Chairman of CPN-UML and former Prime Minister Manmohan Adhikary has won almost every battle he fought in his life. Without Adhikary’s direct guidance, whether the UML be able to retain its prospects in the election and after remains to be seen
-By KESHAB POUDEL
It was 10:30 a. m. on April 19, Monday when a cheerful crowd of about 1000 people of Gothatar Village Development Committee (VDC) in Kathmandu-1 constituency suddenly panicked as former Prime Minister Manmohan Adhikary collapsed as he was to board his vehicle after addressing them in an election campaign.
Adhikary’s sudden illness sent shockwave to all UML workers and leaders. Their panic was understandable as the party has no other leader who has such a towering personality and can match the charisma of Adhikary.
Adhikary was immediately taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) where doctors attending at the Emergency Department noted that he had no heartbeat, pulse and respiration. After a hurried Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and attachment to artificial ventilator, doctors could see signs of life in his body.
Even after 24-hour-long intense medical observation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), medical experts are not in a position to say anything about his health. “He is in an unconscious situation and his situation is serious and critical,” said Dr. Govinda Prasad Sharma, Executive Director at TUTH, on Tuesday.
At a time when people were praying for speedy recovery of their ailing leader, senior leaders of UML called an emergency meeting of their powerful standing committee to discuss the future course of actions to be taken by the party.
The collapse of the septuagenarian leader has sent shock waves in the rank and file of the ten year old Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist Leninist.
Political analysts believe that collapse of Adhikary may result into an irrecoverable damage to the party. “As the young generation leaders of UML do not have any mass appeal, it will be difficult for them to seek majority by showing new leaders,” said Prof. Krishna Khanal, a political analyst.
Although Adhikary is criticized as a ceremonial leader of the party, his presence has helped balance the struggle of power among different factions within the CPN-UML. Rivalry between party general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and influential leader Khadga Oli to hold control within the party is a well known fact.
Others see it differently. They claim that being a party of young cadres and youth leaders, the UML will manage every crisis effectively as in the past. There is a bunch of capable leaders like Nepal, Oli, Pradeep Nepal, Ishwor Pokhrel, Amrit Kumar Bohara, Jhal Nath Khanal and Bharat Mohan Adhikary, to name a few, in the party.
Problems for the CPN-UML is not the shortage of capable leaders but that of a leader acceptable to all factions. “Man Mohan Adhikary had everything the young UML leaders are lacking. After the sudden demise of charismatic leader Madan Bhandary, it was the veteran leader Adhikary who could carry on that legacy in the party,” said another analyst.
Coming days will not be easier for UML as they might witness infighting between different factions within the party. The breakaway CPN-ML is already posing great challenge to them and their relations with other communist parties are also strained.
The life of the veteran communist leader Adhikary is a history of ups and downs. The man, who was virtually deserted after the split of communist party in 1962, came back in the center-stage of national politics in 1994 as an elected communist Prime Minister with support from young communist leaders who have had love and hate relation with him.
Although Adhikary’s party participated in the people’s movement as one of the eight leftist factions, it later merged with then CPN-ML which comprised mostly young leaders.
Yet, the paradox is that his absence will make it difficult for the UML to get majority. For months, eyes of all those who are worried about UML’s future will be more painful. Adhikary was, after all, the party’s biggest vote catcher as well as its prime ministerial candidate.
It will now take weeks or more for the party to choose a new leader to replace Adhikary. But for the time being, the reformist faction in the UML seems to have received a blow.
“The party can remain in a transition phase for months till the result of parliamentary elections are out. But whoever takes over the party ‘s leadership, it will not be easy,” said Dr. Manik Lal Shrestha, a leftist intellectual.
Adhikary’s absence will also be felt for long in the national politics. Known for his commitment toward people and democratic ideals, Adhikary had the capacity to directly appeal to the people whatever the situation.
Amidst speculation that Adhikary’s absence will result into a leadership crisis within the UML, party leaders are putting up a brave face. “Ours is a revolutionary Communist party which believes in collective leadership,” general secretary Madhav Nepal told Budhabar weekly on Wednesday. “We have a very long row of leaders and workers and our party has given birth to several fighters.”
Whether the UML will be able to give birth to a popular Communist leader like Adhikary in the days to come is only a matter of speculation. Meanwhile, there is seen a big void in the national political scenario with the absence of Adhikary which is very hard to be filled in.
-By Jogendra Ghimire
KATHMANDU, April 26 -Moments after his CPN (Marxist) merged with Madan Bhandari’s “militant” and widely feared CPN (ML) in early 1991, Manmohan Adhikari was justifying the merger between the two apparently disparate political forces.
“Our maturity, and militancy of our young friends from the CPN (ML) must come together. The combination can make a major contribution to the country’s Communist movement,” Adhikari told reporters.
The leftist leader couldn’t have been more right.
As the 1991 elections proved, CPN (UML), the party that came into being after combining “maturity and militancy,” surprised the world by electing 68 of its candidates to the 205-seat House of Representatives.
“In Nepal Karl Marx lives,” proclaimed an American news magazine carrying an interview of Adhikari’s general secretary, Madan Bhandari. Adhikari, irrespective of his influence in the party ranks, was the natural choice to lead the party in parliament as the country’s first leader of the opposition in over 30 years.
The gain of the merger was mutual. In Adhikari, the “militant” CPN (ML) found a reliable and presentable face to cap its organisation with, and enhance its public standing. The genial and fatherly Adhikari too was happy to join hands with the CPN (ML), a much stronger political outfit compared to his CPN (Marxist).
The benefit of the coming together of the two left parties did not stop there. The unification, and Adhikari’s presence, also established the CPN (UML) as the mainstream left party in the country’s fractured left politics.
The outcome of the 1991 elections was only the tip of the iceberg, for Adhikari as also for his party, as events that unfurled less than four years later revealed. The 1994 mid-term elections returned a hung parliament, but established the CPN (UML) as the largest party in parliament, surprising the world once again.
Adhikari became the first Communist prime minister elected to office in a constitutional monarchy.
His less than nine months in office during 1994-95 will be remembered for more reasons than just being an elected Communist government, however. It was during Adhikari’s tenure that some of the most visible welfare schemes were initiated in the post-democracy Nepal.
Be it the monthly allowances to senior citizens or to widows and the “build your village yourself” campaign, the effects of the welfare and development programmes of the CPN (UML) government were more psychological. The outcome: his government’s “populist” initiatives frightened the opposition which succeeded in unseating him after a protracted politico-legal battle.
One of the few remaining “first generation” leaders of Nepali politics who had his first taste of politics during the Quit India movement, Adhikari was jailed for three years in India during the movement against the British raj.
Not very high in the list of ideologues in Nepal’s Communist movement, Adhikari, then a proponent of the new people’s democracy philosophy became the general secretary of the undivided Communist Party of Nepal in 1953, the year the first general convention of the party was held. The key post went to Dr Keshar Jung Rayamajhi when Adhikari left for China for an extended medical treatment.
Back from the People’s Republic after a couple of years, Adhikari was jailed along with many Nepali Congress leaders after the royal coup of 1960. He was destined to remain behind bars for the next ten years.
An active leader of the great revolt of 1950, and a key figure in the United Left Front which aligned with the Nepali Congress during the 1990 movement, Adhikari remained a supporter of a joint NC-left alliance to root out the Panchayat system even during the unpopular system’s thirty years. Unlike other left leaders, he was an active supporter of the multi-party system during the national referendum.
His failure to prevent the split in the CPN (UML) early last year and a number of inconsistent pronouncements on issues of national importance in recent times notwithstanding, Adhikari’s stock of credibility remained full to the brim till his last working day. And his mere presence among the younger comrades provided to the newer breed the legitimacy they lacked.
With Adhikari gone, and with no visible leader of his stature to fill the void, the CPN (UML) could again require to work hard to maintain its legitimacy and credibility the way it did in 1991, the year “maturity and militancy” merged.
KATHMANDU, April 26 (PR)- The temperature in Kathmandu has reached its record high for April today with the mercury hitting 35.6 degree celcius. This makes for the hottest April in the past 30 years.
The last record highest temperature in April had remained at 34.8 degree celcius, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology. This year marks as the driest winter and spring season in the past 30 years.
With little rain over the past few months, the temperature continues to rise. And with no signs of rain in the forecast, weathermen say it is hard to predict on when the heat will slow down.
KATHMANDU, April 26 (PR)- The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) met here this evening to express its condolence at the demise of its chairman, Man Mohan Adhikari.
The meeting said Adhikari’s death was a great loss to the party, the communist movement and the nationalist movement of Nepal.
-By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, April 26 – Elections in the Kathmandu constituency number one and three have been postponed due to the demise of Manmohan Adhikari, the Election Commission (EC) said.
Adhikari, the 78-year-old chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (UML), was contesting from the two constituencies of the capital city in the parliamentary election scheduled for May 3.
“Since a notice has been received from the concerned election officer about the demise of UML candidate Man Mohan Adhikari, the election in Kathmandu 1 and 3 has been postponed,” EC Secretary Purushottam Dhakal said.
No new dates have been announced for election in these two constituencies.
-By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, April 26 – Thousands of mourners today lined up at the heart of Kathmandu to pay their last tributes to Manmohan Adhikari, the Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML).
Adhikari, the 78-year-old former prime minister, passed away this morning at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), a week after he had slipped into a state of coma.
A three-day national mourning has been declared by the government while Tuesday will be a public holiday. Government offices in the country and Nepali missions abroad have been instructed to fly the national flag at half mast during the three-day mourning.
Following Adhikari’s demise, Executive Director of TUTH, Dr. Govind Prasad Sharma, today said his blood pressure had dropped appreciably, which prompted his heart to stop at 2:32 a.m. “About an hour and half before that, the condition had begun to deteriorate,” Adhikari’s son Prakash said.
Adhikari’s body was first taken to the party office at Balkhu for private mourning and then shifted to the Tudikhel open theatre for the public.
Leaders, students, bureaucrats and commoners alike lined up to pay their last tributes all day today. Some prayed, some wailed and others silently mourned the death. Men, women and children withstood the summer heat to get a last glimpse of the former prime minister who will be cremated tomorrow at Aryaghat, Pashupati, on the banks of the Bagmati.
The body will be kept at the Open Theatre until 4 p.m. on Tuesday when it will be moved away for cremation, according to UML central secretariat secretary Pradip Nepal.
UML has also decided to close all its offices for two days and postpone all programmes scheduled for the next three days. A 231-member committee has been formed under the chairmanship of UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal to make funeral arrangements.
As the residents of Kathmandu woke up to the news of the death on the radio early today, hundreds rushed to TUTH and lined up on both sides of the pathway that led out of the morgue.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on hearing the news reached the hospital at 6:20 a.m. Home Minister Govind Raj Joshi was also with the prime minister.
UML leaders Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Khadga Prasad Oli, Pradip Nepal, Iswor Pokhrel had also reached the hospital early in the morning.
General Secretary Nepal and Local Development Minister Amrit Kumar Bohara too rushed back to Kathmandu from their constituencies as the news of the demise reached them.
Before the body was taken out of the hospital, Adhikari’s eyes were removed and donated as per the wishes of the late leader by doctors from Tilganga Eye Hospital.
Adhikari was rushed to TUTH last Monday after he collapsed after attending a mass gathering at Gothatar on the outskirts of Kathmandu. The meet was one of the series on the campaign trail to the May 3 parliamentary election.
Doctors at the emergency room immediately performed CPR (Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation) to re-start heartbeat. He was put in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where an artificial ventilator assisted his breathing while he remained in coma.
On Thursday, doctors declared that his brain had “completely stopped functioning” and his kidney had also been fast failing since then. A team of senior Nepali doctors were attending Adhikari while three specialists from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences were flown in Tuesday.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and the government had assured that no stones would be left unturned in the treatment and if needed specialists from abroad would be brought in or he would be taken abroad for treatment.
The AIIMS doctors are said to have told Nepali doctors that their treatment was fine and that there wasn’t much they could do.