KATHMANDU, August 8: Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) during the inauguration of the Nepal Festival 2022 on Saturday during his visit to Japan claimed to have met the late Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe several times .
Dahal is visiting Japan at the invitation of the Nepali People’s Progressive Platform in Japan under his party’s foreign affairs department. He claimed he met Abe two or three times when the former Japanese prime minister visited Nepal and claimed he had a good relationship with him. In the same program, Dahal also affirmed that his visit will play an important role in pushing Nepal-Japan relations to new heights.
Dahal’s first claim that he had met Abe is completely false, which he corrected himself. Dahal who has been prime minister twice and chairman of a ruling party claimed that Abe visited Nepal many times while the truth is that Abe did not visit Nepal once .
On the other hand, Dahal’s visit to Japan is not official but it took place at the invitation of his party’s sister organization. No meetings with senior government officials were scheduled in advance during his visit. Therefore, his assertion that Japanese-Nepalese relations reached new heights with his visit to Japan and his meeting with the Nepalese community at the invitation of an organization close to his party seems far from reality.
Dahal, who also left for a three-day visit to India on July 15, stressed that he would meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the visit. However, he was unable to meet Modi during the visit. Dahal, even until the end of the tour, claimed that a meeting with Modi had been scheduled and it was canceled at the eleventh hour. When Dahal returned to Nepal, Indian media, citing Indian External Affairs Ministry sources, published reports that a meeting between Modi and Dahal had not been scheduled and that there was no possibility of such a meeting.
Dahal often gives expressions based on his mood rather than facts while participating in various programs. However, when such expressions turn out to be different from the facts, his statements become counterproductive.
Political analyst Hari Roka says leaders of political parties in Nepal stray from facts as they lack study habits and are prone to speaking according to the situation without looking for any questions. “It seems that people who have been prime minister or in any position of responsibility several times have no consideration for the impact of what they say,” Roka said. He stressed that not only the prime minister or other people in high positions, but people, in general, should speak with facts.
Tales of hypocrisy
Dahal, who began an armed struggle three decades ago after submitting a 40-point demand to then-Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba that the latter could not bring about change in the country, would not came to the peace process and would have become the tank driver of Deuba as once the demands were met there was no difference between what he says and what he does.
The Maoist armed conflict began by declaring the then government and the Nepali Congress as class enemies, but the latter has now become the facilitator of change for leader Dahal. The armed conflict, which began to establish the hegemony of the proletariat, cost the country not only human losses but also financial damages. While Dahal has hovered around power for nearly two decades, the class that backed him in armed warfare struggles with poverty. Dahal, on the other hand, was elevated to a higher class. Even though there is a stark difference between Dahal’s promises to the poor and his behavior after he came to power, Dahal has repeatedly lied that he will work to establish the rights of the poor.
Whether challenging the very republican character of the country established on his own initiative with statements supporting parties supporting the monarchy or calling Swami Ramdev a scientist and a revolutionary who himself once called himself a conservative and a traditionalist , giving contradictory expressions is not something new for Dahal.
In September last year, Suresh Wagle, while speaking on Memorial Day, said if Dahal wanted to be like the UML he would have dissolved the Maoist party. While Dahal, who went to war saying that UML change was not possible, united with the same party in 2017 and was ready to accept UML President Oli, as Prime Minister of the country. In this way, the public’s trust in Dahal has been weakened as the leader is unable to form agreement between his words and his actions.