By Nishan Khatiwada in The Kathmandu Post, June 20, 2023
The CPN (Maoist Centre), the CPN (Unified Socialist), the Janata Samajbadi Party and the Communist Party of Nepal led by Netra Bikram Chand Biplav announced the formation of the front amid a function at Rastriya Sabha Griha in Kathmandu.
Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Unified Socialist chair Madhav Kumar Nepal, Janata Samajbadi Party chair Upendra Yadav and Communist Party Nepal General Secretary Netra Bikram Chand jointly signed the agreement on the Socialist Front Nepal.
The combined strength of the four parties makes the front the third largest force in Parliament. It has 54 seats in the House of Representatives: 32 of the Maoist Centre, 10 of the Unified Socialist, and 12 of the Janata Samajbadi Party.
It has, however, the largest share in the federal Cabinet, with ten ministers and three ministers of state.
The front partners have agreed to set up a secretariat to implement the front’s policies, plans and programmes, for monitoring purposes and for day-to-day operation. The secretariat will incorporate representatives from all member parties.
They are also planning to expand the front in the provincial and the local levels, should the situation demand. They will establish a coordination committee incorporating the chairs of the member parties and other representatives for taking policy-level decisions. That committee can form subcommittees and assign their jurisdiction based on necessity.
The front has left the door open for other political parties to join. The four top leaders will lead the front by turns, as per the agreement.
Speaking at the launching function, Nepal Communist Party General Secretary Chand said, “The goal is to free our nation from this crisis…where the youths feel confused and the general public feels restless. The regressive forces should not benefit at any cost. This is why we are undertaking this historic experiment.”
Similarly, Janata Samajbadi Party chair Yadav said, “We have formed this front in a bid of the progressive and revolutionary forces to move ahead together. A lot of political work is left to be done. We will proceed by correcting the many mistakes and flaws we made in the past.”
“The danger of regression is evident,” said Nepal, the chair of Unified Socialist. He said the front will try to mitigate the danger and thus win public trust.
Prime minister and the Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal said effort will be made to incorporate other like-minded political forces in the front, claiming that the front has not been put together out of a sudden impulse.
According to Dahal, the failure of the Nepal Communist Party is a matter to be seriously assessed. He further said, “In the past, problems surfaced due to the hurried unity between the parties. So now, by learning from the past, the front will move forward as one force while also maintaining individual parties’ independence.”
Nepal Samajbadi Party chair Baburam Bhattarai, who had also expressed his willingness to be a part of the front while it was being formed, however, skipped the announcement function.
Merging, unifying, and splitting have for decades been rituals of Nepal’s communist forces. Many times, communist forces have come together by promising big things, only for the unity to soon unravel.
One such example is the dissolution of the Nepal Communist Party, which was considered to be the most powerful communist force in Nepal’s history, in early 2021.
With the chequered history of leftist fronts, political watchers doubt the sustainability of the recently formed socialist front as well.
Political analyst Rajendra Maharjan said the front appears to have been formed with immediate parliamentary arithmetics in mind—and not by stepping on long-term agendas. “Almost all political parties talk about socialism. This front has no concrete idea on how they will realise their goals,” he said.
Maharjan added that the political parties in the front appear keen on increasing their bargaining power if they have to bargain with the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress in the future.
For Vijay Kant Karna, another political commentator, the sole reason for the front’s existence is to consolidate power and create a political space for themselves. “All the constituent parties have weakened and fared poorly in recent elections. That’s why they want a front to show their presence,” he said. “Also, the parties fear that if they weaken, their leaders will disperse.”
The Maoist Centre has shrunk from 53 seats in 2017 to 32 seats in the House of Representatives. Similarly, the Unified Socialist failed to even be a national party and the Janata Samajbadi Party has weakened in its own bastion, the Madhesh. The Nepal Communist Party also has no visible presence in parliamentary politics.
In Karna’s reckoning, the front’s longevity is in doubt. “It will not last as it lacks concrete objectives. None of its constituent parties accept each other’s leadership,” he said.
https://kathmandupost.com/politics/2023/06/20/expectations-low-as-the-socialist-front-comes-into-being
