KATHMANDU, Feb 14: Though the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) commemorated the 23rd ‘Peoples War Day’, officially for the first time after the merger between the erstwhile CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center), Prime Minister KP Oli who is one of the two chairmen of the party, skipped the event held at the party’s head office on Wednesday.
Oli, who always stood against the Maoist insurgency in the country attended a separate function to launch the Prime Minister’s Employment Program in the capital, while another chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who was the supreme commander of the then Maoist ‘People’s Liberation Army’, addressed the war commemoration function held at party headquarters Dhumbarahi.
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Addressing the function, Dahal accused ‘international reactionary forces’ of plotting to disrupt the unification between the two communist forces in Nepal. Dahal’s statement comes at a time when the two chairmen are at odds over several issues including the Venezuela crisis and the merger of the party units at the grassroots level.
“The international community was surprised to learn about the unification of the communist forces. In fact, this unification has offered an opportunity for us to stand committed to the development of the country,” Dahal said addressing the function attended by NCP General Secretary Bishnu Poudel and leaders Subas Nembang , Amrit Kumar Bohara and Krishna Gopal Shrestha. But NCP senior leader Madhav Nepal skipped the function saying it was organized through individual decision of some of the leaders. “It was an individual decision of Prachanda jee (Dahal) to commemorate the people’s war day. Our party has not taken any decision on the issue,” said Nepal.
