abandoned the public life for your private one?
Prakash Dahal: No! It is not that way. I, for one, believe that no one can attain success unless he remains happy with his private life. It is a wrong notion to claim that the public figures or for that matter a top class political leader doesn’t or shouldn’t have a private life. All human beings have their personal lives. The difference is that those key personalities remain more responsible towards the society and the nation at large. To err is human and thus to flee from the society tantamount to yet another mistake. In fact it would be fitting to go in for self criticism and draw a lesson from the previous mistake(s). I think this is the best option and talking as of me, I am too on the same path. I don’t think that I have detached myself from my public life for the sake of personal one.
TQ2: People are ridiculing you as regards your conjugal life but we suppose that you may have your own reasons to forward. Is that so?
Prakash Dahal: I think that the Nepali society still remains in a highly conservative state and these conservatives are in a domineering position. As I stated earlier, it appears that some ups and downs have embraced my personal life. In Nepal, such ups and downs in my personal life have been ballooned up in an unusual manner and some have also criticized it in a very brutal way. Moreover, they have talked so many things against me.
I feel pained when I read and learn these negative criticisms made purposefully against me and mind it that such dissemination affects my personal life as well. Similar events may grip others also time permitting. I just want to tell you in this regard that the things that have happened were not guided by any designed motives. Yet these were the things that are associated with my personal life which solely belongs to me and me only. Those who wish to pounce upon the Maoists more so to its Chairman have made this issue an topic of debate. It is this preference of some who have been blowing up the issue with all their capabilities. Nothing more than that.
TQ3: Tell me why you left Shrijana summarily with whom you have had an arranged marriage? We have been told so. What say you?
Prakash Dahal: Yes! It was an arranged marriage. My mom and maternal uncle had preferred her for me. Though I married Srijana, yet we could not make it a happy conjugal life. May be I too have made some mistakes and Srijana too may have made some lapses from her side. As far as my quitting from the house is concerned, I must admit that I did so under the spell of high tension. And here is how I made a blunder. The procedure was incorrect. Though Srijana too had been demanding to divorce her as it was her wish, but I should have awaited a while but that did not happen. I lost my patience and thus the blunder.
TQ4: So how Ms. Bina Magar could become so close to you and that too all of a sudden? What was the compulsion that you took an instant decision? What could have been the prime reason?
Prakash Dahal: When the ascent to Mount Everest was accomplished, some friends in the team began talking of the forty lakhs that had to be submitted. Even while climbing the Everest, some friends used to criticize the party leadership in a filthy manner to which I used to protest and offer my own explanations with logic. Could have been this reason that a design was made instantly on how to pounce upon Prakash Dahal. When we were in the Base Camp, people used to pour honor and respect for me being the son of Comrade Prachanda. But their contention was that they being CCM and PLA commanders they were being ignored by the people. They perhaps demanded good treatment from the people to which was not made available to them. Perhaps it could have been this inner pain that they began framing a plot against me to malign my credentials. They thus leaked the false events to a Weekly. They could not understand the fact that how much damage the report sent to the weekly could have finally? Had they thought of this and loved their own party’s boss instead of leaking the events to the media that would have been much better. It was this report published in the particular weekly that my wife Srijana instantly took an oath of her father and declared that “I will never come here again and that we have now no relations at all”. When she vowed that she would not come then I landed in trouble. Ms. Bina too had more or less similar problems that she had been facing. These events in effect brought me and Bina Ji closer.
TQ5: Where are you at the moment and what have you been doing now?
Prakash Dahal: I am at the moment in Indian Territory and have also bought some books. Most of the time I am reading those books. I have the Internet facility which awards me with the opportunity to mingle with the newspapers and the face book network. Yes! Thus I have been passing my days.
TQ6: So what you have thought of your future? What are your plans?
Prakash Dahal: I cannot keep myself detached from politics. I can’t even imagine of quitting politics.
TQ7: You were brought up in a political family. Now all of a sudden you have been out from the political atmosphere in which you grew up, so how you feel at times?
Prakash Dahal: Outwardly, I feel that I am out from the atmosphere to which you talked about. Some people used to say that Prakash could do nothing but yet I worked. I gained experience of those matters of which neither I have had the knowledge of its tail nor of the head previously or say at the start. Yet though it may look like that I am out of politics but I tell you frankly that each and every second I am thinking of politics. It is a round the clock phenomenon. Politics is in my body and soul. I don’t feel like being out of politics. I generally read books dealing with political matters and also studying other relevant books. I don’t feel that I am out of politics.
TQ8: When you will return to Nepal expectedly?
Prakash Dahal: Every event has a time to happen. In these times, I have gained much experience and collected knowledge. Possibly I will return to Nepal shortly.
TQ9: Tell us who do you love most?
Prakash Dahal: Since I am the member of Maoists party so naturally my love goes foremost to my party and it’s Chairman. Since I am also the son of some then it is only but natural that I love my parents.
TQ10: Yet whom do you respect and honor most?
Prakash Dahal: I respect my elders. Moreover, our party’s Chairman is my ideal. So he is the most respected and honored one for me.
TQ11: Are you in contact with your family members?
Prakash Dahal: Mother remains a mother even you commit blunders in series. Definitely I am connected with my mom.
TQ12: What is life then in itself? Your own experience?
Prakash Dahal: As I stated earlier, Life is a struggle. It is a nice and fine road wherein you come across with several curves.
TQ13: This year was very bad for your party. The party split and the single son of the Dahal family left the house and more so someone slapped your father, Prachanda, at a public place. What is happening in your family?
Prakash Dahal: My father tried his best to save the party from split but it eventually got split. But more painful was the allegations made against my father by those who left the party for good. It pains me when I recall that the allegations have been made on such a person who worked ever for the nation and its people. Now one can’t weep if some nasty members left the party for having denied their demanded share. Though it may appear to many that I have left my father but take it as my fresh promise that I will serve Comrade Prachanda forever. More so what ever happened on my father November 16, 2012, has pained me a lot. I am just weeping. I am feeling excessive pain inside my heart. I could not even get an opportunity to shed my tears being in his front. I have not been able to fight with those conspirators who staged this event that day. I was all along with my father during the entire period of People’s War and at this time I am sad that I am not with him to share his pains. People will soon come to understand as to which force drafted this plan and staged this sad event. I hope that when the conspirators will be exposed the people will act accordingly. This is what I presume.
Text courtesy (Excerpts only): The Ghatana Ra Bichar Weekly dated November 21, 2012. Thanks Ms. Babita Basnet and the Weekly team: Chief Ed.
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