CPN (Maoist Center), that finalized the office-bearers on Saturday, has been criticized for being exclusive.
Narayan Kaji Shrestha has been made the senior vice-chairman, Krishna Bahadur Mahara the vice-chairman and Dev Gurung the general secretary.
Similarly, Giriraj Mani Pokharel, Barsha Man Pun, Haribol Gajurel, Pampha Bhusal, Janardan Sharma, Matrika Yadav and Shakti Basnet have been made deputy general secretaries.
Dina Nath Sharma, Chakra Pani Khanal, Devendra Paudel, Leela Mnai Pokharel, Ganesh Sah, Hit Man Shakya, Hit Raj Pandey and Ram Karki have been made secretaries while Sriram Dhakal has been made the treasurer.
The revolutionary party that took up arms demanding equality and inclusion has included 15 Khas Arya—14 of them men—among 21 office-bearers. The list proposed by Khas male Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and endorsed by the rubber stamp standing committee meeting, glaringly includes only one woman in Deputy General Secretary Pampha Bhusal.
Only Senior Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, General Secretary Dev Gurung, Deputy General Secretary Barsha Man Pun and Secretary Hit Man Shakya are from indigenous ethnicities while Deputy General Secretary Matrika Yadav and Secretary Ganesh Sah are the only Madhesis.
The party had different ethnic fronts when it waged the armed insurgency and many of them are active even after the party joined mainstream politics after signing the peace process in 2006. It had even demanded provincial demarcation and naming of the provinces along ethnic lines with preferential rights for certain ethnicities in the province concerned.
“They chanted slogans of inclusion. Struggled citing there was no representation of women, Dalits, indigenous ethnicities, Madhesis. It is not appropriate to raise the agenda and now ignore it while taking people to leadership,” political analyst Hari Rokka, who has been sympathetic to the Maoist cause right from the time of insurgency, laments calling criticism pointing Khas men have dominated the revolutionary party fair.
While the party does not necessarily have to make higher committees inclusive after forming an inclusive central committee, he points that Maoist Center should have finalized office-bearers adhering to the principle of inclusion if it champions liberal democracy.
Maoist leader Rekha Sharma concedes that female representation is not in necessary proportion but adds that finalization of office-bearers is a good thing when they had not been finalized for eight months after the general convention ended at the start of January.
Sharma, who is among 11 women including 10 new ones in the 41-strong standing committee that Chairman Dahal has yet to officially confirm, claims that Dahal could not practice inclusion as many senior leaders had to be managed while finalizing the office-bearers.
Writer Meena Paudel says that picking of office-bearers shows that Maoist Center is gradually becoming regressive and slams Maoist female leaders for being satisfied with rise in number of women in the standing committee. “This is just to silence women leaders. Dahal and other top leaders have asked them to say so. The women leaders may also have this fear that they will lose their positions and come to the streets if they criticize the party leadership,” she adds.
“It is natural to expect from Maoists on the issue of inclusion. There will be anger and disappointment when what was expected was not seen. Even those who have been included as women there have come as someone’s wife or daughter. They, therefore, cannot strongly raise the issue of women.”
Deputy General Secretary Matrka Yadav refuses to comment on the issue pointing that he was not present in the meeting that finalized office-bearers while Secretary Dina Nath Sharma argues that the current office-bearers are temporary, and the party will hold special general convention to resolve organizational problems, and the party will be made fully inclusive then.
