Multi- Faceted Prachanda

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-Maoist) Prachanda wears many faces: one is very sober and serene, another is fierce, and third is shrewd and so on. Whenever he needs to meet with foreign diplomats and other political leaders, he wears the smiling face and becomes the perfect gentleman and democrat speaking nothing but about multi-party competitive democracy and public-private partnership; he wears the face of fierce one whenever he needs to declare some radical things; and he wears the shrewd face whenever he needs to take damage-controlling measures. So, Prachanda is a multi-faceted personality.

On June 16, 2006, while talking to the reporters at the official residence of the Prime Minister after the meeting with the then-Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Maoists’ Chairman Prachanda disclosed his fierce character saying the Nepali Army had done noting but rapped the innocent Nepalese girls in the past causing an uproar in the Nepalese media and discontentment among the army personnel.

Then, after taking the largest numbers of seats in the Constituent Assembly in the election held on April 10, 2008, speaking at the mass rally held by his party at the open theater in Kathmandu, Prime Minister warned the media house of taking strong actions if they continue to write against the Maoists. There was uproar over the Prime Minister’s warning. Then, Media houses continued to do their business as usual.

Recently, the Prime Minister has dropped another verbal bombshell saying if anybody dared to topple his current government the next day Nepalese people would revolt against it and grabbed the power. Some people take it easily whereas the statement is serious and the Maoists are in position to do so. If it happens then many of us will lose the beautiful lives, as the Maoists try to eliminate the opposition.

One Prachanda does damage to his party and his government and another does damage control. After the damage done by the fierce Prachanda then shrewd Prachanda comes into actions and makes attempts at controlling damages. He goes back on his word and attempts to control the damages done to someone or an institution. He explains to the public and to the concerned person or agency what his words meant. For example, Prachanda repeatedly explained to the public what he meant by saying, “the Nepali Congress used guns to end the Rana autocratic administration in 1950, the then-king Mahendra used guns, too to grab the power from the elected government in 1960 and the Maoists also used guns.”

Not long ago, Prime Minster Prachanda said that the 12-point understanding reached between the then-seven-party alliance and the CPN-Maoist on November 22, 2005 had achieved its goal, and a new understanding was necessary among the political parties to craft a new constitution and to accomplish the goal of a lasting peace. However, the 12-understanding would never be obsolete and would be valid forever, as it contained so many fundamental things such as rule of law, human rights, press freedom and so on. We do not feel that the current coalition government has been able to enforce the rule of law, as politicians and common folks have been using force to get their goals achieved first rather than following the rule of law.

Prachanda had rejected both Girija Prasad Koirala and Madhav Kumar Nepal for the position of the first president of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, as Koirala had been the staunch supporter of the monarchy, and the people rejected Madhav Nepal in the elections for the Constituent Assembly held on April 10, 2008. Later on, Prachanda pleaded with Madhav Nepal for accepting the position of the Chairman of the Constitutional Committee: one of the most responsible committee for crafting a new constitution. Whenever Prachanda had a problem of dealing with the Nepali Congress he rushed to the residence of Koirala to sort out the problem.

Prachanda says the need for the consensus politics. However, he often neglects to take leaders of other political parties in confidence. He attempts to bully other political parties. Only when it does not work then he tries to take them in confidence. He could not bring the Nepali congress leaders to his fold; so, his government has to face the strong opposition of the Nepali Congress in the legislature-house and on the streets and in media too. Everybody knows that most of the Nepali Congress leaders have been not so sincere to the people and they are for grabbing the power at any cost and then use the state treasure for their own benefits disregarding the people’s needs and wants. So, it is not surprising that they do not go along with other political parties that have slightest idea of doing something for the people. However, Prachanda continued to parrot the need for the consensus politics.

The 12-point understanding Prachanda had reached with the Seven-party Alliance has the provision for returning the properties grabbed by the Maoists during the conflict with the state, the leaders of the Nepali Congress have been putting pressure on the Prime Minister to return the properties to the former owners. Prachanda spoke in the House concerning the return of the properties and promised to return the properties and compensate for the properties if could not be returned over the period he had promised but it did not happen. So, the Nepali Congress members of the House boycotted the sessions of the House for more than a week demanding the return of the properties grabbed by the Maoists causing hurdles to craft a new constitution and to pass the several Bills in January 2009. Most of the properties seized by the Maoists belonged to the Nepali Congress local and central level members so they have been fighting so hard for the return of the properties even disregarding the national interest. Ultimately, Prime Minister Prachanda went to the House once again and promised to return the properties. This time, Prachanda seems to be serious; so the local Maoists have been returning the properties to the former owners according to the Nepalese media reports.

Prachanda bows to the pressure of the leaders of other political parties. For example, bowing to the strong pressure put up by the main opposition leaders of the Nepali Congress in the House and on the streets he reverted to the previous system of letting the performing of the regular worship to Lord Pashupati in Kathmandu revoking the decision made by the Pashupati Area Development Trust on appointing the Nepalese priests to the vacant positions left by the South Indian priests after their resignations.

Similarly, after the CPN-UML sent its opposition to the diesel plants in writing saying the power produced by diesel plants would be four times higher than the power produced by hydropower plants, Prime Minister Prachanda abandoned the plan on building 200 MW diesel plant for producing power to mitigate the acute shortage of power despite the fact that the current power-cuts might bring economic disaster to the country so, the need for diesel plants to run for meeting the immediate demand for power, no matter how costly it might be.

Prachanda gave in to the demand for making new appointments to the vacant positions of members of the National Planning Commission when the previous decision on appointing some members was opposed by none other than the Vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission he had appointed.

Prachanda is a compromise person. Not long ago he compromised on taking a middle path after his rival Mohan Baidya Kiran put up his own version of the party policy against his policy at the central committee meeting of his party. Similarly, he agreed to delete the so-called ‘Prachanda path’ in the policy of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist after the unification of the breakaway parties with his party.

Change was the main theme of the then-CPN-Maoist currently UCPN-Maoist but Prachanda has stopped talking about the changes to be made, as he hardly could make any changes in administration or in anything of the state affairs. He immediately faced the strong opposition from other political party leaders particularly the Nepali Congress leaders when he attempted to make some changes in the prevailing system. Most probably he had come to the conclusion that the change was terrifying to the Nepali Congress. So, if he had to go along with the Nepali Congress leaders he needed to stop talking about changes and against status quo. However, Nepalis had made a great change in peacefully removing the despotic monarchy but major changes are still required in running the administration and in coping with the corruption at the various levels of the state administration. The practice of political parties clinging to power through corruption needed to be done away.

Prachanda says one thing to somebody another to others. He said to his Minister for Industry to settle the labor disputes at the industries and business houses but incites the labors to fight for the minimum wages set by his government. He calls on the labor unions leaders to calm down the labor unrest at the same time sends the laborers to attack the employers and creates havoc in the business community. It seems that he wants to create commotion and then to calm it down.

To the international community Prachanda present himself as a democrat and follower of the rule of law and a friend of all. He visited China and became the best friend of china and when he visited India he became friendlier to them than to anybody else. He went to New York to attend the 63rd UN General Assembly meeting and met with several leaders and even made influence on them. Some of the Nepali Congress leaders have successfully neutralized his influence on them.

Democracy and development are the main themes of Prachanda. He talks more of doing something for the poor. In fact, no other political leaders have done so much talking about building the country and of alleviating the poverty as he has done so far. However, he often forgets that he cannot do everything as he thinks right and as he wants, as he has been rightly telling the public: all political leaders are on the same boat and sailing together; so, he needs to convince others of the need for consensus politics to steer the boat as smoothly as possible. Often he finds that the boat remains at the same spot not moving at all. However, his ability to make friends and foes as well is quite remarkable. In addition, his capacity to bring his opponents on his side would probably make him the ruler of Nepal for another ten years at minimum.

January 24, 2009