Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal declared the infinite strike amidst an interaction program with media persons at Hotel Yak and Yeti, Monday. The party has set the deadline of May 1, the day of the party´s proposed mass urban-centric demonstrations, to meet their demands.[break]
"Taking into account the whole political scenario and background, our party has reached a conclusion that massive pressure and intervention of the people is essential to safeguard national independence and people´s supremacy and for peace and constitution-drafting," Dahal said. However, the Maoist chairman said his party would remain open for talks with the ruling parties.
According to him, thousands of party volunteers would be mobilized from May 1 in the major cities to make the "third Mass Movement" peaceful, and warned that the government would be responsible for any untoward incident if demonstrations are suppressed though violent tactics.
Dahal also denied reports that his party has been training its cadres in urban warfare tactics. "They were trained to manage the massive demonstrations," he said, "We absolutely dismiss the propaganda that they were being trained in military skills." There are news reports and pictures about the Maoists training their cadres with khukuris and sticks at camps in various districts, and that they would be at the forefront of the Maoist demonstrations.
He claimed that such training took place only in Morang and that the party has directed its local bodies not to train cadres with lathis and Khukiris. He also said the seizure of more than 600 Maoist sticks by police in Kavre on Sunday had been hyped up.
"If the other side resorts to violent tactics, there will be violence. It is said the state begins violence at first," he said.
Accusing the government of making massive preparations to suppress the demonstrations, he said the Maoists have already decided to "retaliate" if the government takes to violent methods to crush the demonstrations.
In closed-door training sessions, Maoist leaders have been telling their cadres that they should now be ready for a "last battle" to capture state power.
Dahal also argued that the general strike is not his party´s wish, but is the only option for fulfilling the historic necessity of peace and constitution.
The former rebel leader also argued that his party had withdrawn the party´s continuous strikes earlier after the High Level Political Mechanism was formed, but the mechanism could not make headway due to the apathy of NC and UML leaders following the demise of NC president Girija Prasad Koirala.
He also passed the blame for breaking the system of consensus onto the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML, which, according him, led to the current political deadlock.
The Maoist chairman said his party mulled a no-confidence motion, but decided to drop the plan after the game of "buying and selling parliamentarians´ votes" began.
According to Dahal, the more people hit the streets, the quicker will come the results, and people won´t have to suffer long.
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The Maoist chairman stated that the other political parties and players don´t have the right to dictate who should be the prime ministerial candidate of his party.
"The way a few names have been proposed for the post of prime minister is, we think, a conspiracy against our party," said Dahal, adding, "If attention from the real issues of the day was diverted by proposing a certain person for prime minister, it will have catastrophic consequences."
He claimed that others should not dictate to his party who it should put forward as prime ministerial candidate.
"Is it a party system or a monarchy? There used to be a king and leaders including Madhav Kumar Nepal would meet him to be annointed to the post of prime minister," he replied when journalists asked him why he doesn´t agree to another leader of his own party as the next prime minister if the other parties were agreed.
There is an intra-party tussle over who should be the next prime ministerial candidate from the Maoist party. Immediately after stepping down from the government, Dahal declared at the party central committee meeting that he would not be prime minister if his party leads another government. But a few months later, he again endorsed his name as the next candidate, saying India was playing a game and planning to split the largest political party by proposing Vice-Chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai as the next PM.
A few weeks back, the party Standing Committee had informally agreed that another leader from the same party could be made the next prime minister as one option if the other parties agreed. The party had informally agreed after leaders backing Dr Baburam Bhattarai demanded that the party should keep "all options" open. "But the chairman is not following that even as the country slides into chaos," said a Maoist leader.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar has also proposed to look for a common candidate acceptable to all as the next prime minister, for the sake of the peace process and constitution drafting.
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