Now read a article about power strruggle between Baburam and Prachanda.
The original artical was appeared in todays Kantipur daily.
The link of the blog
http://blog.com.np/united-we-blog/2008/05/19/feud-and-power-struggle-within-the-maoist-party/
Full text is below.
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Who should become the Prime Minister of a Maoist led
government? The answer which depends on whom you ask in the Maoist
party, it appears, has kicked off another round of power struggle
within the former rebel organization.
Oh… the power! It changes people, makes people and breaks people.
Most people that is, and Maoists are included. It appears that there is
a serious power struggle going on within the Maoist party. Baburam
Bhattarai versus supporters of Prachanda, the chairman. Today’s op-ed
article in Kantipur daily by Bishwodeep Pandey, personal secretary of
Baburam Bhattarai, brings the feud to the public. The article, in
Nepali, titled “Baburam a New Pushpalal?” refers to the latest verbal
attacks against Baburam by some “opportunist elements inside and
outside the party.”Click here to read the article in Nepali. Click here to read as it appeared in the newspaper’s page.]
“The public support for leader Bhattarai against whom the party once
took action for vocally raising the slogan of ‘democratic republic’ has
been increasing widely both in and outside the party,” writes Pandey.
“History has proved right today Bhattarai’s stand of ‘democratic
republic’. The slogan he raised has become the common slogan of all
Nepali people, not just the Maoist. He played important role by
standing on the forefront to implement democratic republic.
Unfortunately today the opportunist and regressive elements inside and
outside the party are trying to prove him an opponent of republic
[through their] ill intended and unsuccessful politics in Goebbels’
style from inside the curtain. How seriously has Bhattarai taken this
issue has become the issue of public interest. His well-wishers are
complaining why he is quiet instead of countering it.”
The article talks about “rumors” that are being spread claiming that
Bhattarai wants cultural monarchy, an idea that Bhattarai floated
sometime back when he as asked by reporters about the fate of monarchy
after the Maoist victory.
“Likewise some, knowingly or unknowingly, are trying to launch
ill-publicity saying that Bahuram is in the race for the second
[position] in the party,” says the article.
This appears to be the hint for the challenge posed by Ram Bahadur
Thapa ‘Badal’ who occasionally tries to portray himself as the second
man after Chairman Prachanda in the party undermining Baburam.
The real friction, it is believed, started a couple of weeks back
when the party central committee met to decide about the party’s
participation as the leader of the government to be formed. Since
Baburam lead the parallel government of the Maoist during insurgency
(Revolutionary People’s Council), it was expected that Baburam would be
chosen by the party to lead the government as the Prime Minister. “It
is our declared stand that the first President of a republic Nepal
should be Chairman Prachanda,” he had said at that time. “We haven’t
decided who will be chosen for the Prime Minster.”
In the central meeting, it is learned, a proposal was made on behalf
of Badal saying that be should be the Prime Minister if not Prachanda.
Then to quell the possible feud, Prachanda decided to be the Prime
Minister himself.
Mohan Bikram, a communist leader, had branded Pushpalal, the founder
of the Communist Party of Nepal, “pro-Indian” and “pro-Congress” while
writing a book titled “Traitor Pushpalal”, says the article. “History
has proved that that allegation was wrong. Those who can’t compete
politically try to brand [others] pro-this and pro-that and a broker.”
“The ‘new Mohan Bikrams’ are widely preparing to make leader
Bhattarai a ‘new traitor Pushpalal’. A person should be judged by what
he does or doesn’t rather than by what he says or doesn’t say.”
Talking to BBC’s Nepali Service this evening, senior Maoist leader
Mohan Baidya has angrily reacted to the article saying that the issue
will be raised in the Headquarters.
Since the article is written by a personal assistant to Bhattarai
many might think that it is a planned defensive strategy by Bhattarai.
[Bishwodeep Panday wrote the article at the office of Kantipur, said a
reporter who saw him in Kantipur complex yesterday.]
Last edited: 19-May-08 01:11 PM