July 16, Kathmandu. The summary of Chandradev Joshi's book of one lakh 88 thousand words written on the world communist movement says that the Communist Party was born in Nepal on the basis of narrowness.
The book, to be published next month, provides a detailed analysis of the seventy years of Nepali communists. The conclusion of our long conversation with Joshi, an 84-year-old leftist leader who has been with the Communist Party since 2021, is similar to the summary of his book.
That is, the seeds of narrow-mindedness and self-interest were sown when a small group started the Communist Party in 2006. The chain of disintegration and betrayal began with the womb of the party. KP Oli was ousted from power by a court ruling on Monday. After this, Oli and Madhav Nepal are calling each other 'traitors'.
To understand this, it is necessary to examine the circumstances under which the formation of the Communist Party took place, says Joshi.
Founder leader Pushpalal was the brother of Ganga Lal Shrestha, one of the four martyrs of the 97-year-old incident. Pushpalal, who joined the Nepali Congress through the People's Council, was impressed by the biography of Russian Bolshevik leader Lenin. Alexander, Lenin's brother, was executed by the Russian tsar like Pushpalal's brother Ganga Lal.
"The Communist Party was formed by youths who wanted to separate from various socio-political groups," says Joshi.
In fact, Manmohan Adhikari, who was in India for the study, had been a member of the Communist Party of India since 1999 and had been imprisoned in the Quit India Movement.
Pushpalal, who was accompanied by Indian Communist leader Nripendra Chakraborty, was in a hurry to form the Communist Party. He called four Dauntaris from Kathmandu and announced the establishment of the party from Calcutta.
On the other hand, Keshar Jung Rayamajhi, who is studying in Kolkata, has been a member of the Communist Party of India since 2002. Other youths studying in India were also familiar with the Quit India Movement and communist activities there.
In the company of another Indian communist leader, Ratnalal Brahman, Rayamajhi ran a 'progressive study group' among Nepali students. These young people came to Nepal in a timely manner and became active in the Communist Party.
Manmohan Adhikari had a different side. The officers who returned from Banaras were employees of Biratnagar Jute Mill. In Benaras, he took part in the Indian independence movement and became a member of the Communist Party of India. After the famous Biratnagar Jute Mill strike, the officer was arrested and brought to Kathmandu on foot.
In the womb of the founding of the Communist Party, Pushpalal, Rayamajhi and Manmohan Adhikari had different backgrounds and aspirations. Rayamajhi and Adhikari felt that Pushpalal Shrestha did not give good advice and coordination in his haste to become the founder of the party.
However, all three leaders came from the company of Indian communist leaders. At that time, the Chinese people's revolution was beginning to have an impact on the Indian communist movement. The concept of a new democratic program in Nepal was not directly from China but through India. The pamphlet that was issued to spread Marxist ideology in Nepal at that time was like a pamphlet of the Communist Party of India. The Communist Party thus formed joined the Nepali Congress in the 2007 movement. Some communist leaders from India and some stayed in Nepal and fought for democracy.
After the proclamation of democracy, the Communist Party resided in Kathmandu, Benaras and Kolkata. Similarly, the Nepali Congress had held all the early meetings and party conferences in India. However, the Communist Party of Nepal, which made the transformation of feudal-based Nepali society its main agenda, was unable to expand its influence in the country. The communist flow that spread from China to India through China and from China had entered neighboring Nepal.
Accordingly, on January 26, 2008, Matrika Prasad's government banned the party. The party, which had been banned for five years, lifted the ban in 2013 BS when Tanka Prasad Acharya was the Prime Minister under the Nepali monarchy.
The chain of party disintegration started two years after the establishment of the CPN (Maoist). In late 1952, a meeting in Bateshwar, Janakpur, on the proposal of the Politburo members, declared Pushpalal's policy as 'extremist and leftist narrow-minded' and removed him from the party leadership and appointed Manmohan Adhikari as the party's general secretary.
It is said that Shailendra Prasad Upadhyaya and Dhanush Chandra Gautam had a special initiative in this. Before the meeting, Shailendra Upadhyaya had gone to seek the advice of the Communist Party of India. Later, both these leaders did not remain in the Communist movement. Upadhyaya entered the Panchayat and became a minister. Gautam turned to literature and became a renowned novelist.
According to Krishna Raj Burma, an old leftist leader, there is a narrow-mindedness in the world communist movement while the Communist Party of Nepal is being established. According to Burma, P.C. Joshi was removed and transferred to B.T. Ranadive was in the Communist Party of Nepal just as he was the executive secretary general.
As the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party continues in neighboring China, the Communist Party of Nepal is taking steps to dust off its 72-year history. The Nepali communist movement is collapsing due to the inter-party struggle.
An endless series of brokenness and betrayal
The issue of CPN (Maoist) feet is now affecting the entire country. The scandal of the ruling party is affecting the state machinery itself. Speaking of Eastern UML, the rift between Madhav Kumar Nepal, who has been the General Secretary for 14 years, and the current Chairman KP Oli is on the rise. The CPN (Maoist) has split again due to the rivalry between Prachanda and KP Oli for the post of prime minister and a powerful chairman.
Extreme power-hungry and divisiveness among the leaders is not a new thing in the history of the Nepali communist movement. Within five years of its establishment, the party's internal organization was divided into three poles: Pushpalal Khema, Rayamajhi Khema and Manmohan Group.
In the factionalism within the party, the anti-Pushpalal alliance was getting stronger. Pushpalal himself was in the minority in the party he founded. He was made like the Leader of the Opposition within the party. Pushpalal was more diligent in all three areas of study, organization and movement. However, he was forced to step down before the party's first general convention. In 1954, the first general convention in Patan elected Manmohan Adhikari as its secretary general.
In the second general convention held in 1957, Dr. Keshar Jung Rayamajhi became the General Secretary. This was the first open general convention held at Fohora Durbar in Kathmandu. In the first general election of 2015, Pushpalal Shrestha lost from Kathmandu to Ganeshman Singh of the Nepali Congress. Tulsilal Amatya from Lalitpur and Kalmaraj Regmi from Palpa won the election with only two politburo members. The other two were local activists from Rautahat. Tulsilal Amatya became the leader of the four-member parliamentary party.
The rise and fall of Rayamajhi became an important period of the communist movement. Dr. Rayamajhi was portrayed as a 'Rayamajhi trend'. Rayamajhi, who was on a visit to Moscow, made a statement in support of King Mahendra when King Mahendra dissolved the elected parliament and arrested Congress-Communist leaders, including the elected Prime Minister BP Koirala.
Tulsilal Amatya was elected General Secretary at the third general convention of 2019 BS in Benaras. However, the General Secretary of the Second General Convention, Dr. Rayamajhi did not recognize the convention. Pushpalal Shrestha was not present at the General Convention but he supported the decision of the General Convention. Even the third general convention did not believe in the founding general secretary Shrestha. Pushpalal then passed away without becoming the general secretary of the Unified Party.
Dr. Rayamajhi was no longer the general secretary of his faction. Krishna Raj Burma, Chandra Dev Joshi and others made Bishnu Bahadur Manandhar the general secretary in 2032 BS after Rayamajhi became close to the palace and deviated from the principles.
On the other hand, Mohan Bikram Singh emerged as the new leader in the Unified Third General Convention of 2019 BS. His faction was gradually gaining strength. After Singh's faction, the fourth general convention was held and development took place in Masala. Mohan Vaidya, Prachanda, Dr. Leaders like Baburam Bhattarai and Chitra Bahadur KC have developed from this 'chaumadhar'.
In the 30's, Jhapa became the CPN (Malay) in 2035 BS. There was the CPN-Amatya group, the CPN-Manandhar group. The group led by Manmohan Adhikari was called Purbakoshi Provincial Committee. In the year 2027 BS, Mohan Vikram Singh, Nirmal Lama, Shambhuram Shrestha and others formed the 'Central Nucleus' with the involvement of officials. Later, Mohan Bikram Singh's group held its fourth general convention. There were different groups of Tulsilal Amatya and Pushpalal Shrestha. Bhaktapur leader Narayan Man Bijukchhe left the Pushpalal group and formed a different Mazdoor Kisan Party.
Thus, by 2047, dozens of communist elements had been formed.
Doubt, accusation, division and division were the inherent nature of Nepal's communist movement. Leader of the Jana Morcha Chitra Bahadur KC has said in his enlightening biography that the Communists have struggled to form a United Left Front for the Jana Andolan of 2046 BS.
After 2047 BS, Prachanda, Mohan Vaidya and Baburam of CPN-Masal were preparing the background of the war. Henceforth, the UML, formed from the unity of the Maoists and the Marxist groups, was to indulge in the parliamentary game, calling it 'people's multi-party democracy'. Madan Bhandari emerged from the Siraha General Convention of 2045 BS when CP Mainali and Jhala Nath Khanal were formed in 2035 BS. After UML became the first party in the mid-term elections of 2051 BS. Manmohan Adhikari, a veteran leader of the movement since 1998, became the country's first communist prime minister.
In 2054 BS, UML split again and became ML-UML. Bamdeb Gautam led the ML faction while Madhav Kumar Nepal led the UML faction. After the mysterious Dasdhunga jeep accident of Madan Bhandari in the Nepal UML stream, he became the general secretary of the UML at a difficult time.
By 2063, the major communist parties were the CPN-UML, CPN-Maoist, CPN-ML, Janamorcha and CPN-United. More than three dozen other small groups were also active in politics, claiming to be the Communist Party.
Along with Marxism, the CPN-Maoist, which literally adhered to the ideology of Mao Tse Tung of China, also became popular within five years of entering peaceful politics. Mohan Vaidya, Netra Bikram Chandal and others abandoned the UCPN (M) saying that Chairman Prachanda was only focused on power and power. Maoist leader Hisila Yami has even written in her autobiography that "Prachanda has used the entire party as a weapon to defeat the rival leader."
After the proclamation of the new constitution of 2072 BS, KP Oli emerged. The CPN (Maoist) Prachanda faction, which was becoming powerless, eventually merged with the UML, which had matured into a parliamentary power.
After the majority in the 2074 general election, the CPN (Maoist) became the center of politics. This rift affected all political, social and economic sectors of the country. Dozens of reshuffles of the cabinet and dissolution of the parliament twice pushed the country towards a complex and arduous transition.
According to leader Chandra Dev Joshi, the communist activities that took place after the proclamation of the 2072 constitution can be termed as 'low capitalist traitorous character'.
Prachanda and Oli had the opportunity to write a new chapter in Marxism. But as they put their feet on the two boats, there was no agreement, ”he said.
As Rosa Lubzemberg said, nothing can be done without the support of the people, while Joshi considers it positive that the CPN (Maoist) has gained a majority. However, he is of the view that the majority obtained by the CPN (Maoist) has been rendered useless by deception, fraud and self-interest.
"The CPN (Maoist) has not taken power from the gun revolution, so it must be bound by a constitution," says Joshi.
A party that grew up with vague goals
It is said that a revolutionary knows that he should carry out a revolution, but he does not know in what circumstances he is fighting with whom.
Even if this is said in the context of Fidel Castro, it will be applied to the communists of Nepal, says Chandradev Joshi. According to Joshi, the pamphlet and manifesto written by Pushpalal did not clearly state where to work. However, Pushpalal spent his entire life for the party in difficult circumstances. He says that everyone supported the fact that the communist movement of Nepal grew on the same basis.
Thus, the Communist Party, which had sprouted without a clear basis for what it was fighting for, was expanding its influence in the society. (Henceforth, the Communist Party of India was working to create a similar influence in India under the influence of the Chinese peasant movement.)
"Struggle without a clear goal does not pay off," says Joshi. That's where we made a mistake. '
Joshi is of the view that the communist movement has become distorted as the incumbent Prime Minister Khadga Oli has no clear goal despite his personal potential. He says that the party headed by KP Oli and Prachanda is on the verge of collapse due to inability to do useful work even with weapons in hand.
'Communist ideology does not die'
In Nepal, communists or any person is called a pro-Indian and a traitor. Within the communist school, more and more people are tagging each other as 'traitors'. Mohan Bikram Singh has accused Pushpalal of treason, Mohan Vaidya of Prachandapath, the then party and Pushpalal of Keshar Jung Rayamajhi. In the eyes of the revolution, all the elders have now fallen victim to the 'Great Depression'.
According to leftist leader Joshi, not all so-called 'traitors' are equally 'traitors'. It has become a characteristic feature of the communist movement to call 'traitor' when lines and interests do not meet and to call 'great revolutionary comrade' when interests meet.
Not everyone is as apostate. Therefore, he believes that the Nepali communist movement will be revived. He says that even if the move of KP Oli or Prachanda affects the society, communist ideology will prevail again. He suggested that the younger generation should be able to stand firm in their decision.
"Leaders of the youth should not follow the leadership just by looking at the head," he said. "Instead, a new communist movement should be created by creating public opinion." We have to follow the path of socialism. '
