Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was founded on 22 April 1949 as a political representative of the Nepali working class. Over the years, the party has been at the forefront of struggles for class and social emancipation of Nepali people. It has always stood firm against feudalism and imperialism and for the protection of Nepal’s sovereignty, independence, geographical integrity and national interest vested in the people. Going through many ups and downs of split, division and unity and also enriching itself with the experiences of running the government, the party is now established as the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) [CPN (UML)].
Marxism-Leninism and People’s Multiparty Democracy (PMD) are the guiding principles of the party. PMD has been developed in the leadership of Comrade Madan Bhandari, which identifies and offers creative Marxist solutions to Nepal’s political, economic, social, cultural and environmental problems. This new scientific principle of Nepali revolution guides us to establish and implement socialism.
CPN (UML) is the leading and representative organisation of Nepali working class. The party represents the interests of blue-collar and white-collar workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie. It also represents people belonging to different ethnicities, languages, cultures, geographies, occupations and genders. In the leadership of CPN (UML), Nepal ended the feudal monarchy and established a secular and inclusive federal democratic republic in the country. The ultimate goal of the party is socialism.
The party is committed to protect, practice and develop the constitution promulgated by the Constituent Assembly; institutionalise the federal democratic republic; establish the foundation for socialism by ending all the remnants of feudalism, defeating the tendencies of comprador capitalism and imperialism, developing national capital and, thereby, ensuring social justice and equality through socio-economic transformation. The party believes that socialism will eventually lead the human society to communism.
CPN (UML) is committed to protect Nepal’s constitutional supremacy, multi-party and open society, multi-party competition, periodic elections, governance system led by people’s representatives, independent judiciary, human rights, and universal values and principles of democracy. The party is committed to ushering socio-economic progressive transformation through a peaceful and democratic practice.
With the capitalist mode of production starting in the 1930s, Nepal saw the birth of working class. In the 1940s, there were organised struggles of workers in Biratnagar, the eastern city of Nepal, which prepared the material conditions for the establishment of Nepal Communist Party. The global revolutionary struggles, including the Russian October Revolution, anti-colonial movements, the Indian independence movement and the Chinese revolution became important inspirations for the Nepal’s communist movement at that time.
It is imperative to recall that there were some political organisations like Prachanda Gorkha, Praja Parishad and Nepali Rastriya Congress established before the founding of Nepal Communist Party. However, Prachanda Gorkha was crushed after a few violent altercations, while Praja Parishad went through extreme suppression in 1941 at the hands of the Rana regime. Nepali Rastriya Congress, representing the liberal feudal and capitalist class, did not possess a clear perspective and plan against feudalism and imperialism. Therefore, revolutionary comrades within the Congress, including Puspalal Shrestha and Tulsi Lal Amatya went ahead to ignite the communist movement. Till then, a few leaders like Comrade Man Mohan Adhikari were already in contact with the international communist movement.
Nepal Communist Party was established in this background. It was a momentous achievement in the political history of Nepal. The party then absorbed the legacy of patriotism, social reform and democratic movement, and took the struggle against feudalism and imperialism to new heights. The party took the immediate goal of democratic revolution and the long-term goal of establishing socialism and communism. With the strategic slogan of ending the Rana rule and establishing civil rights, the party took the path of inspiring workers, farmers, students, women and migrant Nepalis, forming a revolutionary committee at the local level and organising a public uprising.
The tripartite Delhi Agreement between the Ranas, the king and Nepali Congress in 1951 destabilised the people’s movement. Even after the agreement, NCP with the patriots and revolutionaries in the Liberation Army attempted to continue with the struggle. This met with extreme suppression from the government, so much so, it banned Nepal Communist Party in 1952. After the Nepali Congress President Matrika Prasad Koirala became the prime minister, the government allowed India to keep check-posts at the northern border of Nepal. Nepali revolutionaries like Bhim Datta Pant, Ram Prasad Rai and K I Singh were supressed by inviting the Indian security forces.
As an alternative to Nepali Congress’s compromising pro-foreign policies, Nepal Communist Party attempted to push forward a revolutionary, democratic, patriotic and socialist stream. It took forward the communist movement taking together numerous legitimate fronts and people’s organisations. Farmers’ rebellion in Bara, Parsa and Rautahat districts, anti-feudal movements in Jhapa, Gulmi, Tanahun and Tehrathum districts, struggles against the Koshi and Gandak agreements with India, and the movement to demand the constituent assembly election, were among the many struggles that were led by NCP during the period of 1952-1957.
The organisational disorientation of NCP began from the moment Puspalal, the founding General Secretary, was deposed from the leadership. The disorientation transformed into reactionary opportunism as soon as Keshar Jung Rayamajhi became the General Secretary. In the 2nd National Congress of NCP, Rayamajhi attempted to scrap the republican ambition of the party. Although he was not successful in doing so, Rayamajhi did not go ahead with the party’s line of destabilising monarchy, which was passed by the national congress.
Not fulfilling his promise of the constituent assembly election, the king announced the parliamentary election under the constitution promulgated by himself. Nepali Congress party secured two third majority in the election. However, the party developed arrogance as soon as it ascended to the power. Other smaller parties maintained pro-monarchical stance. Using the dilly-dally of Nepali Congress and support of the smaller parties, King Mahendra exploited the situation to overthrow the democratically elected government and the parliamentary system on 15 December 1960.
Owing to the suppression at the hands of Nepali Congress and the reactionary opportunism of Rayamajhi, NCP could not resist the autocratic step of the monarch effectively. After the royal coup the NPC organised its 3rd National Congress in Darbhanga of India and expelled Rayamajhi from the party. From the same Congress, the party passed the following two programmes: ‘Programme of National Democracy’ and the ‘Establishment of Powerful Parliament.’ However, NCP could not implement the programmes successfully. The party also faced the impact of divisions and polarisation in the international communist movement. Many subordinate committees of the party proclaimed independence from the central committee, while many important leaders self-exiled themselves. This gave way to a tragic series of division, disorientation and disintegration of the communist movement in Nepal. Puspalal attempted to reconstitute the party from the 3rd National Congress, but all the previous factions did not support this re-unification.
With this background, the Jhapa uprising (1971-1972) became the turning point for the political history of Nepal and the Nepali communist movement. The uprising fiercely announced revolution against the monarchy. It effectively created a wave of rebellion, sacrifice and reconfiguration in the face of stagnancy and inefficiency within the party. Learning from the mistakes of extreme leftism and the subsequent suppression, the party evolved from Coordination Centre in 1976 to Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) in 1979 and the establishment of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) in 1990.
On the other hand, the other important stream of Nepali communists originated from the 4th National Congress in 1976, which then evolved to become Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre). This stream culminated as Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the latest form of which is Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre). Since the 1970s, Nepal’s communist movement has been moving ahead with these two large streams.
In the leadership of the communist parties, many struggles for social justice and anti-imperialism became significant in the political lexicon of Nepal. Some of these struggles included subjects such as rights of farmers, students and the landless population, and movements against Nepal’s border infringement, inflation and corruption. The autocratic panchayat regime on its part, tried to suppress the movements. Nevertheless, the 1980 student movement that demanded democracy, forced the king to announce referendum. This inspired mass-based organisations to become active, and thus the support among the masses increased for CPN (ML). In this context, the panchayat regime’s massacre of people in Chhintang and Piskar, and the subsequent mobilisation against the regime initiated by the party was remarkable.
In 1990, communist parties, along with Nepali Congress launched the united people’s movement. Rejecting minimal reforms in political system proposed by Nepali Congress, CPN (ML) took the leadership of the movement to depose the panchayat regime and establish a constitution to ensure multiparty democracy. In 1991, Comrade Madan Bhandari proposed the 27-point point of dissent against the constitution, which was justified in the second people’s movement of 2006 and the subsequent series of events.
This was the period when CPN (ML) strived to implement the universal values of Marxism-Leninism in the special context of Nepal, and pave the way for the theorisation of Nepal’s revolution. In 1989, CPN (ML) passed the idea of multi-party system within people’s democracy. This concept was furthered by Madan Bhandari with the idea of People’s Multiparty Democracy (PMD), which was based on Marxist philosophy, experiences of Nepal’s revolution and the lessons learnt from the world communist movement. CPN (ML)’s 5th National Congress passed PMD as the programme of the Nepali revolution, while the 6th National Congress passed it as the leading ideology of Nepali revolution. The subsequent 8th, 9th and 10th National Congresses have taken PMD forward as the guiding principle of Nepali revolution.
The popular government of 1994 led by CPN (UML) and the welfare programmes put forward by it served to establish PMD among the masses. Hence, PMD is not just a political programme but it is now established as a concept for the overall transformation of Nepali society.
During the same phase, CPN (Maoist) started armed struggle in 1996. Although with some limitations and weakness, the Maoist movement was successful in arousing and mobilising women, Dalit, Madhesi, Janajati and other marginalised sections, and eventually building the foundation for the constituent assembly election and the republic.
These two streams of the Nepali communist movement have had a long-standing competition, ideological struggle and difficult relationship. However, dialogues and interactions are integral parts of this relationship. In 2005, the 12-point agreement between the seven-party alliance and CPN (Maoist) served to bring together the anti-monarchical forces. The agreement also formed a foundation to create a republican form of government with the constituent assembly election, state restructuring and peace process. Communists played a leadership role in promulgating a progressive constitution supportive of socialism. This process stimulated the unification of the two communist streams, which was a clear desire of people and a historic lesson for the communists.
In this context, the two parties formed an electoral alliance on 3 October 2017 and eventually unified on 17 May 2018. The unification balanced political power in favour of the working class. Patriots, democrats and socialists became encouraged by the unification, and the communist movement saw a flow of fresh revolutionary energy. This resulted into a leftist government with almost two third majority and political stability.
However, the unification did not go ahead as it should have been. The unification had raised a huge challenge for the opposition. However, the party could not reply to the counterclaims made by the opposition in the same vigour. Rather, the party saw organizational anarchy and it slowly took the form of reactionary opportunism.
From 2018, there were covert and overt attempts to oust Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli. When the government reclaimed Nepal’s geographical territory Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura publishing a new official map by amending the constitution, through a unanimous vote in the parliament, the attempt to oust the prime minister became rampant. The party can have natural discussions, debates and internal conflict. These conflicts should have been resolved from the dialectical method of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis. However, the organisational anarchy deliberately created forced conflicts and negated the other side, which pushed the party to a split.
The unification could have been saved if the agreements to resolve the problems were implemented and the party was steered towards the national congress. However, no action was taken to organise the congress. Instead, on 13 November 2020, in a meeting of the central secretariat, Prachanda presented an accusation letter against the party chair with grave allegations. The party opposition did not even wait for four months for the national congress, as previously agreed, but attempted to stage a coup on the basis of conspiracy and sabotage. The party leadership tried until the end to protect the unification, asking the opposition to retract the accusation letter but that did not happen.
The political and ideological organizational anarchy transformed into reactionary opportunism. In order to depose the party led government, the party opposition became involved in dealing with the parliamentary opposition, entreating with foreign powers, and starting a series of activities to form a government led by reactionaries. Having observed the misuse of the instability, the prime minister was forced to dissolve the House of Representatives on 20 December 2020.
As Nepal Communist Party was already at the edge of a split, a decision from the Supreme Court took the party back to its previous forms – CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Centre) on 7 March 2021.
Although NCP’s unification has been thwarted legally and politically, it was a genuine effort on our part to unify the communist movement of Nepal. Procedurally, the unification between the two parties no longer exists, however the continuation of NCP and its legacy is held by CPN (UML). Many senior leaders of CPN (MC) remained with CPN (UML) as they were in favour of the unification. CPN (UML) will continue its effort to unify the communist movement.
CPN (UML) has now started a renewed campaign to reform the party by fighting against division, sabotage and conspiracy. On 1-3 October 2021, the party organised its 1st Statute Congress successfully and decided on a strategy to form the foundations for socialism. On 26-30 November 2021, the party organised its 10th National Congress. The opening of the Congress saw a historic participation of the largest number of supporters, which proved once against that CPN (UML) is the country’s most popular and important political force. The convention passed the following slogan to guide the party: ‘Let's defeat right-wing opportunism and organisational anarchy; Build the base of socialism under the guidance of PMD.’
Having led various struggles for people while in opposition, CPN (UML) also led the government time and again. In 1994, the party set an example of pro-people government by implementing a people-centric budget with provisions of social security. That could never be revoked by subsequent neoliberal, capitalist or conservative governments. Today, the social security programme has aligned with the life cycle of 3 million people, bringing a huge change in their lives.
The party led the government twice after the promulgation of the constitution in 2015. During this period, it concentrated on the implementation and protection of the constitution, with the formation of an equitable, just and prosperous Nepal. The governments led by the party in this phase will be remembered for a long time as the protector of the national sovereignty.
In the last government led by CPN (UML) for three and a half years, the party focused on socio-economic transformation, economic growth and social justice. The government’s plan played a major role in securing housing, health insurance, minimum wage, guaranteeing employment at least for 100 days for those who are unemployed, and land for the landless. A continuous 7% economic growth, graduation from an under-developed country to a developing country, substantial improvement in the investment environment, and controlling the balance of payment losses have been seen as the important indicators during the party’s leadership in the government. The transformative and strategic investment in the infrastructure projects is gradually showing a good result. Today, indicators of development, prosperity and outcomes have been established as the main action points of any government in Nepal. The direction of the national narrative has been shifted. People now have the confidence towards the future. Nepal as a country also saw a boost in its confidence.
CPN (UML) has a clear foreign policy – to develop a relationship with all the countries in the world based on equal sovereignty, non-interference and mutual cooperation and respect. Our foreign policy is based on the Charter of United Nations, the five principles of peaceful coexistence and non-alignment. We strongly stand against war, any kind of terrorism, and hoarding of weapons and atomic bombs, while we vigorously support world peace, justice, prosperity and economic development.
Our policy mainly puts Nepal’s national interest at the centre, keeping its sovereignty, geographical integrity and independence intact. We believe in protecting the rights of people to natural resources, while utilising them for the country’s development. Promoting human security and national security, mobilising foreign debt, grant and investment for the interest of Nepal, establishing Nepal as a peace-loving, democratic and progressive country, and maintaining ‘Amity with all, Enmity with none’ is the declared policy of the party.
CPN (UML) is committed to fulfilling the national aspiration of ‘Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepal.’ By 2049, with the centenary of the party’s establishment, we are committed to see Nepal as a prosperous and developed country.
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