Act decisively now

The intra-party dispute in the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has reached a tipping point. The radical faction led by Mohan Baidya has upped the ante to confront the establishment faction in the ongoing Central Committee meeting and seems prepared to part ways if necessary. The counter-proposal registered by Maoist Senior Vice-chairman Baidya in the Central Committee, challenging party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s proposal of peace and constitution and calling for a revolt, draws a clear line between the two factions.



The party establishment led by Chairman Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai remains convinced that there can no longer be any turning back on peace and constitution, while the Baidya faction wants the party to dump the roadmap of peace and constitution and prepare instead for urban revolt.



The showdown in the Central Committee is, however, not just about ideology and principles. Ther are several layers to the current acrimony in the Maoist party and these now pose a threat to party unity. The resentment of the radical faction is fueled as much by the "idealogical deviation" of the establishment faction as by the latter’s monopoly control over the party and its resources.



In centralizing the party’s power and resources, Chairman Dahal has rendered other leaders in the party into non-entities. The "Dhobighat alliance" forged between Baidya and Bhattarai a few months ago was meant to challenge that very monopoly, but the alliance became defunct once Bhattatai became prime minister and "opportunistically" dumped the Baidya faction to join hands with Chairman Dahal.



The Baidya faction´s current rage is, therefore, directed more toward Prime Minister Bhattarai than the party chairman and it has invested time and energy trying to topple the Bhattarai government. In the process it tried to reach out to Chairman Dahal with a proposal to replace Bhattarai as prime minister with the party´s general secretary, Ram Bahadur Thapa.



Failing to woo enough support from within and outside the party to dislodge the Bhattarai government, the Baidya faction has now focused its displeasure on "ideological deviation" and is using the spectar of urban revolt to bargain its way in the party and also scare the general public. The party establishment must now act decisively to push the peace and constitution agenda, as any wavering on its part will be interpreted by the radicals as weakness.



The Baidya faction must be forced to either accept the path of peace and constitution as the reality of the day and the wish of the overwhelming majority of the Nepali people, and act accordingly, or part ways altogether. The country has wasted enough time hoping that the Maoist party would reconcile its internal differences and come forward unitedly to conclude the peace process and promulgate the new constitution. The country can´t wait any longer.

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