Nepal Communist Party Chairs KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal have pointed out a host of issues that are dogging the party and called on the party rank and file to bring clarity not only in their thought process but also in the means.

In a political document presented by Dahal at the standing committee meeting, the first in a year, the two chairs have expressed concern over growing factionalism in the party.

“The party is yet to be institutionalised. Instead, anarchy is prevailing and there have been incidents of betrayal and counter-betrayal,” reads the third point of the seven-point document.

The Nepal Communist Party was born in May last year out of the merger of the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre). But even after a year and a half, the party is struggling to complete the unification process, largely due to mistrust and factionalism.

“Due to the delay in giving a concrete shape to the party unification, failing to manage party’s publications, lack of publicity, political training and schooling, the party organisation is in a state of confusion,” the document states. “The party is not in order.”

The political document says there is a lack of procedure and system, essential to a communist party, and that there is no culture of criticism, self-criticism and encouragement to leaders doing good work.

As soon as the meeting began, some standing committee members, including Bhim Rawal and Raghuji Panta, had questioned the leadership why the meeting was called so late and why meetings were not taking place regularly.

Since its formation, the NCP has held secretariat meeting 47 times while the central committee has not sat even once.

The party is yet to form its politburo, a crucial committee in a communist party.

The leadership in the political document has admitted that the delay in convening the meeting was the leadership’s mistake.

The political document has also pointed out some weaknesses of the government. Oli, however, was not present in the meeting. Oli briefly attended the secretariat meeting which was held earlier in the day to set the agendas for the standing committee meeting.

The leadership has admitted that the party failed to make people aware of the good work the government has done.

Leaders described Sunday’s standing committee meeting as a good beginning for the unified party which was going adrift.

“Dahal told the meeting that the delay was due to weakness on the part of the leadership and expressed commitment not to repeat the mistake,” said Rawal, a standing committee member, who of late has been critical of the party leadership as well as the government.

Though the party’s third standing committee meeting last year had committed to concluding the unification process “within a few months”, it has hit a snag and leaders attribute it to a lack of regular meetings, which affected the formation of the committees.

“The leaders have admitted that the delay in holding the meeting was their mistake,” said Ishwar Pokhrel, a secretariat member. “Now the meetings will happen at regular intervals.”

The meeting will continue on Monday as well, and standing committee members will deliberate on the political document.

Devendra Poudel, also a standing committee member, said party General Secretary Bishnu Poudel on Sunday tabled a proposal to amend the party statute.

The party is amending its statute to elevate Bamdev Gautam to the post of vice-chairman, as the current statute does not have a provision for that post. Some leaders, however, have questioned the rationale behind amending the statute for one individual.

The party statute amendment proposal, however, needs to be approved by the central committee, a meeting of which is also expected to be decided by the standing committee meeting.