politics: CPN (UML) / CPN (ML)

The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) or shortly CPN-UML [Nepali name: Nepal Kamyunist Party (Ekikrit Marksvadi-Leninvadi) or shortly NeKaPa-EMaLe or simply EMaLe] is the most popular political party in current Nepal besides the Nepali Congress. It came into being in January 1991 when two of the numerous communist splinter groups (CPN-Marxist-Leninist and CPN-Marxist) joined as the general elections were approaching.

The roots of the communist movement of Nepal go back to the late 1940s when the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) was founded by Pushpa Lal Shrestha and his comrades in Indian exile in 1949. The party later faced a lot of splits mainly caused by differences among its leaders. They already started in the late 1950s leading to poor results for the party in the 1959 parliamentary elections. While in underground during Panchayat times, the party split time and again, first over the controversies between the Soviet Union and China, later also over personal differences of the party leaders.

There was a tendency to greater unity in 1989/1990 when 7 of the communist splinter groups joined as United Left Front to lead the people’s movement against the Panchayat system together with the Nepali Congress. On 19 April 1990, the United Left Front became a partner of the Nepali Congress in the interim government of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. But the front already broke off in late 1990. The two remaining strong components, CPN-Marxist-Leninist and CPN-Marxist, then joined on 6 January 1991 to form the CPN-UML.

The party had not the organizational strength of the Nepali Congress, but it steadily improved under the leadership of its internationally recognized president, Man Mohan Adhikari, and its talented general secretary, Madan Kumar Bhandari. When the latter died in a car accident in 1993 (it’s still unproved if it was murder), his office moved to Madhav Kumar Nepal. After the death of Man Mohan Adhikari in April 1999, the party has not elected a new president, yet.

The CPN-UML came out of the May 1991 elections as the main opposition force in parliament, and it strongly improved in the elections of November 1994, when it became the strongest party in the House of Representatives and formed a minority government under Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari. This government was brought to fall by the opposition parties after only nine months in office, mainly because its popular decisions caused a threat to the other parties in case of new elections.

The local elections of 1997 resulted in the further improvement of the CPN-UML winning an absolute majority on the country-wide average. A severe blow was the split of the party in early 1998, when Bam Dev Gautam founded the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) or CPN-ML, mainly out of personal and not ideological reasons. The results of the 1999 parliamentary elections prove that, without this split, the CPN-UML would have won an overwhelming absolute majority of seats and also, for the first time, a clear majority of votes. The two parties reunited on 15 February 2002.

UML says it favors 'One China policy' as violent protest erupts in Tibet (nn 17/03/2008) [This has nothing to do with the fact that peaceful demonstrations are respected as a fundamental human right worldwide, but not in authoritarian and non-democratic states like China! Your party has used this democratic tool ever since it became an oppositional party in 1991!]

Emulate the UML, by Pradeep Nepal (nt 08/09/2006, originally in Drishti, 22 August)

View-Counterview, statements of Bharat Mohan Adhikari and Pradip Nepal (kp 27/12/2004)

The UML has not deserted the movement, by Sahana Pradhan (nt 18/06/2004, originally published in Deshantar, 13 June), UML never alone, by Madhab Kumar Nepal (nt 18/06/2004, originally published in Budhabar, 16 June)

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