by Tika R Pradhan in The Kathmandu Post, Aug 8, 2023
After some parties including the main opposition CPN-UML and opposition Rastriya Prajatantra Party, the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) has decided to launch a ‘three-month grassroots’ campaign to reach out to the people.
Party leaders believe that the campaign will help revive the party in the upcoming polls as they will know the concerns of the people and act accordingly to convince them to vote for the party.
But political analysts and observers say such campaigns would amount to little as most of the people are so disenchanted with traditional political parties and their leaders that they don’t even want to hear their names. The success of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) in the by-polls and the depletion of UML votes after such a grassroots campaign in the last election hints as much, they say.
They also said that more than 50 percent of UML youths have reportedly not renewed their memberships, a sure indication of the party’s downfall. The Maoist Centre’s case wouldn’t be much different despite the campaign, they add.
“Maoist Centre had claimed they had eight hundred thousand party members but the party received only around 12 hundred thousand votes,” said Hari Roka, a political economist. “This means that party members couldn’t even convince their own family members to vote.”
Roka added that it’s a good thing Maoist leaders have shown interest in reviving the party through the campaign. “But not all wishes get fulfilled,” he said.
Roka added that a party needs a proper ideology and organisation to implement its programmes and the Maoist Centre of today has got none of them.
Maoist Centre leaders, however, would like to believe otherwise. They say the actions taken by the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government to curb corruption should be publicised and that will help convince the people.
But observers question how the leaders would defend the sorry economic state of the country after Dahal assumed office, citing rising inflation—rice is dearer by more than 4-500 rupees per 20kgs and vegetable prices have skyrocketed. The lives of people have become all the worse, they argue.
The government’s anti-corruption credentials have taken a serious hit after it appointed Lharkyal Lama, a man charged with multiple offences, as the vice-chair of the Lumbini Development Fund.
Maoist Centre leaders themselves admit it.
“This one move [Lharkyal’s appointment] has sent all the praise the party has earned for its proactive role in curbing corruption cases down the drain,” said Ram Prasad Sapkota, a Maoist central committee member. “But we will try to regain the people’s trust by reaching out to them.”
Young leaders have welcomed some of the party’s recent announcements: its statute convention, scheduled to be held by mid-December; reduction in size of all the committees to 99-member or less; and electing all the committees through polls following the endorsement of the new party statute. They have also praised the appointment of 35 percent of women leaders in the party’s central committee but the party is yet to make all its committees inclusive as only one woman is among the party’s office bearers.
Atendra Kesari Neupane, an office bearer of the party’s Gandaki Provincial Committee of the party, also said the party needs to spread the government’s “positive works” to regain the people’s trust. “But for that, we must ensure fast delivery, control the rising inflation and make necessary arrangements in education, health and employment,” Neupane said.
However, neither the party nor the government appears to have any such plan or programme to make the “necessary arrangements”.
According to a former central member of the party, during the recent central committee meeting, the members touched upon the problems but failed to come up with solutions.
Since the party doesn’t currently have any vision or agenda to solve the people’s problems, reaching out to them alone won’t amount to much, said Hemraj Bhandari, a former central member who had quit the party over conflicts in election tickets.
“Whether it is Maoists or the UML, going to the people alone won’t work unless they have a clear vision to solve their problems,” he said.
https://kathmandupost.com/politics/2023/08/08/will-the-three-month-grassroots-campaign-rejuvenate-the-maoist-centre
