This is the first time that any senior party leader has officially registered his dissent over the party line.
“Bhattarai today officially put forward his differences over the party line at the Central Committee (CC) meeting in writing,” said Maoist spokesperson Dinanath Sahrma after the meeting on Tuesday. [break]
With the backing of party hardliners led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya, Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had his document endorsed on December 18.
The official party line, prepared after fusing the views of Dahal and Baidya, pins down both India and domestic reactionaries as the “principal enemies” and points out the need for immediately launching a “people´s revolt” to seize state power, with the chances of concluding peace process and constitution drafting getting slimmer by the day due to “Indian interferences”.
“The new party line is like putting feet in two boats,” a CC member quoted Bhattarai as saying during the meeting.
The Maoist vice-chairman, who now leads a minority faction in the party, presented his views point-wise and said he would elaborate on them later. Bhattarai is of the opinion that the party should identify “domestic reactionaries” alone as the principal enemy and genuinely push for the conclusion of the peace process and constitution drafting.
Party leaders said Bhattarai launched lacerating criticism against Dahal and dubbed the current official document as an act of “eclecticism”. The Maoist ideologue accused Dahal of trashing party principles passed by the party´s second national conclave and ditching the document “Evolution of Democracy in the 21st Century”, which are regarded as the “hallmarks” of Maoist movement in Nepal.
In "Evolution of Democracy in the 21st Century", Maoists accept that communist regimes collapsed worldwide largely because they were against political competition and pledge not to commit the same mistakes in Nepal. Also, these past documents state that Joseph Stalin was 70 percent right, but 30 percent wrong for his use of state power to suppress dissent.
According to the CC members, Bhattarai´s document states why the current party line is wrong and outlines the “correct model” of revolution in a country like Nepal sandwiched between two economic giants -- India and China.
In November 2004, Bhattarai had registered a 13-point dissent in the party headquarters over Dahal´s “monopoly in the party and his style of handling it”. But the dissent was in the form of suggestion and not against the party line.
With this new development, the Maoist party will undergo a two-line struggle -- the majority led by Dahal and Baidya and the minority by Bhattarai.
Related story
UML leader Yogesh Bhattarai registers a ‘note of dissent’ over...
