Maoists criticise Prachanda for betraying the revolution
Banned by the Indian Govt a week ago and facing redoubled security action in several Indian states, Maoist party has now criticised its former ally, the CPI (M), accusing its chief and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda of betraying the revolutionary cause.
Banned by the Indian government a week ago and facing redoubled security action in several Indian states, India's Maoist party has now criticised its former ally, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), accusing its chief and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda of betraying the revolutionary cause.
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) on Monday made public the letter it had sent to the Nepal Maoists almost a month ago, indicating there have always been links between the two despite the Nepal Maoists denying them.
The denials grew after the Nepal Maoists won the election last year and remained in power for eight months.
The Indian Maoists have condemned Prachanda's decision to end the insurgency in Nepal and reach a peace agreement with the major political parties, branding it as "hunting with the hounds and running with the hare".
They have also criticised him for agreeing to confine the guerrilla People's Liberation Army (PLA) in barracks supervised by the UN.
"The move to deposit arms and confine the PLA fighters to UN-supervised cantonments (is) tantamount to abandoning the protracted people's war and class struggle in the name of multi-party democracy and endangering the gains made during the decade-long People's War," the letter said.
"Today, there is a peculiar situation in Nepal. The old Royal Nepal Army continues to be the bulwark of the present state structure in Nepal while the PLA is a passive onlooker. What would the Maoists do if a coup is staged by the army with the instigation of the reactionary comprador-feudal parties with the backing of Indian expansionists and US imperialists? Or if an Indonesia-type blood-bath of the Communists is organised by the reactionaries? How do the Maoists defend themselves when they have demobilised and disarmed the PLA?"
Prachanda has also come under fire for visiting India last year after he became prime minister and 'hob-nobbing' with Indian leaders.
"His remarks during his India visit (when he praised New Delhi's role in Nepal's pro-democracy movement) reflected, at best, his under-assessment about the danger posed by Indian expansionism to Nepal and illusions regarding the character of the Indian state," the letter said.
"At worst, it shows his opportunism in making a complete turn-about with regard to his assessment of India after winning the elections."
Prachanda's bid to have good ties with the US has also been criticised.
"Even more disgustful is the manner in which the CPN(M) leadership has been trying to get into the good books of the American imperialists," the letter said. "To curry favour with the American imperialists, a section of the CPN(M) leadership had even assured that it would remove the Maoist 'tail' from its name."
The Indian Maoists' anger partly stems from the fact that the Indian government has been praising the Nepal Maoists' return to parliamentary politics and holding them up as a role model for other militant organisations.
"These revisionists have been claiming that at last the Nepali Maoists have come to the correct track and that it should serve as an eye-opener to the Indian Maoists who should, at least now, give up their unrealisable dream of capturing political power through the bullet and, instead, try to achieve it through the ballot as their counterparts in Nepal are doing today," the letter said scathingly.
The Indian Maoists are rejoicing at Prachanda's leadership coming under fire in the ongoing meeting of the Nepal Maoists' politburo meeting in Kathmandu and are urging for the resumption of their guerrilla war.
The fall of the Prachanda government last month, they said, is a clear warning that the Nepal Maoists, despite winning the election, are not free to do what they want against the wishes of "imperialists and Indian expansionists".
"At least now they should realize the futility of going into the electoral game and, instead, should concentrate on building class struggle and advancing the people's war in the countryside," the letter says.
"They should pull out the PLA from the UN-supervised barracks, which are virtually like prisons for the fighters, reconstruct the organs of people's revolutionary power at various levels, retake and consolidate the base areas, and expand the guerrilla war, and class and mass struggles throughout the country."