The political crisis in Nepal refuses to die down as the former allies – Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kumar Dahal ‘Prachanda’ continue to clash. After the Nepal Supreme Court in a landmark ruling shot down Oli’s move to dissolve the parliament, Prachanda is now pondering to drop the word ‘Maoist’ from his party CPN (MC) in order to be more acceptable to potential allies. This move will cause serious heartburn in the Chinese Communist Party who consider Mao Zedong to be the father of China.
Till not so long ago, China used to have an iron grip on Nepal thanks to the unified Nepalese Communist Party. Now, things have come to a stage where the Prachanda led CPN(MC) is now thinking of dropping the word “Maoist”.
Prachanda, the Chief of Nepal’s CPN-Maoist Centre (MC), has proposed to drop ‘Maoist Centre’ from the party’s name to make it more acceptable to the Communist parties in Nepal.
Local reports state that Prachanda is open to tweaking the name of his party in order to unite the Communist parties and defeat Oli.
This move comes after the nation’s Supreme Court nullified the unification of Prachanda’s CPN – MC with Oli’s CPN – UML which has further consolidated Oli’s position in the party, as he is believed to enjoy a clear majority in the Central Committee and Parliamentary Party. The two parties had merged in 2018 to form the Nepalese Communist Party and hence, come to power.
The party and its leaders were found to often be at loggerheads with each other with China repeatedly having to intervene to keep the NCP flock together. However, things reached a tipping point after Oli unilaterally moved to dissolve the parliament which led to the divide in the NCP.
Prachanda is facing issues convincing his ministers to resign from the Oli cabinet on the grounds of Nepalese PM breaching party discipline.
Local leaders claim that there is a prevalent belief across the world among many Communist forces that the theory propounded by Marx and Lenin was the true theory of communism and ‘Maoist Centre’ could be a distraction for many who wanted to unify their parties with his faction.
Political analyst Uddhab Pyakurel observed that dropping the tag of Maoist has become a compulsion for Prachanda as Oli’s CPN-UML had increasingly begin to imbibe the values of liberal democracy. Prachanda’s proposal is yet another sign of the CCP’s growing unpopularity in Nepal.