Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai expressed this view during a closed-door session held at Kanchanjanga Party Palace, Gairidhara to train cadres close to the party establishment. [break]
"There cannot be any revolution today just by capturing a few police posts with three or four hundred men, guns slung across their backs. It will be a suicidal step," a participant quoted Bhattarai as saying.
According to the participants, the prime minister, who has forged an alliance with Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, claimed that the political line of the radical camp will ultimately lead to its undoing.
"It may seem we are revisionists and they [hardliners led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya] are the revolutionaries. But the truth is just the opposite," participants quoted Bhattarai as saying.
Similarly, Dahal argued that the hardliners and their nationalism rhetoric have been exposed after they began to forge an alliance with the Nepali Congress (NC) and other "rightist" parties.
He pointed out the need to launch an ideological battle against the hardliners.
Meanwhile, at a separate orientation program, Dahal asked PLA commanders to maintain cordial relations with Nepal Army (NA) personnel. "You should build amicable relations with NA personnel. The army is no longer a Royal Nepalese Army nor are we PLA personnel. It is a new national army," PLA Second Division Commander Suk Bahadur Roka Magar quoted Dahal as saying.
Dahal became "a bit emotional" and told the commanders that this was "perhaps his last order to them."
Around 400 commanders from division commander to battalion commanders were present at the meeting.
The commanders also expressed concern over potential discrimination against them in the NA, and demanded that the party ensure they would also be selected for UN peace-keeping missions abroad.
Some commanders had accused Bhattarai of betraying the Baidya faction immediately after becoming prime minister. First Division Commader Yam Bahadur Adhikari said that the commanders were concerned about their future, but Dahal and Bhattarai told them not to worry.
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