Baidya counters Dahal's proposal

KIRAN PUN KATHMANDU, Dec 28: Countering Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s political document, Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya on Tuesday floated a road map for people’s revolt prioritizing street protests and recall of the party leaders from the government accusing them of acting against the interests of the country, the people and the spirit of revolution. The government has not only failed to act in the interests of the people, but also signed a bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement with India which was an anti-national move, the document said. Baidya’s document presented at the central committee on Tuesday dismissed the proposal floated by Dahal on peace, constitution and government and said, “For chairman Dahal, peace means disarming the People’s Liberation Army, constitution means a parliamentary constitution and government means accepting the old state mechanism.” The document said the leadership surrendered to the parliamentary forces time and again, while negotiating for constitution writing and the peace process. “Universally an agreement is a give and take process, but the party has only been giving without taking anything,” underlined the document. The document also brushed aside the argument that the proposed general convention of the party would address intra-party disputes and cement the party unity. Chairman Dahal had presented a 10-point document at the beginning of the ongoing central committee meeting on Friday that among other things floated a number of options for solving the long-running intra-party conflict and had proposed a general convention to end protracted disputes over the political line of the party Baidya, who leads a hardline faction in the UCPN (Maoist) and vows to capture state power through people’s revolt, lambasted Dahal’s document as a road map to rightist opportunism and said that a true unity of the party is possible only when the party establishment agrees to a thorough review of the mistakes it committed in the past. Dahal made a number of mistakes that dented the party image badly, Baidya said and added that the party can’t be brought back to its revolutionary track as long as he doesn’t realize his shortcomings and agrees to transform himself for the achievement of the goals set while initiating the people’s war. Since the party leadership had grossly violated party decisions and established party rules and regulations, it is absolutely necessary that they admit their past blunders and transform themselves, said the document. “In order to bring a true unity in the party, the leadership has to convince the rank and file that it has transformed itself by correcting the past mistakes, and self-criticism is the best thing to begin with”, added the document. The document also refuted Dahal’s argument that Nepal’s social context is not favorable for a Chinese-style revolution and said that the argument was an act of pleasing pro compradors and brokers by ruining the possibility of a revolution. “Dahal’s document has wholeheartedly accepted parliamentary system, which is against the spirit of Chunbang meeting,” said the document tabled by Baidya.