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Home > English > Website archives > Rainbow of Crisis > New Challenges

NEPAL

New Challenges

Interview with Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’, Senior leader, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

Tuesday 19 August 2008

The CPN- Maoist has been able to elect the party chairman to the post of the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Nepal. What do you think about leading the country after the formation of the government?

We have elected our Prime Minister with the support of most of the parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA). The collective votes of the House are more than 80%, which represents the essence of national consensus.

There are two types of challenges before the new government. The first one is to create a new constitution, and the other is to provide immediate relief and maintain peace in the country. We will carry them ahead as the commitment to the people.

How will you face those challenges in coming days?

We will be able to face those challenges in support of the people all over the country and in collective effort of all the forward going forces. We will be successful in building a new Nepal and establishing the peace.

There is no budget to solve the daily problems of the people and to develop the country. Where will you collect the means and the sources from?

Means and sources are available in Nepal. Only the man-power, capital and the technology is needed for us to mobilize it. We are sure that we will mobilize these resources and means; through the proper utilization of domestic efficiencies and the assistance of the foreign friends and technology.

Why were you unable to involve the Nepali Congress (NC), the co-alliance party for two years, in the government? What was the obstacle that happened at the end?

We requested the NC to form the government of national consensus up to the last hour. However, they didn’t change their consistency and their bias. They expressed their commitments to assist in writing the new constitution rather than review their decision taken before.

The obstacle that happened at last was nothing other than the prejudice of the NC. They remained constant in their 7-point preconditions that they had put forward before. The essence of the 7-point precondition was to form the government under the leadership of the NC by isolating the CPN-Maoist, which was quite impossible. The principle issue was the question of leadership and power sharing was secondary.

Ambitious plans for the new Nepal have already been declared in your commitment paper. How will you implement it in practice?

We have publicised two types of programme in our commitment paper at the time of election: one immediate and the other is strategic. The immediate programme will be carried ahead through the instant common minimum programme, built into the agreement of all the political parties. The policies and the plans, that we have publicised in the commitment paper, will be submitted there. We have our responsibility to provide immediate relief to the people and make them conscious towards the strategic plans.

The people out of the country suspect that there will be a price hike and a threat of starvation in the country, then how will you lead the country forwards if the neighbouring countries do not assist?

Certainly, not only the enemies but also our friends are in our neighbouring countries. Therefore, we will fight against the challenges created by enemies, and we will try to collect assistance from our friends. We can solve all these problems by mobilizing the people, applying the mass-line, providing immediate relief to the people and using the sources and means properly.

It took a long time, more than four months, even to form a new government according to the mandate of the election of CA. So, how will you be able to write a new constitution within two years?

We are aiming to write the constitution within one year, and another one year will be for accomplishing the task of election according to the new constitution. Our responsibility will be to complete the election after building a new constitution as soon as possible and form a new elected government.

At that time, the enemies of the people will create ceaseless obstacles in the process of making people sovereign and self respecting through writing the new constitution. However, we are confident that we will be able to defeat enemies by uniting the people and providing proper leadership. The People will always fight against anti-people elements and will be victorious.