The party establishment held a mass gathering at Basantapur while the rebel faction led by Maoist senior Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya, in collaboration with other 11 fringe parties, organized a similar program at Shanti Batika on Friday afternoon. [break]
The programs of the party establishment led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal were held in urban areas while the Baidya faction´s programs were held in all the 240 election constituencies.
Maoist Chairman Dahal was supposed to address the program in Basantapur but skipped the program citing health reasons. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Finance Minister Barshaman Pun addressed the gathering. Party insiders said Dahal decided not to attend the program after learning of low participation of party cadres.
Similarly, Baidya and party Secretary CP Gajurel addressed the program at Shantibatika. So did Matrika Yadav, general secretary of the CPN (Maoist). The Badiya faction also burnt copies of all the “unequal” Nepal-India treaties, including the latest Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement, terming them anti-national.
Addressing the program, Prime Minister Bhattarai said he was confident about completing the work of constitution writing May 27 but added that the constitution would be a document of compromise with the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML).
“It would not be the constitution that we want - a new democratic constitution. Neither will it be the constitution that NC and CPN-UML want," said the prime minister.
Bhattarai also told the party cadres that he and Chairman Dahal have not forgotten the sacrifices made by over 10,000 people who lost their lives and another 1,000 who were disappeared and injured during the conflict.
"Prachanda [Dahal] and Baburam have not tired, they are not losers and they have not forgotten the martyrs after entering Baluwatar [becoming prime minister]," the prime minister said.
Similarly, Baidya told his supporters that his faction represents the party establishment and the true party line. "The leaders who have dumped the party´s authentic ideology and political line have no right to call themselves Maoists. UCPN (Maoist) is our party," he said, indirectly accusing Dahal and Bhattarai of discarding the party´s original ideology.
He also accused Dahal and Bhattarai of “betraying the ´10-year people´s war and the sacrifice made by martyrs”, arguing that the 1990 movement was necessitated after the CPN (Marxist and Leninist betrayed the Jhapa movement of 1971.
Expressing his serious concern over allegations that his faction does not want peace and constitution, Baidya also expressed his commitment to peace and constitution.
"We want peace but not dead peace. We will fight for a people´s constitution until the last moment. If the parties betray the people we will continue our movement," he said, accusing the present government of dancing to the tunes of foreign powers.
"We had termed the Madhav Kumar Nepal government a puppet. The current government led by our party Vice-chairman Bhattarai is also a puppet government," said Baidya.
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