Nepal to get $36 ml World Bank aid

The World Bank plans to provide $36 million aid package to Nepal to enhance its anti-poverty programme, including access to food and basic needs for vulnerable households in the impoverished nation.

The World Bank pledged to provide $19 million grant assistance and $17 million soft loan totaling $36 million financial aid package to the Maoist-led government to enhance its access to food and basic needs for vulnerable households in food insecured districts.

Lakhs of people in the impoverished nation, particularly those living in western Nepal, have been facing acute food shortages over the last few months due to poor crops production.

The situation of food shortage has been made worse due to poor accessibility and communication system in the Himalayan nation that has made delivery of relief difficult.

The WB assistance, being provided in three phases under the social safety net project, will be utilised mainly to purchase fertilizer, seed and food grains.

World Bank's Country Director for Nepal Susan G Goldmark inked a memorandum of understanding in this regard with Nepal's Finance Secretary at the Finance Ministry.

Two Nepali Women by Harry Powell

Today I visited Patan, the ancient town adjoining Kathmandu, to look at the sights. By the temples I was approached by two girls, selling bags, who talked to me about the significance of the different buildings. They seemed to know a lot about the temples so I asked them to be my guides.

One girl is a Hindu aged 15 and the other a fourteen year old Christian. The children here look to Western eyes a lot younger than they really are because a poor diet limits their growth. These two looked more like ten to eleven year olds to me. They were cleanly and attractively dressed. Both are living independently. In the first case her mother died and her father remarried but she was badly treated because her father is an alcoholic. So she left home. The younger one’s father is very old and is unable to look after her. She was living in Terai with her mother but some armed bandits came and demanded possession of their house. Her mother resisted and was shot dead. Then her daughter came to Kathmandu.


Both girls spoke good English which they had picked up from tourists and one knew some Spanish (more than I do!). However, their reading and writing is limited. They would like to go to school but even at the state schools fees must be paid. They cannot afford the fees because they have to spend their time earning money on the streets. (The new Maoist-led government is abolishing school fees up to the eighth grade but it is too late for them.) They do spend some time learning to paint religious Thanka art because the tuition is free. Both rent a room for which they pay 1,500 rupees a month rent (about 14 pounds sterling). Most of the time they manage to earn enough to pay rent and buy food but sometimes they go hungry.

I asked them about how they saw their futures. Would they get married and have children? Both were emphatic that they would not marry nor have children. They explained that they saw husbands, often drunk, treating their wives badly and they did not want to be confined to the home looking after a succession of young children. They hoped to find regular jobs and live independent lives. I said to them, “You are feminists”, but it is a word they did not know. I explained to them what it meant and they concurred. Although they look like little children, these girls are in fact mature women.

Nepal is one of the world’s poorest countries and child poverty is particularly bad. The streets of Kathmandu are teeming with urchins begging and hustling. Yet there is a very positive side to these children. Compared with their Western counterparts – being driven to and from school by parents, etc. – these children have had to learn to be resourceful and self-assured. In terms of the university of life they are way ahead of children in the imperialist countries.

Given the right conditions and opportunities these children could constitute an immense creative resource for building a better life for the people of Nepal. In trying to improve the lot of children I hope that the new government does not simply copy the standard Western model of education but develops something new and different which learns from and builds upon the knowledge and skills that the children acquire in the course of their struggle to stay alive

Nepalese Government recalls envoys from India, US

The government has recalled the ambassadors from India and the United States.

According to reports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent a letter, Monday, recalling them.

Currently, Durgesh Man Singh is posted as the Nepalese ambassador to India while Suresh Chalise is posted as the Nepalese ambassador to the United States.

Both Singh and Chalise are said to be close to the Nepali Congress (NC) party, which is now in opposition. They had been appointed as ambassadors ten months ago after they cleared the parliamentary hearing process.

In the past also, governments use to recall envoys after change in central government as many of the ambassadors are political appointees.

The UN Mission in Nepal to stay beyond January 2009

The UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), the political wing of the UN that is supervising the arms and army of the Maoists, will stay on in Nepal, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday, while ending his 22-hour visit to Nepal.

Ban said during his talks with Nepal’s Maoist prime minister Prachanda, foreign minister Upendra Yadav and ceremonial president Dr Ram Baran Yadav, it was agreed that UNMIN would be given an extension after its tenure ends in January 2009 though the details were yet to be worked out.

The UN secretary-general also said that the UN was ready to offer additional support including bringing to Nepal the experiences of other countries should there be a request

Obama- A Contradictory Phenomenon

Democracy and Class Struggle publishes an extract from a statement of the Central Committee of the Poor Righteous Party of the Black Nation US Marxist Leninist Maoists exposing the Obama Imperialist makeover project of the US Empire.

"Contradiction, Comrade Huey P Newton taught is the ruling principal of the universe. No where is this as true as in the case of Obama, an contradictory or dialectical phenomenon He embodies, all in one place the very real contradictions of the current world system.

Within Obama are the contradictions both Black national and imperialist Amerika in scope. Yet even though there is an internal struggle between opposites at any given time, there is an main aspect of the contradiction that gives shape and direction to the overall development of the contradicton.

This aspect we call the principal aspect of the contradiction. What is principal aspect of the contradiction in Obama? We say it is moribund Western capitalism, US imperialism which is principal in Obama. Obama is not so much an individual but a social force, a alliance of classes under the leadership of one. Who does Obama represents? Obama represents the ascendant faction of the liberal fascist bourgeoisie that has gained mastery in the recent accumulation process–New Money.

In the secondary aspect Obama represents the maturation of the growing alliance of between the right-wing of the national bourgeoisie in alliance with the US imperialist bourgeoisie. This alliance is necessary in order to consolidate the long term growth of Black comprador class at the service of the reactionary intercommunalists, a la Colin Powell, Condalezza Rice, 50 cent etc. The growth of the comprador bourgeoisie weakens the old civil right national bourgeois and create a strong neo-colonial buffer between the white oppressor nation and the world majority of commodity-slaves."

Extract from the Building points on Obama and the Orientatation of Black Revolutionaries from Central Committee Poor Righteous Party of the Black Nation

There is a link to Poor Righteous Party of the Black nation under friends and comrades on the right of this page for the full statement

China focus on Democracy and Class Struggle Televison

LINK ON RIGHT TO DEMOCRACY AND CLASS STRUGGLE TELEVSION UNDER FRIENDS AND COMRADES ALSO ON TOP RIGHT OF THIS PAGE

Interview with CP Gajurel in Katmandu Post - October 23rd 2008

C.P. Gajurel, 59, is a politburo member and chief of the foreign affairs bureau of the CPN (Maoist) party. In August 2003, while he was attempting to go to London from Chennai airport with forged travel documents, he was arrested and spent three years in jail in Chennai.

Following the second People's Movement of 2006, and the entry of the Maoists into mainstream politics, he was released from jail in December 2007. Since his release, he has traveled internationally, raising awareness about and seeking support for his party.

Gajurel spoke with Aditya Adhikari and Kosh Raj Koirala of The Kathmandu Post on Oct. 23 about the new government, the ideological tussle in his party, and its relations with other parties and neighboring countries.

Excerpts:

Q: How do you assess the performance of the Maoist-led government so far?

C.P. Gajurel: We feel that the performance of the government has not lived up to the party's hopes. Because it is a coalition government, it hasn't been able to work according to the policies of our party. We entered government with the understanding that we have to undertake visible change two weeks after entering government. Even if we couldn't immediately undertake major changes, we felt we could do smaller things, like controlling traffic and providing adequate supply of oil. But unfortunately we haven't even been able to do that.

Q: Your party has said that it doesn't believe in parliamentary democracy, but it believes in multi-party competition and doesn't want to impose a traditional communist system. Could you explain what the state structure would look like under your model?

Gajurel: There is a mistaken belief that multi-party means parliament, the parliamentary system means democracy, and that no other form of democracy exists in the world. But there are many political systems in the world that are not parliamentary but have multiparty competition
.
Q: So what is the alternative that you propose?

Gajurel: In our multi-party system, there will be competition between parties that are nationalist, that have fought for the country and republicanism, who want to make a new Nepal . It could be that many parties could come together to form government. It's not necessary that, like in parliament, there has to be an opposition party and a ruling party. In the interim period we didn't have an opposition but the system was democratic. In fact, there is no provision for an opposition in the interim constitution. Only after the Nepali Congress decided to stay in opposition did we decide to allow for it.

Q: Who will select which parties are nationalist and will be allowed to compete? What are the parameters for selection?

Gajurel: The parameter is the party's history among the people. The contribution it has made. The commitment it has towards the constitution we will draft. The commitment it has towards the country and its people.

Q: We hear that the Maoists say the state should be responsible for selecting parties that will be allowed to compete. That what the Maoists mean by multi-party democracy is one where they control the state and select which parties can compete and which cannot.

Gajurel: No. The system will have courts that will have final authority. There will be an Election Commission. These bodies will make decisions. The state can't just stop some parties from competing just because it wants to.

Q: The policies of your party in government are very different from what your party used to state a few years ago. Don't you feel that the party has deviated from its core ideology?

Gajurel: We haven't deviated from our core ideology. We didn't come to where we are through falling into some kind of misconception or illusion. We have our own strategy and our own tactics, and we've come here implementing them. The Constituent Assembly (CA) was a demand we put forth five or six years ago. We participated in the CA according to our own policies. Our central committee took a decision to enter government. But it is true that this is a new exercise. Such an exercise hadn't occurred in the world communist movement.

Q: Recently there has been much talk in the media about the differences between the “hard-line” faction of your party, and the “moderates”. That one faction wants to go back to war to continue the revolution, while the other wants to continue the current peace process.

Gajurel: Various opinions and differences arise within the party, and it is important that they do. As communists, we define our party as one of unity in opposites. It is not monolithic. The different opinions in the party struggle against one another, and the party gains direction through this struggle.

But no-one in the party thinks that we should go back to armed struggle. Even the so-called hardliners don't think this. Through armed struggle we have reached a phase where we can pursue our agenda through other means. Why should we then go back to it?

Q: We have heard a lot about the term 'Federal Democratic Republic' over the past two years. But what is this 'People's Republic' that we've been hearing about more recently?

Gajurel: The national convention of our party, which is going to begin on November 9 or 10, will deal with this issue of the kind of republic we need. The 'Federal Democratic Republic' line was definitely useful in bringing an end to the monarchy and establishing a republic. But do we now move forward or consolidate this form of republic? To move forward we now need a 'People's Republic'. The maximum form the Federal Democratic Republic can take exists in India . But has the Indian republic been able to solve its problems? We don't have to go further than Bihar to see how it functions. We have to do better than that.

Now it is said that a 'People's Republic' is a communist republic. But it is not communist. Neither is it socialist. It is basically a bourgeois republic, but it has many elements of socialism. For example, there will be progressive land reform. There will be decentralization of many rights. There will be local self-governance for many castes and ethnicities. We want to move forward so that we don't return to a feudal-type, capitalist-type of republic.

Q: What will be the economic system in the 'People's Republic?' Will there be a nationalization of banks, of property…?

Gajurel: People make a big deal of this issue of nationalization of banks. I just returned from Venezuela and had an opportunity to meet Hugo Chavez at a discussion programme. He joked, 'When I nationalized banks George Bush was really against it. But now he has become my comrade, he too has nationalized banks in his country.' And it is not only communists who nationalize banks. Indira Gandhi herself did so. Does that make her a communist?

Q: What about other economic institutions. Do you plan to nationalize industries…?

Gajurel: No. In that system not everything will be nationalized. Some elements will of course be nationalized, but private property and industry will exist. The national bourgeoisie will be protected. The objective is to develop national capitalism.

Q: There is a perception that the Maoists are getting closer to China and trying to distance itself from India .

Gajurel: We believe that it is in the national interest to have good and equal relations with both countries. Historically our relations have been one-sided in all aspects. For example, 80% of our trade is with India , and only 8% with China .

There is enormous potential to increase relations with China . I'll give you an example. Many tourists come through India to Nepal . This is a good thing. But more needs to be done to increase flow of tourists from the Chinese side. After the train link to Lhasa (from Beijing ) was constructed, three million tourists started coming to Lhasa per year. Most of these tourists are Buddhist. The most important place for Buddhists is our Lumbini. If we could construct a rail line or a highway connecting Lumbini to Lhasa, even if a third of the tourists to Lhasa come to Nepal, that makes a million tourists per year.

Q: Some leaders of the Nepali Congress have been asking if the Maoists are so serious about integration of their army, then why have they raised the allowances for People's Liberation Army (PLA) combatants by Rs. 2000? This indicates that they are bent on making the PLA stronger and fit for returning to war…

Gajurel: That's not our intention. How can we integrate the PLA if we don't even give them enough to eat? We need to give them basic facilities, develop their professionalism and then integrate them. It doesn't make sense that those who agree that the PLA needs to be professionalized are against giving them even enough food.
What the Nepali Congress is saying is ridiculous.

And, even though we had reached agreement in the past with the United Nations and other parties that integration would take place according to the Security Sector Reform (SSR) model, the Nepali Congress is bent on promoting the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Rehabilitation (DDR) model. The Home Minister said yesterday that there is no agreement that states that the Maoist combatants will be integrated into the Nepal Army. So what had we been negotiating this whole time? It is very strange that responsible leaders of the Nepali Congress are speaking like this.

Q: So you believe that all verified Maoist combatants, over 19,000 in number, should be integrated into the Nepal Army (NA).

Gajurel: Yes, that's what we hold. The whole agreement is about the integration of armies. Not of police or the YCL.

Q: And after integration, you want people from your army to receive the same rank in the NA as they did in the PLA?

Gajurel: Well, we have to discuss that. How qualified are our commanders? After all, they did win battles against the NA. If they weren't professional at all, would they have been able to win? We think that in many ways the skills of our PLA fighters are superior to those of the NA. We fought many battles with a few weapons. We don't feel that it is any exaggeration to say that our combatants deserve to retain their same rank after they are integrated

THANKS TO MAOIST LIST FOR POSTING THIS INTERVIEW

Homework for Army integration has already began

Deputy Prime Minister and coordinator of the army integration special committee, Bam Dev Gautam, has said that homework for integration of the Maoist combatants has already begun.

He also said the special committee would complete the army integration process "right on time".

Gautam, who is also the Home Minister in the Maoist-led coalition cabinet, was speaking to reporters in Biratnagar Wednesday, a day after he was appointed as the head of the five-member special committee that has been entrusted with the responsibility to oversee the "integration, management and rehabilitation" of Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The DPM also expressed confidence that the Nepali Congress, which has refused to join the special committee, would rethink their decision.

Answering queries on the proposed talks with the armed groups, Gautam said that formal dialogue with the armed groups operating in Terai and eastern hills would begin very soon.

The tough-talking Home Minister also made it clear that the government would sit for talks with groups that are willing to find a negotiated settlement, but those rejecting the talks offer would be dealt with 'accordingly'.

Prachanda interview in Red Star - Peoples Republic will be Federal and competitive

Prachanda, Prime Minister, Government of Nepal

What important decisions has the State Management Committee carried out?

The committee has taken some decisions related to the formation of peace committees at local levels and at village levels. In the lower level, a committee of political representatives with twenty-five members will be formed.

How do you evaluate the government under your leadership?

It is a coalition government. It has its limitations due to the fact it is a coalition government. If we evaluate the government within the limitations of that, many achievements have been gained at the international level and with the party leading the government from an immediate point of view.

In a short period, we have given a new orientation in policy, programme and annual budget in the country and visited from China to America. This is another important achievement. And the third, there is not so much clearness in the internal tasks as there needs to be. We are also worried about that. Now, I am concentrating on the internal work of the party to take some important decisions between the Dashain and Tihar festivals. Therefore, the people are perplexed because they are eager to see something new. This will be addressed soon.

Has the council of ministries expanded yet?

The council of ministries is full according to the cabinet. Some of the parties are willing to join the government in some of the vacant ministries. A decision will be taken about that soon.

Will the Nepali Congress be involved in the government?

There is no immediate possibility to join. Nevertheless, we are requesting the NC to join the government to build a Federal Democratic Rebublican constitution. However, Girija Prasad Koirala has denied that the NC will join the government soon.

The issue of land-reform and the integration of the army has become complex. How will it be solved?

The question of the land is not so complex. We will form a high level Land Reform Commission for scientific land reform. It will select and solve the problems related to the land and the land reform in its working process. However, it is not without challenges.

The most important subject is the integration of the army. More or less, it has already been done and written about in the Comprehensive Peace Accord and in the interim constitution. We have reached an agreement about it. But some other things are left to be done. Specifically, the policy, process and the concrete decisions on it are left to be worked out in detail.

In this period I visited foreign countries such as China, India and America. Everywhere, I have heard that people are confused. Even the people within our country are also confused. They do not have any clear picture in their mind.

There are two different views about the integration of the army. Some have extreme views about the integration of the army. They argue that the army should not be integrated because the People’s Liberation Army is a political army while the Nepal army is a professional army. They say that the two different armies, the political and the professional armies cannot be integrated. On the other hand, there is another extremist view on the integration of the army. They say that the whole of the PLA should be integrated and the decision of the verification and the discharge should not be accepted and followed. I think that the army should be integrated according to the agreement we have made before. There are different methods of army integration, but we should develop our own method. We should not copy the methods of others.

What is the method?

Now is not a suitable time to reveal all the things. However, the army should be integrated and the integration should be in a respected manner. It will be held from the point of view of solving the problem.

Whether or not the integration of army takes place on time or not has led many to suspect whether the constitution will be on time.

Probably, we will discuss more about the integration of the army in the coming meeting of the council of the ministers and will take some important decisions. From the former meeetings of the council of the ministers, we have some clear ideas about it. If we are able to solve the issue of the integration of the army on time as we have said, the building of the constitution will not take more than two years. The building of the constitution is closely related to the peace process. As I have understood, the integration of the army is possible. It is oriented in a positive way to solve the problem.

What was the attitude towards Nepal of those countries while you were in China, India and America?

I got different attitudes towards Nepal from the different countries and the different people while I was visiting them. Now, there is a big enthusiasm in china after our visit. I talked with the heads of the state president, prime minister, officials and the intellectuals in China. In our talk, I found a positive curiosity about the new Nepal, the Republican Nepal and the change. Along with it, I found helpful hands and sympathy with the new Nepal and the Nepalese people.

In India, as the first Prime Minister of Republican Nepal I visited media, traders and businessmen, government officials, Prime Minister, president and the leaders of the various parties. I got opportunity to clarify the illusion about the New Nepal and our Party. I used to feel that the BJP, a Hindutva party, was a little more confused about our party, the CPN (Maoist). Although the BJP and our party the CPN (Maoist) have quite different ideologies, the leaders of the BJP became clear and free from the illusion.

What was the illusion?

The illusion was that they suspected Maoists believe in terror. I used to hear about it before too. I talked directly with Lal Krishna Adwani, the leader of the BJP. I told him that I used to see you in the TV giving offensive speeches and interviews against us, but we were same as we are now. When he told me that me that he has never been in Nepal, I told him what politics he did when he hasnot visited Mithila (Janakpur) and Pashupatinath temple in Nepal. I told them that formal democracy has not addressed the people in the whole of India. And, it has not addressed the people anywhere in the world. We are committed to multiparty democratic competition. However, the multiparty competition is not a parliamentary system. We are in search of the Democracy that empowers the majority exploited, class, caste, region and gender of any country.

While visiting in America, I tried to raise debate about democracy. We are in an accredition that we want to synthesize the negative and positive aspects of our party Communist Democracy. Formal parliamentary democracy has failed all over the world. And, it has to be synthesized. In a discussion held in the New School University in America, some of the intellecutals told me that we communists are advancing only with the photos of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. I answered them by saying that the older ideology of formal democracy than Marx, Lenin and Stalin.

I told them how can Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao be older than the ideology of formal democracy founded by the older men than them. I told them that Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao are from the later genertaion who founded new ideology of Communism. The debate on democracy was good in America and India.

You met with George W. Bush, the president of USA. Did you get any changes in the opinion to behave Maoists after you visit?

Our party has been victorious from the point of view of moral and politics. I put our opinion as I met George W. Bush. I talked about newly established federal democratic republic and their helping hands to Nepal. This is a great achievement and victory of CPN Maoist because we are standing in a quite opposite political direction.

I told them that we reached in this point after passing a long process, but America is in the same point as it was before. I directly told them that we came in the ppoint through People’s War, Peace agreement and by winning the victory in the election.

Then I visited Richard Boucher and talked for a longer time about political issues. Their view point toward our party was logically defensive. When President Bush met me, he told me that the meeting between the two is also a change. It was a technical thing and it was not a policy.

In what sense, your visit was a breakthrough?

My visit itself was breakthrough. In my visit to china, it was a closing ceremony of Beijing Olympic. In the essence, China visit is a breakthrough.

In my visit to India, I did not make any aggreement against the interest of Nepal and the Nepalese people.

Some people blame that even the federal democratic republic government under the leadership of Maoist gave continuity to the former treaties and border is still being enchroached.

In this visit, questions were raised related to the border. My visit was the first visit. I hadn’t gone there to review and cancel all the bilateral treaties and agreements from Sugauli treaty to 1950’s, Susta, Kalapani and the barrages of the rivers.

Nepal became semi-colonial country after Sugauli treaty. Have we been independent after the establishment of republic or are we in the same situation as before?

Nepal entered into semi-colonial and semi-feudal socio-political situation after Sugauli treaty. Nepal has not been liberated from that situation yet. But the semi-colonial and semi-feudal condittion is different from those periods of Panchayat system and the parliamentary system under the constitutional monarchy before the election of the Constituent Assembly.

The declaration of federal democratic republic is the progress in the change of semi-feudal sociopolitical character. However there is not change in semi-colonial socio-political character and there is a danger of going to be a full colonial. But I dont want to say that it is only from India, the domination and the influence of foreign countries be more and more! The situation has been created whether the danger will increase more over the national unity and the national independency.

Therefore the change has not been equally in semi-feudal and semi-colonial socio-economic condition. Internally, the idea of disintegration is found. It directly and indirectly helps the idea of semi-colonial though. Therefore there is the danger of increasing intervention and hegemony in social, economic, cultural life of Nepal.

What can Nepalese people do for the protection of nationality?

Nepalese can do much more about this. My confidence has been increased. In my visit in foreign countries, i got huge support and sympathy about Nepal and Nepalese people. The political change occurred in Nepal has brought a change in the conception to Nepal. We can do more for the benefit of national liberation all over the world.

It is said that after the involvement in government, there is monarchy, selfishness in Maoist Party. Is it true?

In our society many new challenges occur in new stages. In this front this peaceful front, there is a little more danger in rightist reformism. There prevails the environment to be anarchist, personal and selfish. All the Nepalese and the revolutionaries should be aware about it.

Again, Maoist movement in Nepal has been in the first decade of 21st century. Therefore, all the reactionaries are hatching conspiracies to damage cadres and split the party. We should be aware about it. Third, around the Chunwang meeting, in the period of People’s War, radios, televisions, newspapers and the magazines publicised and broadcasted the news against our party and the party leaders. They publicized that the party was going to be split. They said that one leader had put another leader into jail. This created suspicious and anarchy within party.

Therefore, all these are the reflection within our party about the ups and downs of social struggle. There is necessity to fight against all these dangers. However, I don’t consider that the party has been damaged too much.

Are these all the consequences created by the emptiness of the correct party line?

That is not the main thing in my view. The party line, which we are following now, had been synthesized from the 2nd national conference in the period of People’s War. We fused PW and People’s Movement in our party line. We called series of tactics to interim government, constituent Assembly and Republic.

All these were called Prachanda Path. Then we called the development in ideology.

Then we centralized our struggle in interim government, constituent Assembly and Republic. If we review from there, tactics has not been finished yet. It is false to say that the tactics has been finished. CA is the synthesis of our tactics. Interim Constitution was not the main in our series of tactics. We became the largest party through the election of the CA that will take decision about the fate and fortune of all the Nepalese people. We are in the leadership of the government and if we say the end of that tactics it means that we are not understanding the real essence of the tactics.

The real struggle has been initiated in CA now. This is the essence of tactics passed by the 2nd national conference. To talk about the end of tactics is to disarm ourselves mentally and push to zero level. It is only to create illusion. CA is the main thing after the declaration of Republic and formation of interim government.

CA has not finished yet. We should re-read the document of Chunwang meeting. It says -”Until the federal democratic republic is declared, we will have a kind of compromise with bourgeoisie. After the formation of the CA, bourgeoisie will try to change the federal republic into bourgeois republic and proletariat will try to change the federal republic into People’s Republic. It shows that the real struggle has just begun”. The struggle is still left on the issue whether the federal democratic republic is made bourgeoise republic or People’s Republic.

Has the different document and different opinions filled in your party?

That is not true. Our party has a single opinion about tactics. No different opinions are there. No central committee members have still said that it was wrong to involve in the government. Nobody has said that it was wrong to take part in the CA. It is not wrong to take part and be victorious in the CA election.

Are all the news published and broadcasted are only illusion, then?

Yes, one thing we are worrying about party. We are in anxiety that will our party go into the bug of reformism or will be individualist. All comrades are in worry. All the sympathizers are thinking so. However, there is no other opinion in tactical line of the party and about the government. We have single opinion.

What about party Unity?

We have talked a lot about party unity. The talk was held before the election of the CA. We are already agreed but only some technical problems are there. After the election we couldn’t enter into the process of Party unity because the political situation was not so clear.

After the formation of the government, the political situation is now clear. We had already formed our coordination committee of party unity. We have held the regular meeting of the co-ordination commitee of party unity. We have taken a decision for party unity.

How will you implement the goal of People’s Republic in the country?

Some are being very terrified by hearing our People’s Republic. People’s Republic is not a traditional one. We will build the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist constitution. That is the People’s Constitution we can say it People’s Constitution and people oriented Constitution. We can say it People’s Republican Constitution also. The essence of the Constituiton should be free from the exploitation of feudalism and imperialism.

First of all there should be made the pro people constitution. The republic should be in favor of people. No one should be terrified that the People’s Republic is not same as the republic of Mao-Tsetung in China because, we have added two new things in republic. One, the constitution should be antifeudal and anti-imperialism and other, it should have federal structure. Mao had said unitary structure. Mao imagined the People’s Republic in unitary structure, but we are making federal. In federal structure, the division of power is from centre to local levels. This is originality in itself.

We have reached to the conclusion learning the lesson from 20th century that multiparty competition should be even in the socialism under the Constitutional boundaries. In this sense, the People’s Republic is going to be the federal competitive People’s Republic. It is not just the photocopy of Mao. It will be a developed one of 21st century.

FOR FURTHER ARTICLES IN THIS MONTHS RED STAR VISIT COMRADES AND FRIENDS ON RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THIS PAGE FOR LINK TO RED STAR.

Cabinet fails to form special committee on army integration

The cabinet meeting, Monday evening, failed to form the much-anticipated special committee to carry out the process of army integration.

"There are still some differences to be resolved (among the parties). So, the next meeting tomorrow will decide on this matter," claimed Krishna Bahadur Mahara, government spokesperson and Information and Communication Minister.

The cabinet meeting, however, made two signification decisions, according to Mahara.

"First, we have decided to take a proposal to the constituent assembly to amend the interim constitution to change the age eligibility for voters for the coming by-elections so that youths reaching the age of 18 years on previous Chaitra end will be eligible to cast vote in the election in the following year. Likewise, the cabinet also decided to initiate process to withdraw cases against 349 prisoners," Mahara said.

Mahara said that the next cabinet meeting will be held on Tuesday morning