City-centred revolution in the offing, says Maoist leader Gajurel
City-centred revolution in the offing, says Maoist leader Gajurel
By Gopal Khanal
NEW DELHI, Feb 3 - Maoist Politburo member Chandra Prakash Gajurel "Gaurav" Saturday revealed that the
CPN-Maoist’s participation in the interim parliament and the recently thawing relations with India was “merely a stratagem” for declaration of a republic Nepal.
Speaking at an interaction programme organised by the Maoist affiliated Democratic Students Union (DSU) of the Jawarlal Nehru University (JNU), Gajurel stated that his party’s foray into mainstream politics was also a part of their "ongoing revolution."
He disclosed his party’s strategies in reply to the Indian Maoist affiliated intellectuals and leftist leaders who accused the CPN-M of being "unable to maintain its revolutionary image."
He assured his supporters that Nepali Maoists had "abandoned its revolution but were instead strengthening themselves to this end and that in the recent days, the party had managed to achieve a substantial increase in the PLA fighting force."
“Since entering mainstream politics, we have increased our military strength from 10,000 to a 37,000-strong PLA. This in itself is a great achievement,” Gajurel said.
“We are now capable of launching a fresh revolt any time.”
Gajurel’s comments have confirmed conflicting reports in that past that the Maoists had been busy recruiting PLA fighters even after entering mainstream politics.
Gajurel, who is also the in-charge of the party's “international command”, revealed that if the parliament failed to get results, they would also conduct a "city-based revolution."
“We are going to the elections and make sure that the results are in our favour. If the oppositions capture one booth, we will capture five,” he added.
He also divulged that a "People’s Volunteers" was being formed for the party’s city-based revolutions, elections and other “strategic activities”.
He also said that the "People’s Volunteers" would have around 100,000 members, adding that the Maoist Chairman Prachanda would soon make an announcement to this end.
Gajurel further stated that the refusal by senior leaders to participate in the interim parliament was also part of the strategy.
"Why didn’t Chairman Prachanda, Baburam (Bhattarai), Badal and I himself go into the interim legislature? Because, once there, they (parliamentarians) must speak the language of revolution, something those who were there on frontlines are capable of."
He also said, if necessary, the CPN-M parliamentarians would lead the street and city-centred revolutions.
Disclosing that his party would take up guns as soon as peaceful measures failed to get results, the Maoist leader further added that his party was capable of being "locked and loaded within an hour."
Gaurav’s claim of the PLA’s “ability” to be armed and ready for combat within has raised suspicions regarding the ongoing UN monitored Maoist arms and armies registration and storage.
Union’s former chairperson, Rona Wilson had chaired the interaction programme that continued till midnight in the JNU’s Sutlej hostel, in which around 100 leftist students and intellects were present.
While Gajurel was busy giving away the party’s internal strategy, members of his own Indian association, People’s Right Protection Committee (PRPC), however, appeared “uncomfortable”.
Gajurel, who was the chief guest during the inauguration of a PRPC programme recently, had faced criticism by representatives of Indian and international revolutionary forces who had accused his party of giving-in to a progressive outlook and forgetting the notion of class struggle,
Although he did not reply to those criticisms in an open forum, he disclosed his party’s “masterplan” to CPN-M’s foreign well wishers that Friday night. During the programme, he also claimed that 80 percent of Nepali territory was still "under the Maoists’ control."
He also stated that the cordial relations with Indian government was part of a strategy, adding that his party couldn’t do its job while India remained incensed.
Gajurel is so way out of line here.
The Madhesi Movement has already done a total
safaya of the Maoists in the Madhesh. If the Maoists are going to treat their Janajati leaders and members like cattle, the Janajati Movement will do a total
safaya of the Maoists in the Janajati territories also.
I am for land reform. I am for state funded parties. I am for one person one vote democracy. I am for women's rights. I am for Dalit, Madhesi, Janajati rights.
But the Maoists are going to have to play ball.
Power flows through the barrel of a gun - they are going to have to ditch that dictum once and for all. And if they are not going to do that, all other forces in the country have to come together to ostracize them permanently. They will have hit a point of no return. And if that means not ditching the monarchy, then so be it.
I am for ditching the monarchy. I am a progressive. The monarchy is a feudal institution. But violent Maoism is beyond feudal, it is medieval.
The spirit that Gajurel expresses here, if that is the "internal" reality in the Maoist tent, then the democrats will have no option but to forge a strong alliance with all forces foreign and domestic to wage a total, final struggle against the Maoists.
I don't get it.
I can understand that the Maoists as the leading ultra left force on the planet would be under tremendous pressure from their lesser accomplished comrades around the world to go back to dogmatic ways. The "Bible" says violence, so you stay with violence.
I invite people like Baburam Bhattarai to engage with me in an elaborate, open philosophical dialogue on the topic. I have laid out in my
proposed constitution my vision for Nepal. Nothing Mao ever wrote is better. Maoism gets a ton of people killed, and it did.
Mao is from a different era. That was an era of rabid western colonialism. Those were desperate times. Even the Chinese know that: they have known that for decades.
Today Maoism does not apply. It is not scientific to apply ancient Maoism to today's realities.
My proposal of state funded parties will build a classless Nepal that no Maoism ever will. Going back to classic Maoism will only invite a protracted civil war in the country where powers like India and the US will get to have an open play, and for good reason. Their calculation will be, do we want maybe 100,000 deaths now, or 10 million during the years of Maoist rule. They will be wanting to avoid the Cambodia situation, and for good reason.
The Maoist leadership needs to steer away from that trap. Prachanda does not want to be like one of those cult leaders who lead all their followers to commit mass suicide. That way lies a bloodbath. There is no liberation, there is no national pride, there is land reform, there is no classless society down that path. That is a path to living hell.
The Maoists can not do it even if they want to. The democrats in Nepal are strong enough to fend the Maoists off. And if they are not, the royalists and the feudals will be trigger happy to forge an alliance with the democrats and the foreign powers. But if ever that need is felt, the Maoists will have closed all doors of reconciliation permanently. Why would they want that?
I hope this Gajurel flareup is a temporary mental slide to feed the intransigent ultra leftists who are insignificant in numerial strength, and even less so in impact. Those people are basically out of touch with reality. Communists are supposed to be scientists. They are supposed to face reality. They are supposed to face facts. They are supposed to allow open analysis of their positions held. These losers of the international ultra left movement are a throwback to another era. These are like the Japanese soldiers on remote, desolate, tiny Pacific islands who decades later still did not know World War II was over. Noone told them.
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