Editorial: Meaningless Maoist document

The political document presented by CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the party’s eighth national convention packs in some familiar communist tropes: the street as the ultimate venue of ‘struggle’, the US as a war-mongering global hegemon that must be resisted, and the dangerous designs of national and national reactionaries and anti-revolutionaries who are trying to undo the revolutionary changes the Maoists helped usher in. The document says the MCC compact will be approved only after amendments and only on the basis of broad political consensus.

All this was expected. But therein is also an admission that the post-2006 achievements are under threat largely due to the mother Maoist party’s own weaknesses, chief among them lack of political and ideological clarity, and ‘divisions and anarchy’ in the party organization. The document, prepared by Dahal, is bang on. But if this analysis is correct, then Dahal, who has been at the party’s top position for nearly three decades, must shoulder the bulk of the blame for the steady decline in his party’s popularity.

Also read: Editorial: End House obstruction 

If KP Sharma Oli has a near complete hold over CPN-UML, then Dahal’s monopoly over CPN (Maoist Center) is stronger still. Following the voluntary ouster from the party of Baburam Bhattarai, no one comes remotely close to challenging his leadership of CPN (Maoist Center). This is deliberate. With his keen nose for power, Dahal has over the years systematically dismantled any opposition to his leadership. Fed up by Dahal’s lack of ideological clarity and his tendency to impose his persona on the party, one after another of his comrades, from Bhattarai to Mohan Baidya, left his side. Dahal’s ideological incoherence and his tendency to promise everything to everyone have backfired; the once ‘fierce one’ has become just another political leader.

Sadly, Nepali politics has come to be dominated by individuals—KP Oli, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Dahal himself. The cult of personality is especially strong in Nepali communist parties, and no more so than in the Maoist party. What they put in their official documents is really meaningless.