Leaders of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) held a discussion on the political report presented by party chairmen KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal in the third meeting of the Standing Committee on Tuesday.

In the meeting held on Monday, most of the standing Committee members of the ruling NCP who aired their views lashed out at the joint political document of their chairmen. The situation, however, seemed quite different today.

Oli and Dahal had presented the joint paper defending the activities of the party and the government on the first day of the Standing Committee meeting held on Saturday.

Defending the report, leaders close to Oli said that criticism only will not take the party anywhere.

They said that the crucial role of Oli and Dahal in Nepal’s peace process, drafting of constitution and forming a two-thirds majority government among others should not be overlooked.

Leaders Shankar Pokharel, Prithvi Subba Gurung, Keshav Badal, Somnath Pyasi, Satyanarayan Mandal had defended the works of government and party.

They said that the weaknesses could be corrected but the criticism of leaders alone would not take the party anywhere.

Leader Pokharel, who is also the Chief Minister (CM) of Province 5, urged the party leaders to respect the role of main leaders.

Many leaders have been expressing their dissatisfaction over the decision to make chief ministers the province in-charge as well.

“Some leaders have been saying that they are facing a stressful situation due to heavy work load. If they think that they have been suffering from work-related stress than I will quit the post of chief minister and start party work,” leader Pokharel said in the meeting, adding that the work of party is more important than the post of chief minister.

NCP leader and Gandaki Province CM Prithvi Subba Gurung said that the role of the party leadership is historic saying that Oli and Dahal had playing an instrumental role while unifying the then CPN (UML) and CPN (Maoist Centre). He also asked the leaders not to trade barbs rather to move ahead by correcting the past mistakes of the organisation.

Standing Committee members Bhim Rawal and Yogesh Bhattarai, however, vehemently criticised the working style of the Chairmen duo.

Leader Rawal, in his separate written opinion to the leaders, said the government and party had made ‘grave mistakes’ on various issues, demanding that separate discussions should be held in different issues of the government and party. He also accused the party leadership of not being transparent while forming the party secretariat.

Similarly, he opined that the government’s participation in the recently held Asia Pacific Summit should be criticized saying that the government had made a grave mistake by taking part in the programme organised by a controversial South Korea-based non-government organisation, Universal Peace Federation. He floated a two-page long description about the organisation and its controversial role.

Another leader Bhattarai said that the joint report presented by the chairman duo does not live up to the standard of a report that is to be presented by the communist party leaders. He demanded that the report should be re-written.

He urged the leaders to work in a transparent way in order to clear the environment of distrust among senior party leaders.

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