Communist parties in Nepal have locked horns with the top election body after the latter removed “communism” from one of the communist parties' statutes, terming it a contradiction with the constitution. The controversial move sparked a debate among political parties, with many resenting the decision. 

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Center), which is part of the ruling alliance, in its party statute submitted to the Election Commission, has stated that “‘communism’ is the party's ultimate goal, which it wants to achieve through ‘class struggle’ and ‘people’s revolution’”.

Last month, the top election body first asked the party to remove the terms like “people’s revolution”, “class-struggle,” and “communism”. However, later the commission itself removed those terms from the document just before placing it in official records. 

For communist parties across the world, these terms are very common. Left-wing parties in Nepal objected to the removal, saying communism is the basic foundation of all communist parties.

On the other hand, Nepal’s constitution states the country as a socialist, and political parties’ goals can’t contradict it, argued the Election Communism. 

“The commission found those terminologies contradicting the Constitution of Nepal,” Shaligram Sharma Poudel, spokesperson for the commission, was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post.  He further added, “They have been removed before keeping the statute in the official record.”

Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the spokesperson of the CPN (MC), said “We object to the commission’s decision. We will discuss it before reaching a conclusion on how to deal with it.”

CPN MC, led by former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, had waged a ten-year-long civil war in Nepal, seeking “people’s democracy.” However, with the war in a stalemate, the party accepted the multiparty democratic parliamentary system in 2005 and joined the mainstream. 

CPN UML, another communist party, led by former prime minister KP Sharma Oli, also objected to the removal of the word “communism” by the Election Commission. It said when a party can have “communist” in its name, why couldn’t they use “communism” in its stated goals. 

(SAM)