Interview with Mohan Baidya ‘Kiran’
[The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) split in June 2012 with Kiran walking away
with several other senior leaders to form a separate party, the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist).
Kiran was critical of many decisions made by Prachanda and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, the leaders
representing the Maoists during the peace process. He supported the nomination of Dr. Bhattarai as
Prime Ministerial candidate in August 2011.
During the conversation, Kiran emphasized that the biggest mistake of the leaders of UCPN(Maoist),
Prachanda and Dr. Bhattarai, was to agree to disband the PLA without consolidating their gains and
securing all their demands in a Constitution. Baidya elaborates his assessment of the state character in
Nepal, asserts that the revolution in Nepal is incomplete and lays out a plan for the future.
Rumela Sen is a Post-Doctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Political Science in Columbia
University, New York. This interview was taken in July 2018 and and published in the magazine, “South
Asia” on August 7. – Editor]
[RS] What is your assessment of the current
conditions in Nepal?
[Kiran] Nepal is semi-feudal and semi-colonial
country. We need to complete a new democratic
revolution in Nepal to achieve socialism and
communism. It has been our goal since we first started
people’s liberation war. We have not yet achieved
what we set out to do. The current situation in Nepal
continues to be semi feudal, semi colonial, or you
can even call it ‘neo-colonial’. As a result, going forward, we believe that the only way to liberate the
people of Nepal is to relaunch an armed struggle.
[RS] Some of your former comrades have
asserted that the revolution is complete in Nepal.
You seem to disagree. Why?
[Kiran] I strongly disagree. I know some people
who think that the bourgeois democratic revolution
has been completed in Nepal. I don’t agree. We believe,
as I said before, that the conditions in Nepal continue
to be semi-feudal and semi-colonial. Let’s first define
contd from page 11 their errors to the masses and must guarantee that
no future retaliation is permitted on pain of
punishment by the government in accordance with
the law. At the examination meeting, the examined must
have the full right of stating their case—not allowing
them to state their case is undemocratic. No matter
whether in the rural areas, in the cities, in the army, in
the organs of schools, in any meeting to examine any
party member of cadre, the examined will have the
right to state their case.
Aside from this, the masses must also be granted
the right of direct removal from office of any working
personnel under examination, or of suggesting
removal. With regard to the worst among them, whose
actions have violated the law, the masses have the
right to accuse them before the people’s court. We
persuade the masses not to beat people, but if we do
not give the masses such rights, they will not dare to
criticize. To sum up in the examination of cadres and
party members, or in dealing with individual elements
among the masses, the principle of using verbal
criticism as much as possible and telling reason and
not permitting the beating of people should be
adopted. As a result of this stipulation, the masses
will dare to criticize and the examined will also have
the opportunity to state their case.
beneficial to society. If many landlords and rich
peasants who do not resolutely sabotage the war or
agrarian reform are arbitrarily killed, this will not only
lose the sympathy of the masses and isolate our-
selves, but moreover will be a loss to the country’s
labour power so that society produces less wealth. If
the family of those killed cannot make a living because
they lack labour power, this will further increase the
burden on society.
We also oppose the beating of people. In the
course of the mass movement, if the real righteous
indignation of the masses leads them to raise their
hands against their oppressors whom they hate
passionately, Communists should not stand in their
way. Communists should sympathise with the righteous
indignation of the masses, otherwise we may become
estranged from the masses. But Communists and
working personnel of the democratic government
should not, under non-combat circumstances,
organize physical attacks against people.
The examination of cadres and party members in
rural areas who have committed mistakes, at party
meetings attended by the masses, is a very good
method. At the same time, we should explain to the
cadres being examined that, they must earnestly admit
12
Class Struggle