Nepal’s Maoist party concludes convention, demands amendments in MCC

Kathmandu, Nepal

A week-long 8th General Convention of the CPN (Maoist Centre) has concluded, selecting 236 Central Committee (CC) members and endorsing a political document tabled by party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’. 

The document says the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact will be approved only after amendments and only on the basis of broad political consensus.

The closed session of the party endorsed the names proposed by Prachanda. The size of the Central Committee is 299 and Prachanda will nominate the rest of the members.

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The Central Committee will select the party’s 15-member office bearer. The convention was held to elect the Maoist party chairman, 15 office bearers, and a 299-member Central Committee. 

Earlier on Monday, Dahal presented his political report titled â€œThe Path to Socialism in the 21st Century” before the seven-member closed-session that includes Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Giriraj Mani Pokhrel, Ganesh Shah, Parshuram Tamang, Parshuram Ramtel, Purna Kumari Subedi, and Rupa Shrestha Maharjan.

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Dahal in his document has outlined the Nepali way to achieve socialism in the 21st century. He added that the party should strive to ensure identity-based federalism from three fronts - street, parliament, and the government.

“The document includes reviews of where we went wrong in the past in terms of ideas, organization, structure building, and strategy,” Dahal had said on Sunday. 

“The document will start the process of formation of revolutionary ideas of the party, lead the party in a revolutionary direction and initiate a great debate for the synthesis of ideas,” he further added. 

In the Maoist party, the political document presented by the chairman defines the course for the organisation. 

Political leadership from other political parties made notable remarks on issues ranging from the much-contested MCC to social and transitional justice to Maoist reunification.

Prime Minister Deuba, recently re-elected party leader at his own Nepali Congress general convention, maintained that the MCC would be ratified in Parliament soon, with forging consensus among political alliance and urged people to “actually read and be informed on the terms of the MCC before branding it as anti-national, traitorous, and against the interest of the country”. 

The Maoist party was formed in 1995, and has all along followed Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. It launched “people’s war” in February 1996. In 2006, the party laid down arms following a peace deal and joined mainstream politics.