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. Earlier on Tuesday morning, a meeting of Standing Committee members close to Dahal had prepared a seven-point unity roadmap and handed it to Baidya. At the meeting, Standing Committee members Barshaman Pun, Giriraj Mani Pokharel and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi opposed Dahal´s unity initiatives. The Standing Committee then refrained from endorsing the proposal but Dahal handed it to Baidya at his residence. The proposal emphasized that the problem in the party was not party line but leadership. The Baidya faction strongly objected to this. The Baidya faction is preparing to reply to the proposal, outlining possible basis for unity, according to Standing Committee member Dev Gurung. "Unity on the old basis is not possible" Gurung said, "There should be a new basis and we are working on that." The proposal´s first point was that there were no dispute over party line and it was just tactical -- peace, constitution and government -- for a new democratic revolution. The proposal said the main cause of rift was the decision to hand the arms container keys to the government and allow the Nepal Army in the cantonments. The proposal mentioned Dahal´s readiness to resign diplomatically. It states that Dahal will be ready to quit if there is a proposal for leadership change at the CC meeting. That means he will not resign while his faction has a majority. "The bottom line for party unity is he should resign and accept the party line of revolution, and also undergo self-criticism for the failure of the earlier party line," said KC. The next point is related to resignation by Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, and the readiness of the party leadership to change the government leadership in the spirit of identity-based state structure and constitution with federalism. The Baidya faction has been saying there is no point in the resignation of the caretaker government after the dissolution of the CA. They had had been demanding his resignation earlier. The proposal envisons a party general convention next January-February to take up political and ideological disputes. But the Baidya faction has been arguing that Dahal should accept the party´s decisions about these matters. Dahal proposed to call a CC meeting to reach common conclusions, postponing the national conclave of cadres called for June 15 by the Baidya faction and the plenum on June 29 called by the Dahal faction. But the Baidya faction decided not to postponed the gathering. from Republica English Daily newspaper