Pamphlet on the eve of DSU Public Meeting in JNU on "21 Century, Nepal, and the Question of Revolutionary Transformstion"

Nepal and the Question of Political Power

Heaven is a forest of miles and miles of Mahua tress and
Hell is a forest of miles and miles of Mahua with one forest guard in it.
--A popular saying of Muria Adivasi of Bastar

Nepal is in the vortex of the kaleidoscope of international politics and diplomacy. There is unprecedented interest in the political developments in Nepal day by day. For US imperialism and the local self styled dada of South Asia India. What makes Nepal, otherwise a country of little significance in the foothills of the Himalayas a cynosure of political scrutiny? The high tide of the people’s upsurge in Nepal that was sustained for more than a fortnight culminated in the complete isolation of the monarchy and for the first time the demand for a republic Nepal came to the fore. All this was unfolding under the backdrop of the protracted people’s war initiated by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) since 1996. The CPN (M) could successfully rally the masses and various political opinions in Nepal against the monarchy and in favour of the New Constitutional Republic. Everyday life in Nepal has become so momentous that it has forced the US to issue statements about the necessity to be wary about the Maoists on a day-to-day basis. Under the brilliant leadership of the CPN (Maoist) the people of Nepal have dared to dream for about a New World, free of all forms of exploitation. The matter does not end there.

The 12-point agreement signed between the CPN (M) and the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) has resulted in the cease-fire agreement and the formation of the interim government where the monarch has been stripped of all powers. The Maoists also have joined the interim government.

All these developments in Nepal have brought with it scores of issues of intense political significance. While the status-quoist bourgeois media and the various political parties committed to the parliamentary form of representation would want it to be seen as the Maoists joining the mainstream. All the parliamentary parties in India right from the CPI (M) CPI (ML) (Liberation), CPI, Congress, NCP, Janata Dal and the rest of the bandwagon welcomed the 12-point agreement calling it the joining of the Maoists in the so-called mainstream of parliament. True to their political bankruptcy they did what they are good at. To hoodwink the masses from their real political assertion. They even went to the extent of exhorting the CPI (Maoist) to learn from their counterpart in Nepal.

The Maoists in India while welcoming the people’s upsurge and the subsequent dismantling of the monarchy stressed that all this was possible because the people of Nepal had a powerful People’s Liberation Army with them under the CPN (Maoist). Without the people’s army and the people’s war waged for 10 years even the 12-point programme would not have been realized. Of more significance were the vital questions that they raised regarding the question of political seizure of power. The strategy and tactics that would determine it in the final stage of the protracted people’s war in Nepal. And finally for all students of Marxism-Leninism another question of intense debate and significance was the vital aspect of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Maoists in Nepal have raised interesting questions as to how to prevent the forces of counter-revolution in the process of socialist construction. While taking lessons from the previous experiences in Soviet Union and China they have proposed a stage of competitive democracy during the entire period of socialist construction. This also has become a point of debate in the international revolutionary communist circles with the other questions of participation in the parliament and the interim government. Unfortunately, the Indian media and the intelligentsia is so sensation driven and ill informed with their tall talk about peace, democracy and conflict resolution without any sense of history. For them everything gets conflated into the binary of peace and conflict without justice. Justice for them has a trickle down effect. With the consent and preservation of the status quo which is hand in glove with imperialism and the expansionist dream of the comprador Indian big bourgeoisie.
In this context what Lenin said becomes significant:
To decide once every few years which members of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people through parliament—this is the real essence of bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics.