Greetings From CP Nepal (UML)

I AM extremely delighted to attend the 17th party congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in this historical city, Hyderabad. First of all, on behalf of our party, CPN(UML) and my delegation, I would like to express our profound revolutionary greetings to all the delegate participants and guests present at this grand ceremony.

Dear comrades,

The 17th congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is taking place at a time when the crisis of global capitalism is deepening in a worldwide way, accompanied by growing rivalry among the three main centres of global capitalism. Despite the new tactics pursued one after another, through multilateral donor agencies and the WTO, the crisis in the global capitalism is perpetuating. The pump-priming fiscal and very soft monetary policies have failed to rescue Japan from the economic crisis prolonged since the last twelve years. The contagion effect of recession in the USA has now entered into the European Union and other countries with severe adverse effect on the economic growth and employment. Despite their tactics of mergers and acquisitions, many big industries and companies have collapsed with mounting unemployment and rising class contradictions in capitalist countries. The sudden collapse of Enron is another example of the vulnerability of the global capitalism. Despite the so-called full-fledged second-generation reform introduced, the Argentinean economy has almost collapsed. Various forms of crisis originating and spreading time and again in capitalist countries on the one hand and very adverse effect of bubble type crisis experienced in advanced countries as Japan and USA clearly indicate that sooner or later the collapse of global capitalism is inevitable. Today, in spite of the deepening crisis, the world imperialism led by the USA is becoming more aggressive. After the events of September 11, in the name of combating terrorism, the brutality of world imperialism has tremendously magnified. The terrorist attack against the USA has been condemned by all sensible people the world over. After invading Afghanistan the Bush administration is taking a dangerous course of slandering and threatening many countries. It is also trying to humiliate the people of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, blaming them as an evil gang. This is another example of breaking minimum international diplomatic norms. Such a barbarous behaviour should be denounced by all peace loving people of the world. At the same time, in the name of fighting terrorism, world imperialism is trying to suppress various types of anti-imperialist movements throughout the world by forging alliances with all type of reactionary forces of the developing countries. Likewise, parallel efforts are underway, imposing stiff conditions on the developing countries to pressurise into further liberalising their economies to ensure the integration of these countries’ economies with the global capitalist market. This has been accentuating the neo-colonisation process further. Naturally the contradiction between global imperialism and the oppressed people and nations of the world is becoming more acute. This objective situation will develop new waves of struggle at local, national, regional and global levels. The oppressed peoples, nations and countries of the world are mounting their multifaceted struggles against capitalist globalisation. Therefore, the progressive forces of the world today need more concerted effort through better networking and wider anti-imperialist fronts at various levels.

Dear comrades,

In these given contexts and backgrounds, a great country like India will have a great contribution to the ongoing world struggle against capitalist globalisation and global imperialism. As the representative of the working class and the broad toiling masses of the Indian people, Communist Party of India (Marxist) has been successfully playing its role in awakening, organising and mobilising the people of India against the domestic and international reactionaries. You are scoring diversified experiences and achievements in parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggle in various fronts. You have won the state assembly elections with Left Front winning two-thirds majority for the sixth term in West Bengal. You are running the state government in Tripura and you are expanding your mass base in other parts of India. This shows that if Communist Parties concentrate on uplifting the living conditions of the toiling masses through progressive changes in the socio-economic structure particularly agrarian structure, no reactionary or fundamentalist forces could destroy the support base even in a situation of superstructure being hostile to the communists. I am confident that with the successful completion of this 17th congress, the party will be able to gain new strength toward achieving more successes in the days to come.

Dear comrades,

In Nepal, our party, the CPN(UML), is fighting for democracy, nationalism, people’s livelihood, social justice and peace for a long time and is scoring important achievements in various field. Despite several attempts by ultra-rightist and reactionary forces to divide and weaken the communist movement in Nepal, our party has succeeded in our own way to overcome the difficulties and challenges. Only recently, the CPN(ML), a party formed four years ago after splitting our party, has again reunified with our party. This has been another great event in the process of the unification of communist movement in Nepal. This also shows that divided Communist Parties, if they are genuinely fighting for the broader interest of the oppressed people and nation, could reunite by realising the mistakes made at some junctures. This in turn has further brightened the future of our party with additional organisational strength and support base among the people. Today, it is the main opposition party in the lower house of the parliament and largest party in the upper house. Our party has an overwhelming majority in district municipalities and village level elected bodies. Now particularly after the reunification, our party has again become the largest political party in the country. So, if we want a unity based on principles, no force could stop us to realise it. The people of all strata are happy by this great event of communist unity. This has been possible due to, among other things, our concerted efforts at intensifying the ideological and organisational work within the rank of communists as well as carrying our mass movements jointly against anti-people and anti-national policies and acts of the rightist reactionary forces in a continuous manner.

Dear comrades,

Despite these achievements, at this moment, our country is passing through a crucial period of crisis. Due to the visionless, corrupt and directionless government of Nepali Congress, the crisis is deepening in political, economical, social, cultural, educational, administrative and in all other aspects of our national life. The general people are very much dissatisfied. The rightist revivalist forces and the ultra-leftist forces are trying to exploit the situation for their own selfish ends. The constitutional reform and broad socio-economic transformation has been the crying need of the country. But the party of big bourgeois and landlord class --- Nepali Congress --- could not implement such policies and programmes. So dissatisfaction among the people has been utilised by the ultra-leftist groups known as CPN (Maoist), which is waging an armed struggle since 1996. It is killing many political cadres including ours and dozens of innocent people in the name of so-called people’s war. To cope with the situation, the Nepali Congress government has imposed a state of emergency and has mobilised the army for four months in a nationwide way. Thousands of people have already been killed. The country is sinking in the blood of Nepalese killed by Nepalese. Actually, the Maoist problem is basically a political problem. It cannot be solved by only military means. Our party is determinedly seeking a political solution. For that purpose, an amendment to the present constitution and implementation of a broad socio-economic reform programme has become the need of the time. To this effect, a new understanding has been reached recently between the ruling and all the opposition parties in the parliament. Our party is continuously making efforts to strengthen the unity among the Left and democratic forces inside and outside the parliament and exerting pressure on the ruling party to bring the country towards a broader political solution which is the only way to avert the present crisis. At this critical moment, our party is trying its best to bring all the political forces to a national consensus. We are confident that because of our party’s correct policies, programmes and tactics, we will be able to achieve new and historic successes in the days to come by defeating vicious designs of rightist and ultra-leftist forces.

Dear comrades,

I once again would like to express our best wishes for the grand success of the 17th congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

I am fully confident that the ever-growing friendship and fraternal relationship between our two parties will flourish in the days to come.