Communist Movement In Nepal
Towards Parliamentary Politics

By Yuba Nath Lamsal

RECENTLY we have seen two positive developments in the communist movement in Nepal. Firstly, there has been a realization of unification in the communist movement. And the second is the talks between the government and Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) to end six-year old armed insurgency.

Let us first discuss the beginning and developments of Nepalese communist movement and the recent unity efforts. Nepal’s communist movement is the most fragmented one in the world. There are already more than a dozen communist parties in Nepal with different names. Each party is hostile to the other. Despite repeated call and speech of leftist leaders for unity, the communist movement kept on being fragmented. Split is more common than unity in Nepal’s communist movement.

Communist Party of Nepal was formed in 1949 as the youngest communist party in Asia. Late Pushpa Lal Shrestha took the initiative to form the communist party in Nepal and is, thus, regarded as the father of Nepal’s communist movement. The initial objective of the Communist Party of Nepal was to establish democracy in the country by overthrowing the century-old Rana family oligarchy and liberate people from all forms of exploitation and discrimination.

After the advent of democracy in 1951, differing views started surfacing in the communist party. This heightened when late King Mahendra trampled multi-party democracy, dissolved popularly elected parliament, banned all political parties and political activities and imposed partyless Panchayat system in the country. A faction led by Pushpa Lal opposed the Royal takeover and split the already small and yet to be fully organised communist party.

This break away group became the mainstream party as honest and genuine cadres, workers and supporters sided with the revolutionary faction. The other group was isolated from the people and later collapsed. Communist parties kept on disintegrating. Personality cult played bigger role in the split than the ideological differences. Leaders gave ideological colour to their personal differences. It continued until three years ago when CPN-UML, the main opposition party in parliament, split.

Some efforts were made in the past for the unification of communist movement in Nepal. But those efforts hardly materialized. Even if some groups merged into one, their unity lasted only for few months. A major development regarding the unity among communist parties took place in 1989, when seven communist parties formed United Left Front to launch mass movement against Panchayat regime along with the Nepali Congress. The honeymoon among the seven leftist groups ended immediately after the restoration of democracy. However, two largest groups—Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) and Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist)—merged in 1990 to form Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) or CPN-UML. This party emerged as the largest communist party in Nepal and mainstream of Nepal’s communist movement. Communists in Nepal always gave radical slogans—grabbing power through revolution and violence and total transformation of the society. Their slogans of equality, liberty and social justice had a great appeal among poor and downtrodden people, who are in majority in Nepal. Those who gave more radical slogans became stronger and more popular among the poor people.

Nepalese communists took part in the mass movement for the restoration of democracy in 1990. This heralded new chapter in Nepalese politics. It is the first time that Nepalese communists, who believed in violence to capture power, joined electoral politics and democratic mainstream. All leftist groups that were in existence in 1991 took part in general election and won more than 80 seats in 205-member House of Representatives, Lower House of parliament.

Regrouping and reorganization took place in the communist parties in three year’s period following the first general election in 1991. In this period a few leftist groups united and again split. CPN-UML continued to be the largest party. The United People’s Front/Nepal headed by Baburam Bhattarai was the open organization of the radical communists, which had won nine seats in parliament in the first general election. But it also broke into two groups—one headed by Babu Ram Bhattarai and the other by Niranjan Govinda Vaidya (now Lila Mani Pokhrel). The former condemned parliament and boycotted election, while the later continued to take part in the parliamentary process.

By that time Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) was created and announced armed insurgency. Babu Ram Bhattarai-led United People’s Front merged with the Maoist party. Around that time, second general election was held. In the election, CPN-UML emerged single largest party in parliament winning 88 seats. Maoist party boycotted the election and position of other communist groups in parliament was reduced to nominal.

CPN-UML formed minority government but lasted only nine months followed by Nepali-Congress-RPP-NSP coalition government. In the four years of hung parliament following the second general election, the country witnessed ugly scenes in national politics. All major political forces in parliament including CPN-UML applied every means and methods to grab power and retain it. It was the ugly period in the 12 years’ history of Nepal’s parliamentary system.

At the same time, CPN-UML was divided. A faction led by Bam Dev Gautam broke away from the mother party citing ideological differences and formed CPN-ML, although power struggle was the key factor. The breakaway faction gave nationalist and radical slogans in order to attract diehard cadres and patriotic forces. But it failed miserably in the third general election, as it could not bag even a single seat in parliament. In the history of Nepalese communist movement, the break away faction always became the mainstream as it gave radical and revolutionary programmes. CPN-ML is the only exception as despite giving radical slogans it failed to have appeal on general mass.

Maoist insurgency continued to grow. Its popular slogans had an appeal among the poverty-stricken population of the country on the one hand, while misgovernance, failure to deliver goods on the part of government and political instability gave rise to Maoist insurgency on the other. It is the product of several other social, political, economic and cultural problems.

Now leftist parties are talking unity and a united front. Even Maoists seem to be interested in the united communist movement. The recent meeting of leaders of different communist parties including comrade Prachanda of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in Siligurhi of India is an indication that Maoists are eager to join the parliamentary process. The history of communist movement in Nepal has shown that communist party begins with extremism and ends with revisionism. All communist parties in Nepal were born with radical slogans and programmes but, with the passage of time, they slowly deviated from their initial revolutionary stance and came to parliamentary fold. An example of this is CPN-UML. It started with the revolutionary spirit influenced by Charu Mazumdar’s Naxalite movement of India. But later it realised serious flaws in it and switched into the parliamentary approach.

Similarly, Maoists have now started the process of dialogue with the government to end the insurgency. It is a road towards parliamentary politics. It may not be a surprise that one fine morning Maoists may abandon the armed revolution and join peaceful parliamentary politics because history repeats and they want to be another example.

Issue Of Child Rights Lingers On

By Praveen Khadka

WE have just observed the Children’s’ Day after completing a full circle. The Children’s Day is marked in Nepal on the fourth of the Nepali month Bhadra every year. The day is a special one for children. Confusion relating to the age group, which could meet the criteria of the broader definition of children still looms large in many parts of the globe. Every society has its own way of drawing the line between the two stages-childhood and adolescence. The integration of children into the socio-economic life may begin at an earlier stage in some traditional societies and consequently the transition from childhood to adulthood takes place at such a quicker pace that it may be difficult to identify these different phases of life. Studies conducted by national and international organizations working on different issues related with children have revealed that societies have outlined different age groups to show the state of childhood. Some regard that a child completes his first stage of life at the age of sixteen and thus his childhood comes to an end. This is perhaps the traditional view. Some societies have considered children ten and below as children. Others have preferred to put those in the age bracket of six to seven years of being children. The UN Convention on the rights of the child 1989 defines a child to be one who is below the age of 18.

Psychologists have divided the components of a human personality into three phases, i.e. childhood, adulthood and manhood. The balanced growth of these three components makes a child a well grown and responsible citizen of a country. the childhood is a stage which needs optimum nurturing and attention since it is the most sensitive period for moulding the mind of an individual. Extra caution needs to be taken while grooming the children because they are the future leaders of every nation. The welfare of the entire community, it’s growth and development depends on the health and well-being of it’s children. The great poet Milton put it admirably when he said- "Child shows the man and morning shows the day".

The UN Convention on the rights of the child has ensured that every child in the world has right to survival, development, protection and participation. The Convention has put forth a number of laws that seek to protect children. Under the laws that have been endorsed by many countries all children have the right to parental guidance, all children have the right to life and the state has the obligation to ensure the child’s survival and development, to live with their parents, to express themselves, to meet others and join any association, to privacy and correspondence, to be protected from abuses and neglect, to live an adequate living, to obtain education, to play, to be protected from such types of work that threaten his/her health, education, to be protected from sexual abuses and exploitation, to be free from torture, cruel treatment and punishment. But today an overwhelming majority of the children in the world are deprived and denied their fundamental rights. This type of situation is particularly increasing in the third world countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Somalia where a big majority of children are suffering from starvation, malnutrition and exploitation and are being forced to live a miserable life.

Today, child labour has become a common phenomenon in the Nepalese society. The poor economic condition has been attributed as one of the major contributors to rampant child labour. Especially, in the rural parts, the child has been playing a significant role to support the family. Fetching, water, collecting firewood, grazing cattle, taking care of younger children and helping in the fields are the major works done by children. Poverty has been forcing many children to migrate to the urban areas in search of work because major industries like carpet and garment industries, construction of roads and buildings are taking place in urban areas. Moreover the children serve the interest of the labour market as they are easy to get, meek and easy to control.

The large number of parents and guardians are uneducated and unaware of the importance of education. As a result many of them are influenced by the traditional belief that education motivates the children to crave for comfort, luxuries and eventually makes them indisciplined and disobedient to the elders and guardians. They also have the misconception that education leads children to be lazy and talkative.

The deprivation of education is having a negative impact in the personality development of children, who are falling prey to child labour, the number of which is increasing day after day. The population explosion, landlessness, unemployment and unplanned urbanization coupled with lack of awareness have also contributed to increase child labour. The community has not been able to play its role in providing the basic needs to children. The ramifications of this sense of irresponsibility has not been too encouraging for the growth of a child in the long run. Children, who are uncared for and are neglected by the community embark into adulthood with deviated perceptions and are devoid of social values, the chances are that he/she may grow up to become a drug addict, alcoholic or a criminal. This sort of disruption in the social fabric creates opportunities for social forces that are on the look out to impress children and engage them in anti-social activities. Such forces antagonize the children against the establishment transforming them into outlaws.

We have no dearth of seminars and workshops in Nepal that renew their pledges every now and then to bring about a radical transformation in the poor state of children. But the outcomes and resolutions of these seminars have not been put into practice to the level required.

The most ironical part of the story is that the so-called social elites-doctors, engineers, lawyers and even teachers who brag about putting an end to child labour have been keeping children at their homes to help in the household chores

It cannot be denied that the first step towards empowering the children would be to abolish child labour completely and thereby create the congenial atmosphere for the overall development of children. Only then will the nation be able to make a stride forward in the development ladder.

Education plays a vital role in the prevention and the control of child labour. The imparting of education to all children still remains in the form of an unfulfilled dream in Nepal. An overwhelming majority of the children are deprived of education. Education is the key to end all forms of discrimination in our society including child labour. It is imperative that the children from the rural areas who have been working as labourers be given economic alternatives so that they can break away from the chains of compelling forces. In addition to this, the families of the children should also be given the opportunity to involve themselves in productive activities, which in turn help to support them economically.

As we move from one year to the other marking the Children’s Day we need to make a solemn vow not to encourage child labour and thereby forge a consensus to eradicate it altogether. Awareness should be raised amongst the public, the employers, the families, and the children themselves for the prevention of child labour. Pressure should be mounted on the families so that they do not send their children to work.

Media should work as the watch dog to prevent child labour and instill confidence in children to speak out for their rights. Concerted efforts on the part of all concerned would surely make a difference to the present state of children in Nepal.

Idle Creation

By JP

CREATIVITY comes to the fore of your head when you are idle, such as when you are bored to death reading a motley of Nepali newspapers. While you are scanning news every morning over a cup of tea or coffee, you are dead sure you want to break.

The news of the day no longer interests you. You are already used to all the weird things of the world that happens here—Maoists clashing with copes and killing a number of people, women of an entire village assaulted on allegations of practicisng witchcraft, someone reenacting the June 1 Royal massacre at his village home, and so on. Nothing is touching, nothing moving.

You are not wanting to move either. Seated on the comfort of your chair, you begin to think of esoteric things on your own, remotely removed from the world that your papers are part of. If you have not had enough of this beautiful Himalayan Kingdom, you may not be thinking of the extra terrestrial realms yet.

But you may still like to wander about where your imagination takes you in the planet Earth.

One fine morning lately, I was similarly wandering about in my mind. I did not know I would come up with something so great—a billion dollar idea. But I knew I would have to be in the Silicon Valley, with the big brother Bill Gates seated across my table.

There are so many readers out here in this mysterious land, named after the great saint "Ne" of the hoary past, called Nepal where either Everyone is interested in everything or Everyone is utterly disinterested. They all have a common identity as the "Nepali"—the ultimate pursuit of idleness. It is in this pursuit the Nepalis are killing their own folks, sacrificing all moral values on the altar of wealth and power, and showing ingenuity to get ahead by hook or crook. Because all this has to do with the state of Nepali mindset, any mindlessness on the part of Nepal’s denizens is forgiven by the democracy we have ushered in over a decade ago.

Even the gods found here in every next block or street are so democratic that they have stopped minding whatever their devotees to. The whole set-up is so liberal. Liberty is cheaply and abundantly available to everyone. The leaders can go scot-free after scandals, the teachers can preach politics at schools, priests can visit cabin restaurants that are still to close, journalists are enjoying limitless freedom to disseminate information as a trade-off to be talked or be on top, and a common man can be free and easy.

The only enduring value among all is to earn whatever and be idle. In the newly emerging marketplace of ideas, Nepal can have the comparative advantage over other countries for investment. Brother Bill should better know that. The idea is this: That the capital of Kathmandu is already teeming with a number of newspapers and views papers—ranging from broadsheet dailies and glossy monthlies/bi-monthlies with some more in the pipeline—a computer chip that translates written words into voice could work wonders. The idle lot of readers could be given an audio contraption to play the chips early in the morning, or when the user wants. You could just sit and play all the newspaper of the day with a single chip, and listen. The latest fad of FM will be far from a match for this new contraption. Best this idea, guys!