There are two ways of looking at the post-2006 political journey of Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’. In one reading, he has matured as a political leader and is more aware of the opportunities and risks of competitive demo­cratic politics. He now regrets his decision as prime minister to fire the then army chief Rookmangud Katawal in 2009. Another cardinal sin was to make China instead of India his first foreign stop as prime minister. As a result of these two decisions, he had to resign after only nine months in office. Come September 2018, Dahal is a changed person. As the co-chairman of the all-powerful Nepal Communist Party this time he made sure he went to India first, and during his over an hour-long chat with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, assured the latter that should he be the prime minister again, he would be more mindful of India’s interests. During his four-day India sojourn (Sept 15-18), he also dropped plenty of hints that he expected KP Sharma Oli to in time vacate either of the two posts: the prime min­ister or the party chairman.

But as PM Oli makes one after another blunder, Dahal has been rather cau­tious about coming to the defense of his own gov­ernment, something that has miffed the prime minister. In this reading, Dahal seems to have matured as a politician as he now looks to avoid the kind of impetuousness that marred his early entry into mainstream politician.

But there is also an alternative reading. In this, Dahal has betrayed the cause for which he waged a long and bloody insurgency that led to the death of over 17,000 Nepalis. From a firebrand revolutionary he has turned into yet another Nepali politician who will do everything to ascend the ladder of power. While he was once capable of openly excoriating the ‘hegemonic and imperialistic’ India, consequences be damned, these days he is ultra-careful not to antagonize the southern neighbor, whose help is mandatory to get back to the top of Nepali politics. In the process he has also abandoned marginalized groups like Madhesis and Janajatis, whose collective cause he once championed.

As he heads to China after completing his India tour, power equations will be top on his mind. Operating under the shadow of a powerful prime minister, and biding his time, Dahal’s political legacy, meanwhile, hangs by a thread.