Ideological debates at CPN-UML and CPN (Unified Socialist)

After months of struggle with KP Sharma Oli, Madhav Kumar Nepal made a decision last month. He gathers his comrades and forms a new party.

The party’s original name proposed was CPN (UML Socialist), but later the Nepalese group, which split from CPN-UML, registered CPN (Unified Socialist), as the Election Commission stated that the previous name was too similar to that of the mother party.

In three days, the CPN (Unified Socialist) will have one month.

The party initially said it was withdrawing from Multiparty People’s Democracy, or PMD, a political line followed by the UML since 1993, but on Thursday Nepal said PMD would be incorporated into the political line of the Unified Socialist (CPN).

“We want to integrate multi-party popular democracy”, says Nepal, while speaking at a reception organized by the Youth Association affiliated to his party. “We want to move forward while safeguarding the spirit and values ​​of multi-party popular democracy.

Most of the leaders, including Ram Kumari Jhakri, the secretary of the newly elected party, however proposed that the PMD remain the political line of the CPN (Unified Socialist).

When the first Nepalese Communist Party was formed about seven decades ago, the basic idea was to start a struggle against feudalism, autocracy, comprador capitalism and imperialism. But in the early 1990s, the late Madan Bhandari, a leader of the CPN-UML, worked to develop an extension of Marxism-Leninism and proposed an ideological line, which he dubbed Multiparty People’s Democracy. Thought has abandoned the traditional revolutionary idea in favor of a multiparty democratic system. This line was adopted in 1993. Three years earlier, democracy had been restored in Nepal.

Bhandari proposed the idea as the new path of the Nepalese revolution, aiming

a mass party guided by a clear Marxist vision, organizational principles and discipline. UML has been following the line for almost three decades now.

Many, however, are now wondering how Madhav Nepal’s CPN (Unified Socialist) would be different from CPN-UML.

“I don’t think there will be any fundamental difference between the two parties – the parent party and the splinter group,” said Jhalak Subedi, who has followed the Nepalese communist movement closely.

Nepalese Communist Parties, known for their hyperbole, most often emphasize their political ideologies unlike other parties, such as the Nepalese Congress. For those with a keen interest in the Nepalese communist movement, the speeches of these parties can be both captivating and exhausting.

Observers say that Nepalese Communist Parties have historically engaged in in-depth discussions and debates on ideologies and run training programs for cadres on their political lines, which is also useful during elections.

When the UML was split in 1998 when Bamdev Gautam decided to form the CPN-ML, the dissident party failed to come up with a new political line. It was a different party, but he continued with his mother party’s PMD as a guiding principle. In the elections held next year in 1999, the CPN-ML did not win a single seat, which led to its merger with the UML.

The debate on the political line at the CPN (Unified Socialist) takes place at a time when the UML itself is seeing votes if the PMD needs some modification. Old guards like KP Oli and Ishwar Pokhrel, however, are keen to continue with the PMD.

Ghanashyam Bhusal, known as one of the most knowledgeable leaders in PMD, presented a written proposal demanding discussions on PMD. Bhusal is one of 10 UML leaders who were with Madhav Nepal, fighting against Oli. These 10 leaders, however, decided to stay in the UML when Nepal formed a new party.

“I presented my proposal,” Bhusal said. “Let’s see how the party leaders take it at the Central Committee meeting which starts from Friday. “

According to Bhusal, the PMD was conceptualized by Bhandari at a time when the party believed that Nepal was still a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. He thinks that the PMD chapter was closed as the country moved forward and that it is no longer a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country.

Some political analysts say that the Nepalese Communist Parties have long debated their ideological issues, but they are mostly gibberish and full of jargon and are incomprehensible to many.

“People’s multiparty democracy was just a pretext for communists to join multiparty democracy,” said Lokraj Baral, professor of political science. “They are just playing with Communist jargon to deceive the voters but in essence they are nothing different.”

Ideologies should be limited to leading parties, he said. “The parties must respond to people’s concerns like social justice and they should have a plan for the proper development of the country.”

Beduram Bhusal, the newly elected secretary general of the Unified Socialist (CPN), is one of the communist leaders to stick closely to the party’s ideology. Bhusal holds a PhD in Multiparty People’s Democracy, focusing on the idea behind PMD, how Marxism was used in Nepal and how PMD is an extension of Marxism-Leninism.

He firmly believes that a party needs a clear ideology that not only shapes it, but also guides the party in the right direction in order to achieve the desired goal.

“Even to survive, we will have to adopt a separate ideology, different from the UML. To establish a solid footing in Nepalese politics, we have to be different – through our actions, our words and of course our ideology, ”Bhusal told the Post. “The goal of our party is socialism, as the name suggests. We will propose a program to achieve socialism by safeguarding the achievements that have been made on the basis of the PMD, which the UML will not do.