Baburam Bhattarai’s 4-point formula

Former Maoist ideologue, ex-prime minister Baburam Bhattarai of the Nepal Samajbadi Party is a rare politician who voluntarily sacrificed his constituency and did not contest the federal elections in November.

Ever since the Maoist conflict ended in 2006, and in subsequent elections Bhattarai never lost in his Gorkha home base. In an unexpected gesture, he offered his prized constituency to his one-time comrade-at-arms Pushpa Kamal Dahal, now prime minister. 

The two had a major falling out during the conflict, when Bhattarai and wife Hisila Yami were actually put under house arrest. In 2015, Bhattarai broke away from the Maoist party, citing fundamental differences with Dahal — some of which are mentioned in Yami’s memoir, From Revolutionary To First Lady.

Dahal contested and won the Gorkha seat to be prime minister again. There has been much speculation about why Bhattarai gave up his sure seat to someone he was estranged with.

Some have speculated that it was a trade-off between handing over a sure-win to Dahal in Gurkha in return for Maoist Centre support for Bhattarai’s daughter Manushi who was contesting from Kathmandu, and which she lost.

I wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so I asked him directly, during a meeting at his Nepal Samajwadi Party office this week.

“I strongly felt that we have to always play a strong role in strengthening our federal democratic republic system,” Bhattarai answered. "The Maoist revolution in Nepal has played a big role in establishing this. It was because of the fear that the revolution might be forgotten that I supported Prachandaji (Dahal) to contest from my seat and I still am convinced that I did the right thing.” 

Bhattarai stressed that he felt the achievements of the Maoist revolution are slowly being forgotten — either because of internal reasons within the Maoist party, or because those opposed to the revolution want to preserve a corrupt system and maintain the status quo.

“As far as Manushi’s loss in the elections is concerned, there is a general perception that a talented youth like her should not have lost,” Bhattarai added. “Later, based on evaluations and feedback we realised that the urban youth were disillusioned with the Maoist symbol of hammer and sickle. There was an understanding among the general public that if she had contested with another symbol she would have won.” 

That argument carries some weight because if there was one strong message Nepal’s electorate sent in May and November elections it was that many were fed up with politics as usual and were voting in young, fresh faces from both old and new parties.

Bhattarai accepted that the outcome of the election as well as the dramatic turnaround in coalition-making that elevated Pushpa Kamal Dahal to become prime minister for the third time was as per Nepal’s constitutional provisions. 

Despite that he is apprehensive that the seven-party coalition led by Dahal and supported by K P Oli of the UML is fragile: “There is a fear that the country could still be mired in continued instability.”

Bhattarai says he has always been a strong advocate of overhauling the political process that perpetuated the old ruling system which was holding the country back. Which is why he split from the Maoists to first form the Naya Shakti Party and later the Nepal Samajbadi Party.

As Nepal’s only prime minister who has a PhD, Bhattarai is also a student of political science, and says that the whole idea of a coalition is a consensus among its members about a minimum program. Foremost should be about geopolitics and Nepal’s need to balance the interests of India, China, and the United States.

Nepal’s political parties must also reckon with the country’s geographical, ethnic, caste and linguistic diversity in the Himal, Pahad, Tarai and Madhes. To achieve this, he said, there must be a unity of purpose across party lines.

His third point was that the jurisdictions between the federal, provincial and municipal governments need to be sorted out because they have not been institutionalised. This has affected governance, and trapped the country in a vicious cycle of poverty and unemployment.

Fourth, is something he tried to push throughout his tenure as finance minister and prime minister between 2009 and 2012: investment in infrastructure-led job-creation and growth.

He says there needs to be a national consensus and proper direction to address these four issues. 

“If we are able to get consensus on these four points, democracy will be strengthened in this country,'' he said, adding a note warning: “If not, no matter which individual or party is in the ruling seat, the current state of crisis will remain.”  

On his plans for his Nepal Samajbadi Party, Bhattarai said his party will try to steer a different path from the Nepali Congress’ liberal democratic capitalist approach and the UML’s centralised communist party structure.

“We are taking a different stand from these two approaches,” he explained. “We are grounded in democratic socialist approach suitable for Nepal’s geopolitics and the country’s economic social underdevelopment. We are a small party now, but we have planted the seed.”