Scrap the peace deal: Maoist radicals

KATHMANDU, Nov 2:The radical faction of the UCPN (Maoist) has threatened the party establishment to correct its “ideological deviation” by scrapping the seven-point peace deal reached with the major parties on Tuesday.



“The peace deal was struck humiliating the PLA. So we have asked the parties to strike another deal to correct the mistake,” said Maoist Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya who leads the radical faction of the party. [break]



Labeling party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai “traitors of the revolution”, the radical faction, however, ruled out the possibility of an immediate split in the party.



“We will first put forward our views during the upcoming central committee meeting and chart out the party´s course accordingly,” Baidya said.



But the Maoist radical leader Baidya argued that the party unity would hold no meaning if the establishment faction doesn´t correct the “mistake”. “What is the party unity for? The party establishment has swung to rightist revisionism, and we have stood in favor of the people. The party will not split, but we will settle the score with those who erred,” he said.



He also claimed that a majority of party cadres are with him and dismissed the party establishment´s claim that the PLA personnel are happy with the deal. Baidya warned of another mass movement if the deal is not scrapped.



Earlier, speaking at the press meet, party Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa dubbed Nov 2 as a “dark day” in the history of communist movement in Nepal. “It is a dark day when the lackeys of foreign stooges are celebrating. But we have declared war on their celebration,” said Thapa.



Thapa argued that “dissolving” the PLA would not prevent his faction from taking ahead a “revolution.” “Hundreds of thousands of combatants would emerge from the blood of the few,” he said.



The cadres of the Baidya faction also marched from the Rastriya Sabha Griha to Shanti Batika chanting slogans against Dahal and Bhattarai.



The party radicals have said that the peace process and constitution drafting should go side by side. They have demanded unit-wise integration of the armed combatants, leadership of the combatants in the proposed directorate under the Nepal Army (NA), and integration of 10,000 combatants in the directorate.



They had also demanded formulation of a national security policy and credible progress in state-restructuring prior to the integration process.



The hardliners have argued that the party establishment broke the party´s pledge made to the people, by agreeing to return the land seized by the party cadres, without making alternative arrangements for those who have settled there.

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