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| India-Pakistan | ||
| 'If The Leadership Has A Horse To Ride, All Cadres Cannot Expect To Have It' | ||
| 2008-01-26 | ||
| In December 2007, Outlook featured a story on Prachanda (The Rado Maoist), chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, detailing the remarkable change in his lifestyle after he emerged from the bush to join mainstream politics. We said he sports an expensive Rado watch, travels in an airconditioned Pajero, loves his daily two pegs of Johnnie Walker whisky, and has been accused of promoting his children in the party hierarchy. On a cold January morning this year, the Maoist supremo, dressed in a trendy tracksuit, met Outlook's Manoj Dahal and sportingly fielded questions on his new lifestyle, the problems revolutionary parties encounter in maintaining their ideological purity and India's role in Nepal. Excerpts: Questions have been raised about the gap between the lifestyle of Maoist leaders, including you, and cadres. Is the gap enormous? We're in multiparty politics now, not in the jungles. The situation is different, issues get raised in a different manner now. We must understand that the notion of equality is relative even within Marxism. If the leadership has a horse to ride, all cadres can't expect to have that.
We can't travel on foot in the city, can we? We need a vehicle not for comfort, but out of necessity. I am living in this house (his residence) with comrades (bodyguards) because of security reasons. It doesn't mean that all cadres should live in a house like mine. What we are doing for villagers and cadres is more important than what we wear and how we live. People who criticise us for our lifestyle are aesthetes, mechanical and narrow-minded.
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| Posted by:john frum |
| #4 The change in Prachanda has manifested even physically-his makeover is so drastic his comrades from those early years in the bush might even fail to recognise him. The 'Che of Nepal' has, in the last 20 months, gained 15 kg in weight, sports a Stalinesque moustache and gels his hair. He keeps it tightly combed back, and he constantly and consciously runs his fingers through it in public. Perhaps Prachanda has gained weight because his life in Kathmandu bears little resemblance to the 23 years he spent underground, shifting from one hideout to another under the cover of darkness. He, no doubt, still bustles around in the city, but it is now in an air-conditioned Pajero, escorted by a fleet of cars, reportedly comandeered from their owners. You could say the paraphernalia is required for security reasons. But then, as some Maoist leaders ask, of what purpose is the Rado watch (worth Rs 2 lakh) that he sports? Or, for that matter, the blazers and designer shades he wears, in sharp contrast to the threadbare dress of Maoist cadres? Perhaps the Rado watch symbolises the dramatic change in the quality of time for Prachanda. He was always known to love his liquor, his indulgence at times embarrassing his comrades. Late Nirmal Lama, who was with Prachanda in a communist formation before the CPN-M was formed in 1995, once said in an interview, "I do drink sometimes but my comrades are known for excessive drinking." His remark was widely perceived as a jibe against Prachanda, who has now shifted from the local brew to two measured pegs of Johnny Walker (Red Label) every evening. And the 15 kg of weight he has gained is no less because he is a voracious eater who finds fried chicken simply irresistible. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-01-26 09:05 |
| #3 It ain't what it ain't. summs it up so well. |
| Posted by: Punky Omeagum5537 2008-01-26 04:12 |
| #2 It ain't what it ain't. |
| Posted by: Thomas Woof 2008-01-26 02:33 |
| #1 "The notion of equality is relative" > I wouldn't say that in front of Jozef Stalin iff I were him. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-01-26 01:07 |