Nepal’s Maoist leader Prachanda may visit Sri Lanka

Exclusive to Sri Lanka Guardian

from our Kathmandu correspondent

(June 27, Kathmandu, Sri Lanka Guardian) Speculations are afoot the leader of Nepal’s Marxist party, Pushpa Kamal Dahal is on course to visit Sri Lanka as the head of his country’s mission to the forthcoming the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation scheduled for August in Colombo. Popularly known as Prachanda, he is now on the verge of taking over as head of a new government following the emotional exit of the country’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala yesterday (June 26).

Founded in 1994, the Communist Party of Nepal had since 1996 waged a prolonged and often a bloody campaign called “The Peoples War” against the Nepalese monarchy. Launched February 13, 1996, the Peoples War accounted for the lives of thousands of Nepalese. Prachanda, from the beginning of this campaign led his party strictly on Leninist-Mao dictates as necessary for the development of this Himalayan Kingdom ruled by a Hindu monarchy.

In the recent elections held in Nepal, Prachanda’s party became the largest representative group in the Nepalese Constituent Assembly. Last April, addressing the media in Kathmandu, Prachanda clearly indicated that the deck was now clear for the election of a post-election government and the end of the government of Prime Minister Girija Koirala. He also said that the Fifth Amendment Bill to the country’s constitution will be passed paving the way for the election of a president as Head of State.

Born December 1954 and hailing from Nepal’s Chitwan District where he had his education, Prachanda came into limelight with his political philosophy of Prachanda Path and the launching of the Communist Party of Nepal in 1994. His precepts were fundamentally Maoist and has held firm on these for the last twelve years. Previously, the Communist Party of Nepal was not identified as Maoist and when it was founded in 1986, Prachanda was elected as the General Secretary.

In 1990 when the bloody campaign was brought under control, Prachanda went underground and took charge of the secret wing of the party. However his party’s interests were headed at that time in the Nepalese Parliament by Dr Baburam Bhattarai as a member of the United Peoples Front. Six years later, Prachanda was widely held as the overall leader.

- Sri Lanka Guardian