Communists mark founding day amidst despair

By Ritu Raj Subedi/Raman Paudel, Kathmandu, Apr. 23: Nepali communist parties, split into numerous factions, marked the 77th founding day of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) in different parts of the country on Wednesday.

Their commemoration events were not filled with joy and hope as the communist movement faced an existential threat in the aftermath of the March 5 general elections. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) routed all old forces, including the CPN-UML and Nepali Communist Party, in the elections. 

The two communist parties jointly secured 45 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives (HoR). This disappointing outcome contrasted with their resounding victory in the three-tier elections held in 2017. They had bagged nearly two-thirds majority in the parliament.

For them, the establishment day has become a moment of reckoning. Frustrated and deflated, the functionaries in all left groups have shown their strong reservations over the leadership blamed for the unanticipated debacles in the historic elections conducted to give a logical outlet to the roaring Gen Z revolt last September.   

In their memorial programmes, the UML and NCP leaders aired a sense of disappointment over their plight and expressed a faint hope to revive the communist movement. Some UML stalwarts who were defeated in the elections admitted past mistakes and pledged to correct them. 

UML general secretary Shankar Pokharel said that their power-centric mentality led to their current predicament. “We must overcome our obsession with power if the party were to be revitalised.” 

Vice chair Bishnu Poudel said that the leadership should make a self-assessment of the situation. He hinted that the leadership must own up to the moral responsibility of the electoral loss.

Once a close confidante of party chair KP Sharma Oli, Poudel has now stood for leadership transfer in the party. The remarks of both leaders alluded to chair Oli, who has refused to step down from the party head despite the colossal drubbing. 

In yet another function, NCP chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda called for unity with the UML. “In this complex time, we must carry out the transformation and reorganisation of the communist movement,” he claimed.

Seventy-seven years ago, the NCP was inaugurated under the leadership of comrade Pushpa Lal to spearhead the struggle against the autocratic Rana rule. The NCP had envisioned an equal and egalitarian society free from all forms of inequalities, exploitations and injustice. 

Nara Bahadur Karmacharya, Niranjan Govinda Baidya, Narayan Vilas Joshi and Moti Devi had supported Pushpa Lal to chart the destiny of Nepalis.

Altogether, six prime ministers came from communist parties but they failed to act in the spirit of their original missions. Factional feud, personality cult, arrogance, rent-seeking attitude and suppression of inner-party democracy have eventually led to their downfall. 

Once the representatives of peasants and workers, the communist leaders themselves evolved into a new class, betraying their own commitment to the masses. They frittered away the huge mandate the people handed to them following the promulgation of the new constitution. In fact, the people trusted them to execute the statute that envisaged a socialism-oriented economy.

Today, the left movement is at a crossroads. The correction is the only way to breathe new life into it.  This is a time for sober reflection. The RSP victory demonstrated that the youths must be in the driving seat of parties as well as the government. Will the communists take their cue from the message of the election and change themselves accordingly?