At the standing committee meeting on Tuesday, the party faction led by Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai had demanded a meeting of the CC, and the faction led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya lent its support to the Bhattarai faction over this.[break]
Relations between Dahal and Bhattarai have reached a tipping point, with the latter boycotting the mega cadre orientation program in the capital on Monday, and leader Hisila Yamai, who is Bhattarai´s wife, publicly complaining about “lack of internal democracy” in the party.
The current intra-party dispute erupted after Dahal turned down Bhattarai´s request to let him read out his political document at the training session Monday.
While Bhattarai claimed that the last CC meeting had mandated him to put forward his dissent, Dahal did not budge from his stance, arguing that political training meant informing the cadres about the party´s official line.
Bhattarai termed the chairman´s move a “grave violation of party discipline, norms and values.”
"What happened on Monday is very serious. So we have called another CC meeting to pin down the exact interpretation of the decision reached during the last CC meeting,” said Maoist leader Khadga Bahadur Bishwakarma.
Leaders close to the Dahal faction have claimed that the Bhattarai faction has engaged in a grave violation of the party decision.
“Bhattarai´s demand on Monday was against established norms and the decision of the last CC. What we want is the incident should be recorded in party history as a grave mistake on the part of some leaders,” said party leader Shakti Basnet, who is close to Dahal.
But those close to the Baidya faction, which is the strongest in the party, have stated that the CC would find out what went wrong, instead of taking action against any leader.
“The meeting will discuss the gap in the understanding of the party decision. Digressing from the real issue and taking action against any leader will not lead to any solution,” said Kul Prasad KC, who is close to the Baidya faction.
Party insiders say Dahal is not in a position to take action against Bhatarai as the latter has the backing of some influential leaders from the Baidya faction.
“We can make both positive and negative moves to settle the issue. But we would definitely choose the positive one,” said Bishwakarma of the Baidya faction. This faction has taken the middle path to settle the disputes amicably.
Cadre orientation postponed
With the intra-party disputes intensifying, the Maoist party has also postponed the scheduled cadre orientation program. “The party has to postpone the program to prevent the disputes from permeating the party rank and file,” said a standing committee member.
Editor Komal Baral ´sacked´
Maoist mouthpiece Janadesh Weekly has felt the heat of the clash between Dahal and Bhattarai.
The weekly´s chief editor Kamal Baral, who is close to the party establishment, has accused Bhattarai of sacking him, but the Bhattarai faction has refuted this.
According to sources, Baral said he would not publish Bhattarai´s interview in its original version, but Bhattarai, who is chief of the party publicity department, said, “Who are you not to publishing my interview?”
“I wanted to remove some lines of the interview which would spark controversy. But Bhattarai asked me to resign,” Baral said. The newspaper issue published Tuesday does not have Baral´s name as editor-in-chief.
Manorishi Dhital, who is executive editor, did not accept Baral´s proposal not to publish the newspaper. “But I and the newspaper management reached a decision to run the interview and publish the newspaper. So Baral asked us to remove his name from it and we agreed,” said Dhital.
Most journalists at Janadesh weekly and the management are in the Bhattarai faction. Baral is the lone person close to the party establishment.
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