Maoist meeting

The Maoist party has concluded a month-long marathon meeting of its powerful party bodies – politburo and central committee. We congratulate the party for holding such an extensive democratic exercise (something that is missing in other parties) on key issues affecting the party and the society. But we have some concern about some of the decisions taken by the party.



The party has decided to immediately form ethnic and regional autonomous states. It’s not unclear why the party has decided to push for such a sensitive issue unilaterally, nor has the Maoist’s intention behind it been satisfactorily explained. There is already an agreement on federalizing this country but there is hardly an agreement on how to federalize it and how many states should be there in federal Nepal. Different parties have different views on it and over a dozen federal models have been floated from different quarters. To reconcile these proposals and to come up with the best model that suits our country is the responsibility of the Constituent Assembly (CA). Maoist proposal to form ethnic and regional autonomous states undermines the CA and democratic principles. Maoist party has proposed for 15 such states and maybe it wants to declare as many autonomous states. But that will only invite clash with other political parties and has the potential to derail the peace process. What if some parties or some groups also declare their own autonomous states?



If it’s just a tactic to energize its ethnic bodies to put pressure on the current government through a mass movement for its resignation, thus paving a way for the formation of a national government led by the Maoists, it’s a move that is completely wrong. Writing the constitution is the sole jurisdiction of the CA since it is the only body entrusted by the sovereign people to do so. The future model of the federation cannot be decided from outside the CA. Similarly, it’s only the parliament that can pull down the current government or form a new one. Trying to do so from outside the parliament would be unconstitutional and unacceptable.



Maoist party chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has threatened to launch Janaandolan-III if the government failed to find a solution on the issue of “civilian supremacy” raised by his party. And Maoist leaders have been openly telling that such a movement would not stop until the formation of a national government led by the Maoists. We caution the Maoists that wasting time on a prolonged protest at a time when they are supposed to be writing the constitution could be counterproductive to the party. It would be in the best interest of the Maoist party to try to take credit for writing the constitution on time rather than being blamed for derailing the process altogether.

Related story

Maoist Center’s Lumbini PP meeting to discuss exiting from govt