Communist Movement In Nepal: Towards Parliamentary Politics
By Yuba Nath Lamsal
RECENTLY we have seen two positive developments in the communist movement in Nepal. Firstly, there has been a realization of unification in the communist movement. And the second is the talks between the government and Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) to end six-year old armed insurgency.
Let us first discuss the beginning and developments of Nepalese communist movement and the recent unity efforts. Nepal’s communist movement is the most fragmented one in the world. There are already more than a dozen communist parties in Nepal with different names. Each party is hostile to the other. Despite repeated call and speech of leftist leaders for unity, the communist movement kept on being fragmented. Split is more common than unity in Nepal’s communist movement.
Communist Party of Nepal was formed in 1949 as the youngest communist party in Asia. Late Pushpa Lal Shrestha took the initiative to form the communist party in Nepal and is, thus, regarded as the father of Nepal’s communist movement. The initial objective of the Communist Party of Nepal was to establish democracy in the country by overthrowing the century-old Rana family oligarchy and liberate people from all forms of exploitation and discrimination.
After the advent of democracy in 1951, differing views started surfacing in the communist party. This heightened when late King Mahendra trampled multi-party democracy, dissolved popularly elected parliament, banned all political parties and political activities and imposed partyless Panchayat system in the country. A faction led by Pushpa Lal opposed the Royal takeover and split the already small and yet to be fully organised communist party.
This break away group became the mainstream party as honest and genuine cadres, workers and supporters sided with the revolutionary faction. The other group was isolated from the people and later collapsed. Communist parties kept on disintegrating. Personality cult played bigger role in the split than the ideological differences. Leaders gave ideological colour to their personal differences. It continued until three years ago when CPN-UML, the main opposition party in parliament, split.
Some efforts were made in the past for the unification of communist movement in Nepal. But those efforts hardly materialized. Even if some groups merged into one, their unity lasted only for few months. A major development regarding the unity among communist parties took place in 1989, when seven communist parties formed United Left Front to launch mass movement against Panchayat regime along with the Nepali Congress. The honeymoon among the seven leftist groups ended immediately after the restoration of democracy. However, two largest groups—Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) and Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist)—merged in 1990 to form Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) or CPN-UML. This party emerged as the largest communist party in Nepal and mainstream of Nepal’s communist movement. Communists in Nepal always gave radical slogans—grabbing power through revolution and violence and total transformation of the society. Their slogans of equality, liberty and social justice had a great appeal among poor and downtrodden people, who are in majority in Nepal. Those who gave more radical slogans became stronger and more popular among the poor people.
Nepalese communists took part in the mass movement for the restoration of democracy in 1990. This heralded new chapter in Nepalese politics. It is the first time that Nepalese communists, who believed in violence to capture power, joined electoral politics and democratic mainstream. All leftist groups that were in existence in 1991 took part in general election and won more than 80 seats in 205-member House of Representatives, Lower House of parliament.
Regrouping and reorganization took place in the communist parties in three year’s period following the first general election in 1991. In this period a few leftist groups united and again split. CPN-UML continued to be the largest party. The United People’s Front/Nepal headed by Baburam Bhattarai was the open organization of the radical communists, which had won nine seats in parliament in the first general election. But it also broke into two groups—one headed by Babu Ram Bhattarai and the other by Niranjan Govinda Vaidya (now Lila Mani Pokhrel). The former condemned parliament and boycotted election, while the later continued to take part in the parliamentary process.
By that time Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) was created and announced armed insurgency. Babu Ram Bhattarai-led United People’s Front merged with the Maoist party. Around that time, second general election was held. In the election, CPN-UML emerged single largest party in parliament winning 88 seats. Maoist party boycotted the election and position of other communist groups in parliament was reduced to nominal.
CPN-UML formed minority government but lasted only nine months followed by Nepali-Congress-RPP-NSP coalition government. In the four years of hung parliament following the second general election, the country witnessed ugly scenes in national politics. All major political forces in parliament including CPN-UML applied every means and methods to grab power and retain it. It was the ugly period in the 12 years’ history of Nepal’s parliamentary system.
At the same time, CPN-UML was divided. A faction led by Bam Dev Gautam broke away from the mother party citing ideological differences and formed CPN-ML, although power struggle was the key factor. The breakaway faction gave nationalist and radical slogans in order to attract diehard cadres and patriotic forces. But it failed miserably in the third general election, as it could not bag even a single seat in parliament. In the history of Nepalese communist movement, the break away faction always became the mainstream as it gave radical and revolutionary programmes. CPN-ML is the only exception as despite giving radical slogans it failed to have appeal on general mass.
Maoist insurgency continued to grow. Its popular slogans had an appeal among the poverty-stricken population of the country on the one hand, while misgovernance, failure to deliver goods on the part of government and political instability gave rise to Maoist insurgency on the other. It is the product of several other social, political, economic and cultural problems.
Now leftist parties are talking unity and a united front. Even Maoists seem to be interested in the united communist movement. The recent meeting of leaders of different communist parties including comrade Prachanda of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in Siligurhi of India is an indication that Maoists are eager to join the parliamentary process. The history of communist movement in Nepal has shown that communist party begins with extremism and ends with revisionism. All communist parties in Nepal were born with radical slogans and programmes but, with the passage of time, they slowly deviated from their initial revolutionary stance and came to parliamentary fold. An example of this is CPN-UML. It started with the revolutionary spirit influenced by Charu Mazumdar’s Naxalite movement of India. But later it realised serious flaws in it and switched into the parliamentary approach.
Similarly, Maoists have now started the process of dialogue with the government to end the insurgency. It is a road towards parliamentary politics. It may not be a surprise that one fine morning Maoists may abandon the armed revolution and join peaceful parliamentary politics because history repeats and they want to be another example.
RECENTLY we have seen two positive developments in the communist movement in Nepal. Firstly, there has been a realization of unification in the communist movement. And the second is the talks between the government and Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) to end six-year old armed insurgency.
Let us first discuss the beginning and developments of Nepalese communist movement and the recent unity efforts. Nepal’s communist movement is the most fragmented one in the world. There are already more than a dozen communist parties in Nepal with different names. Each party is hostile to the other. Despite repeated call and speech of leftist leaders for unity, the communist movement kept on being fragmented. Split is more common than unity in Nepal’s communist movement.
Communist Party of Nepal was formed in 1949 as the youngest communist party in Asia. Late Pushpa Lal Shrestha took the initiative to form the communist party in Nepal and is, thus, regarded as the father of Nepal’s communist movement. The initial objective of the Communist Party of Nepal was to establish democracy in the country by overthrowing the century-old Rana family oligarchy and liberate people from all forms of exploitation and discrimination.
After the advent of democracy in 1951, differing views started surfacing in the communist party. This heightened when late King Mahendra trampled multi-party democracy, dissolved popularly elected parliament, banned all political parties and political activities and imposed partyless Panchayat system in the country. A faction led by Pushpa Lal opposed the Royal takeover and split the already small and yet to be fully organised communist party.
This break away group became the mainstream party as honest and genuine cadres, workers and supporters sided with the revolutionary faction. The other group was isolated from the people and later collapsed. Communist parties kept on disintegrating. Personality cult played bigger role in the split than the ideological differences. Leaders gave ideological colour to their personal differences. It continued until three years ago when CPN-UML, the main opposition party in parliament, split.
Some efforts were made in the past for the unification of communist movement in Nepal. But those efforts hardly materialized. Even if some groups merged into one, their unity lasted only for few months. A major development regarding the unity among communist parties took place in 1989, when seven communist parties formed United Left Front to launch mass movement against Panchayat regime along with the Nepali Congress. The honeymoon among the seven leftist groups ended immediately after the restoration of democracy. However, two largest groups—Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) and Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist)—merged in 1990 to form Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) or CPN-UML. This party emerged as the largest communist party in Nepal and mainstream of Nepal’s communist movement. Communists in Nepal always gave radical slogans—grabbing power through revolution and violence and total transformation of the society. Their slogans of equality, liberty and social justice had a great appeal among poor and downtrodden people, who are in majority in Nepal. Those who gave more radical slogans became stronger and more popular among the poor people.
Nepalese communists took part in the mass movement for the restoration of democracy in 1990. This heralded new chapter in Nepalese politics. It is the first time that Nepalese communists, who believed in violence to capture power, joined electoral politics and democratic mainstream. All leftist groups that were in existence in 1991 took part in general election and won more than 80 seats in 205-member House of Representatives, Lower House of parliament.
Regrouping and reorganization took place in the communist parties in three year’s period following the first general election in 1991. In this period a few leftist groups united and again split. CPN-UML continued to be the largest party. The United People’s Front/Nepal headed by Baburam Bhattarai was the open organization of the radical communists, which had won nine seats in parliament in the first general election. But it also broke into two groups—one headed by Babu Ram Bhattarai and the other by Niranjan Govinda Vaidya (now Lila Mani Pokhrel). The former condemned parliament and boycotted election, while the later continued to take part in the parliamentary process.
By that time Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) was created and announced armed insurgency. Babu Ram Bhattarai-led United People’s Front merged with the Maoist party. Around that time, second general election was held. In the election, CPN-UML emerged single largest party in parliament winning 88 seats. Maoist party boycotted the election and position of other communist groups in parliament was reduced to nominal.
CPN-UML formed minority government but lasted only nine months followed by Nepali-Congress-RPP-NSP coalition government. In the four years of hung parliament following the second general election, the country witnessed ugly scenes in national politics. All major political forces in parliament including CPN-UML applied every means and methods to grab power and retain it. It was the ugly period in the 12 years’ history of Nepal’s parliamentary system.
At the same time, CPN-UML was divided. A faction led by Bam Dev Gautam broke away from the mother party citing ideological differences and formed CPN-ML, although power struggle was the key factor. The breakaway faction gave nationalist and radical slogans in order to attract diehard cadres and patriotic forces. But it failed miserably in the third general election, as it could not bag even a single seat in parliament. In the history of Nepalese communist movement, the break away faction always became the mainstream as it gave radical and revolutionary programmes. CPN-ML is the only exception as despite giving radical slogans it failed to have appeal on general mass.
Maoist insurgency continued to grow. Its popular slogans had an appeal among the poverty-stricken population of the country on the one hand, while misgovernance, failure to deliver goods on the part of government and political instability gave rise to Maoist insurgency on the other. It is the product of several other social, political, economic and cultural problems.
Now leftist parties are talking unity and a united front. Even Maoists seem to be interested in the united communist movement. The recent meeting of leaders of different communist parties including comrade Prachanda of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in Siligurhi of India is an indication that Maoists are eager to join the parliamentary process. The history of communist movement in Nepal has shown that communist party begins with extremism and ends with revisionism. All communist parties in Nepal were born with radical slogans and programmes but, with the passage of time, they slowly deviated from their initial revolutionary stance and came to parliamentary fold. An example of this is CPN-UML. It started with the revolutionary spirit influenced by Charu Mazumdar’s Naxalite movement of India. But later it realised serious flaws in it and switched into the parliamentary approach.
Similarly, Maoists have now started the process of dialogue with the government to end the insurgency. It is a road towards parliamentary politics. It may not be a surprise that one fine morning Maoists may abandon the armed revolution and join peaceful parliamentary politics because history repeats and they want to be another example.
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