Married at 13, mother at 14

Maoists gears up for integration

KIRAN PUN
KATHMANDU, June 27: With the Nepal Army set to start the integration process from next Sunday, the former People´s Liberation Army (PLA) has also geared up for the much-awaited integration of its members into the Nepal Army (NA).

According sources, the former Maoist army has started preparing a list of combatants to be recommended for senior ranks in the national army. PLA´ s former chief Nanda Kishor Pun himself is leading the homework and has prepared the list to be submitted to the general staff of the PLA.

Pun has proposed the name of division commander Yam Bahadur Adhikari for the post of colonel, the single highest post to be given to the Maoist combatants, sources told Republica. Also known as Pratiksha in the PLA, 39-year old Adhikari was recently the division commander of the First Division of the PLA stationed at Chulachuli. Ilam.

20-odd chiefs of sister wings join Baidya's party

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, June 21: With only one-third of the UCPN (Maoist) central committee members joining the newly-formed CPN-Maoist led by Mohan Baidya, one would have speculated that only a few lower rung leaders would follow suit. But, this has been proven wrong. Almost all the chiefs of around three dozen sister wings -- considered the backbone of the mother party -- of the UCPN (Maoist) have joined the new party. They had sided with Baidya ever since the beginning of the rift in the UCPN (Maoist). This has left only around a dozen chiefs of sister wings in the mother party. "The sister wings represented suppressed communities that the Baidya faction has always stood for while Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said that he had dug his own grave by forming ethnic fronts in the party. So it is natural for the chiefs of sister wings to spurn Dahal," said Santosh Budha Magar, chief of the Magar National Liberation Front.

'People's revolt' not an immediate possibility: Baidya

UCPN (Maoist) splits

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, June 19: The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) no longer remains unified as of Monday, as the dissident faction led by its Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has formed a new party called Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist. The announcement of the split from the UCPN(Maoist) and formation of the new outfit came at the end of the three-day national gathering of Baidya followers in Kathmandu on Monday. The gathering has declared Baidya as chairman of the new party, with Ram Bahadur Thapa as general secretary, CP Gajurel as secretary and Netra Bikram Chand and Dev Gurung as politburo members. Thapa and Gajurel held the same positions in the mother party. The gathering also formed a five-member Standing Committee comprising these five leaders.

Baidya faction proposes collective leadership

KIRAN PUN
KATHMANDU, June 18: The dissident faction of the UCPN (Maoist) led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has proposed that the organizational structure of their party be based on collective leadership.
Presenting the party´s statute in the conclave that began from Saturday, party leader Dev Gurung proposed that the new party be headed by chairman with vice chairman, general secretary and secretary as other office bearers of the party.
As per the proposed statute, the party would have a standing committee, politburo, central committee (CC) and advisory committee in the party´s organization. The advisory committee and politburo will comprise one-third of the central committee members while the standing committee will have one-third of the politburo members.

Baidya or Thapa likely as chief of new party

 
KIRAN PUN
KATHMANDU, June 17: As the national gathering of the UCPN (Maoist) dissident faction kick-started at Baudha, Kathmandu on Saturday, top leaders from the faction were already starting discussions for electing the chief of the new party that may emerge from the gathering.

Those privy to the development said the leaders are mulling two options for electing a new leadership. "If we adopt the policy that "the person that guides the party according to his/her ideology deserves the leadership as well", we will most likely elect Mohan Baidya as party chairman. Or we may elect Ram Bahadur Thapa as party chief if leaders go for power sharing in the top position," said the leader, preferring anonymity. Either way, it will be a collective leadership. At present, Baidya is senior vice-chairman of the UCPN (Maoist) and Thapa is general secretary.

Baidya proposes revolt as line of new party

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, June 16: The Central Committee meeting of the dissident faction of the UCPN(Maoist) led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has endorsed a political document that proposes revolt as its main political line and terms the acceptance of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement one of the major mistakes. The 17-page document prepared by Baidya will be presented at the national gathering of leaders and supporters of the faction starting from Saturday in Kathmandu. “The objective circumstances are favorable for revolution but we should create the subjective circumstances for revolution,” the document reads. Before presenting the paper at the central committee meeting of the faction, Baidya told the meeting that the document is going to be the document of a new party. "We tried to rectify the party since the Kharipati meeting till the Central Committee meeting in the wake of the Palungtar Plenum but we were betrayed. This time we are not going to compromise," a leader quoted Baidya as saying at the meeting. The faction has concluded in its document that national and international circumstances are also conducive for revolution. His argument is that the "capitalist" parties like Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML are in crisis and there is no possibility of revival of "old forces" like the monarchy. Likewise, it has concluded that the "capitalist and imperialist" countries are also in crisis. In the document, Baidya has labeled Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai as the main obstacles to an immediate people´s revolt. “The [national and international] situation is favorable for revolution but there is no possibility of an immediate revolution because of Dahal and Bhattarai who deviated from the revolutionary line,” the document further states. “Now, we should struggle against the rightist revisionists and capitalists, bureaucrats and compradors.” In the document, Baidya has stated that it was a mistake to follow Prachanda Path and termed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) a betrayal to the people, country and the revolution. Similarly, the Chunbang meeting of the party, which adopted the line of democratic republic, took the party toward a rightist revisionist line. He has further stated in the document that the 12-point agreement signed in 2005 and which paved the way for the April movement of 2006, was a first attempt to abandon the Maoist revolution. This agreement rendered the party closer to the capitalist political parties than to leftist parties, according to Baidya´s document. At the meeting, Standing Committee member Dev Gurung is going to present the new party´s statute. As per the statute the national gathering will decide the name of the party. The statute has proposed two names -- Revolutionary Communist Party Maoist or the Nepal Communist Party-Maoist (Revolutionary).

Dahal-Baidya talks founder

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, June 13: The talks between the rival factions of the UCPN (Maoist) on Tuesday ended inconclusively after both the factions refused to budge from their stances on a host of issues that have divided them since last August. Yet the factions --one led by party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and another led by Senior Vice chairman Mohan Baidya – have agreed to sit again for talks on Wednesday in their last bid to prevent party split. At the meeting held the Baidya’s residence in Baniyatar in the outskirts of Kathmandu, Dahal had proposed to put off the national plenum called by his faction for June 29 and the national gathering called by Baidya faction for June 15. But Baidya refused to call off the national gathering.

Baidya faction holds Dahal, PM responsible for CA dissolution

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, June 15: At a time when UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai have blamed the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-UML for the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly (CA), the dissident Maoist faction led by the party´s Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has held the party leadership chiefly responsible for CA dissolution. The Baidya faction accused Dahal, who headed the dispute resolution subcommittee, of revoking the decisions made in the CA thematic committees instead of taking initiatives to frame a “pro-people” constitution.

No unity without course correction of leadership

Baidya rejects Dahal's unity proposal

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, June 14: The Maoist Baidya faction has rejected a written unity offer from the Dahal faction and vowed to proceed with its national gathering scheduled for Friday. Dahal had sent Mohan Baidya a seven-point written proposal for party unity on Wednesday morning but the dissident faction termed the proposal a ´farce´, concluding that the proposal was "propaganda" and "conspiracy". With this development, chances of unity in the party are slimmer, leaders said. "Dahal´s proposal is his third farce. His first farce disrupted the peace process by surrendering the PLA while in his second farce dissolved the Constituent Assembly without promulgating a new constitution. This third farce is to break up the party," said Kul Prasad KC, politburo member close to Baidya.

Baidya turns down Dahal's talks offer

KIRAN PUN
KATHMANDU, June 11: UCPN (Maoist) Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has refused meet Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, arguing there was no point in holding further talks with the party supremo.

Baidya had refused Dahal´s phone request for a meeting on Friday saying he would not sit for talks unless Dahal commits to meet three preconditions. Baidya also said past meeting between the two had not yielded any results.

"We are ready for discussion. But since the chairman has already lost all his credibility, there is no need to hold further discussion. Dahal and his faction has been sowing the seeds of division while talking about party unity," Baidya told Republica over phone.

Dahal tries to lure Baidya's CC members

KIRAN PUN
KATHMANDU, June 10: With the aim of foiling the proposed gathering of Baidya faction, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has started holding secret meetings with party central committee members close to the Baidya faction and those who have not officially sided with either of the factions.

Knowledgeable sources who have attended at least one such meeting told Republica that Dahal´s immediate strategy is to persuade the young and influential central committee members into distancing themselves from the conclave scheduled for June 15 in Kathmandu.

Will the Maoist party split at last?

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, June 6: The name of the country´s largest political party is Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), but it might not remain ´unified´ for very much longer, going by recent developments. The history of the UCPN(Maoist) is full of intra-party feuding. But despite all internal tensions at different times, the party has averted a split in the past. However, with rift continuing to dog the country´s largest party, the question now is whether it could again avoid a possible split. The rift this time is not limited to the party´s Central Committee as in the past, but has reached down to the party´s lowest organizational structure - the cell committees.

Dahal faction calls plenum, Baidya national gathering

Blame Dahal for CA failure: Baidya

KIRAN PUN
KATHMANDU, May 30: The UCPN (Maoist) faction led by Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has held top leaders of the major political parties, including Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, responsible for the failure to draft the new constitution.

At the meeting of former lawmakers close to the Baidya faction in Kupondol on Tuesday, former chief whip of the Maoist party Dev Gurung had presented an analysis of how the Constituent Assembly failed to draft the new constitution.

The meeting held Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, Sushil Koirala, Ram Chandra Paudel and Sher Bahadur Deuba from the Nepali Congress and Jhalanath Khanal, Madhav Nepal and KP Oli from CPN (UML) responsible for the failure to draft the new constitution, said a leader present at the meeting.

Parties' meeting inconclusive

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, May 10: The meeting of major political parties and the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) to find a consensus federal model ended inconclusively Wednesday midnight, but the parties said they would strive to seek a consensus before voting begins in the Constituent Assembly. Though the top leaders of the parties were supposed to resolve their differences over the federalism model and had tried to do so till midnight, they failed to even narrow down their differences. “There was a difference over the principal basis of federalism,” said Maoist Vice-chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, when asked what led to the meeting ending inconclusively, “We argued that federalism should be based on ethnic identity while they [NC and CPN-UML] were against that.”

Baidya's new idea to save parliament

KIRAN CHAPAGAIN/KIRAN PUN
KATHMANDU, May 27: With uncertainty looming over the new constitution as of late Saturday evening, the Mohan Baidya faction of the Maoist party has floated a proposal to amend Article 82 of the Interim Constitution so as to at least save parliament even if the Constituent Assembly (CA) is dissolved.

Maoist Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and leader Dev Gurung floated the proposal during their meeting with Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala on Saturday, according to a NC leader privy to the meeting. [break}

The leader said that the constitutional provision can be amended in such a way that the dissolved CA will continue to function as a legislature-parliament to complete the unfinished work of constitution making and also own whatever work has been completed so far by the CA.