Pushpa Lal: Nepal’s Communist Founder

This year, Nepali communist parties are observing the birth centenary of Pushpa Lal Shrestha (1924–1978), the founding general secretary of Nepal Communist Party (NCP). Although the NCP that he established 75 years ago in the Indian city of Calcutta with the support of four other persons has been divided into more than a dozen groups, Pushpa Lal (PL) has been the most revered and iconic figure for all of them. He had decided to establish the NCP after he concluded that Nepali Congress could not bring about socio-economic transformation in the country. Its primary objectives were to end the autocratic Rana rule, feudalism, imperialism and usher the nation in democracy and economic equality through peaceful struggles. 

But while alive or being active for the cause of emancipation of oppressed people, Pushpa Lal faced severe hardships, isolation and humiliation from his own comrades. What is more mysterious was his removal from the position of general secretary of the party just two years after its launch. In 1951, the NCP held its first conference in Calcutta and re-elected Pushpa Lal to the post of general secretary. But in the same year, the party’s political committee unceremoniously ousted him from the top post without any plausible reasons. The committee comprised Pushpa Lal, Man Mohan Adhikari, Tulsi Lal Amatya, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya, Shambhu Ram Shrestha, Kedar Khanal, DP Adhikari, Dhanush Chandra Gautam and Bijaya Kumar Dada. 

Late Man Mohan Adhikari had seemingly orchestrated a coup against Pushpa Lal and kicked him out of the top position on the backing of majority of central committee members, sowing the seed of division in the nascent party. Pushpa Lal has not mentioned this episode in any documents. Neither did he vent ire against the factional clique that dethroned him. “PL never raised this issue with us when we attended scores of his theoretical classes and interactions,” recalls Lok Narayan Subedi, chairman of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) that claims to carry the ideological and political legacy of late Pushpa Lal. 

Inferiority complex

It has been widely surmised that two factors were behind PL’s embarrassing demotion. First was his education. He had completed only School Leaving Certificate (SLC). Most of the leaders on upper rung of the party possessed higher academic degree compared to PL. Adhikari himself did B.Sc. in Chemistry. They might have felt inferiority complex to remain under PL. Second reason may be his ethnic background. There was dissatisfaction among the leaders that the founding members of the party were all from Newar community and persons from other ethnic background were excluded. On 24 April 1949, Pushpa Lal had formed an organising committee as part of preparation to establish the NCP. With PL as secretary, the committee consisted of Nar Bahadur Karmacharya, Narayan Bilas Joshi, Niranjan Govinda Baidhya and Moti Devi Shrestha – all became the party founding members. He also wrote a comprehensive manifesto that offered a Marxist analysis of Nepali society. One year earlier, he had translated historic Communist Manifesto into Nepali language. On September 15, 1949, he proclaimed the formation of NCP, its central committee and manifesto ‘Communist Pachhik Prachar Patra’. However, founding members except Pushpa Lal were not included in the central committee. 

Unfortunately, the NCP was riven by irreconcilable disputes pertaining to the party’s establishment day, leadership and ideology from the outset. Till the party’s third convention that was held in Banaras in April 1962, all leaders were unanimous that NCP was formally established on September 15, 1949 but later this date was contested and some communist parties began to mark the foundation day on April 22, 1949, coinciding with the birthday of Lenin and the first meeting of five founding members. But this date was misleading because they held their first meeting at Shyam Bazaar of Calcutta on April 24, not April 22. Several historical documents substantiated this date. In its first convention held secretly in Patan, Lalitpur in 1954, the party decided to replace monarchism with republican system, but it elected Man Mohan Adhikari as its general secretary, who favoured constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system. Thirteen years after its establishment, the party split following the third convention amidst the changing political scenario in the country.

Pushpa Lal, who stuck to the line of republicanism and fought against ‘revisionism’ tooth and nail in the party became the target of ultra-rightist, ultra-leftist and royalist forces. In its political document issued by its first convention held from December 26, 1978 to January 1, 1979, the CPN-Marxist-Leninist (ML), predecessor of present ruling UML, had accused Pushpa Lal of being an agent of India, appendage of Nepali Congress and Khrushchev’s nurtured son. It even discredited the NCP stating that it was established by falling into a conspiracy of international revisionism. Mohan Bikram Singh even wrote a book Gaddar Pushpa Lal (traitor Pushpa Lal). But subsequent political events contradicted all these scandalous accusations levelled against PL. Pushpa Lal’s far-sighted policy of joint-struggle against party-less Panchayat proved correct as it was overthrown only after democratic and communist forces joined hands to launch pro-democracy movements in 1990 and 2006.

Peasant movements 

The NCP was banned in 1952 for opposing the tripartite Delhi Agreement. In 1956, the ban was lifted after the NCP accepted constitutional monarchy. Pushpa Lal was credited to have saved the party during this tough period through a series of peasant movements. He guided campaigns such as tamasuk chyat (tearing of bonds), bhakari for aandolan (agitations for smashing grain store) and Ji kaho (address the people of low economic status with honorific terms). These movements were instrumental behind birta unmulan (abolition of the holding of gifted land) spearheaded by BP Koirala-led government in 1959 and king Mahendra's land reform programme.

Despite being defeated to Adhikari in the post of general secretary in its first convention, Pushpa Lal continued to abide by the party’s decisions and fulfilled assigned tasks responsibly. Prior to going to China for his medical treatment, Adhikari asked Pushpa Lal to become the party’s acting general secretary but he rejected the request on the moral ground. Then, the responsibility was passed to Dr. Keshar Jung Raymajhi, who allegedly handed over the party to the royal palace. Would Nepali communist movement have moved towards right directions and remained unified if Pushpa Lal had taken the helm? It is just a hypothetical view. All, those who had derided Pushpa Lal, repented later for their injustice meted out to him. Raymajhi earned notoriety for disbanding the communist movement but he praised Pushpa Lal – ‘he is the chief communist among us.’ No doubt, Pushpa Lal was a towering figure in Nepali communist movement but the big left forces must stop using his name to meet their parochial and vested interest.

(The author is Deputy Executive Editor of this daily.)