{"id":47823,"date":"2021-06-13T15:59:15","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T15:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/?p=47823"},"modified":"2021-06-13T15:59:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-13T15:59:15","slug":"five-reasons-why-madan-bhandari-is-a-great-left-leader-of-all-time-in-nepal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/english\/47823\/","title":{"rendered":"Five reasons why Madan Bhandari is a great left leader of all time in Nepal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birat Anupam<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on the official Nepalese calendar of Bikram Sambat, today is the 28th Memorial day of Madan Bhandari. The then Secretary General of Nepal Communist Party (United Marxist Leninist- CPN(UML) breathed his last in what it is said was a car accident on 3 Jestha 2050 (16 May 1993) at Dasdhunga of Chitwan district. Madan Bhandari along with his comrade Jibraj Ashrit died in a still mysteriously portrayed accident.
\nMadan Bhandari was the leader of main opposition CPN-UML in Nepal\u2019s lower house of parliament and was elected from Kathmandu in Nepal\u2019s second multiparty parliamentary elections of 1991 at the time of his death. Starting from his formal affiliation at Janabadi Sanskritik Morcha in 1972, a student movement established by Puspalal Shrestha, Madan Bhandari was in active politics, both underground during party less Panchayat era and in political freedom after 1990, for two decades. His parliamentary association was of just two years. Still, Madan Bhandari has a great mark in Nepal\u2019s mainstream politics, especially in leftist politics of Nepal.
\nHere are five reasons why Madan Bhandari is a great left leader of all time in Nepal.<\/p>\n

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    \n
  1. Pioneer of People\u2019s Multiparty Democracy
    \nIn the dictionary of orthodox communist ideology, communist party and multiparty democracy do not go together. Madan Bhandari made a departure from this standpoint. He coined \u2018People\u2019s Multiparty Democracy\u2019 (PMP). According to the official website of CPN (UML,) PMD was approved by fifth national congress of CPN(UML) which was held from 27 January to 2 February of 1993 (14-20 Magh 2049 BS).
    \nAccording to Tika P. Dhakal, a writer and analyst who has extensively written on Madan Bhandari, PMD was aimed at democratizing communist movement in Nepal. \u201dDevelopment of PMD holds more more significance as its rise in Nepal came at a time when the Soviet Union had just fallen and socialist states of Eastern Europe were losing public support one after the other. The world was starting at the huge rejection of communist ideology, and to stay relevant there was a need for new imagination and fresh thinking.\u201d While justifying his PMD among his comrades and enthusiasts, Madan Bhandari had said, \u2018Let\u2019s use and develop Marxism with creativity\u2019.<\/li>\n
  2. The leader behind mainstreaming Nepal\u2019s left party in parliament
    \nMadan Bhandari was the steward behind promising electoral victories of the second multiparty parliamentary elections of Nepal which was held on 12 May 1991. CPN-UML came as the second biggest political force in Nepal\u2019s 205-member lower house. CPN-UML has obtained 69 seats, which was far bigger for the leftist party than what they got in Nepal\u2019s first parliamentary elections, which was held, from 18 February to 3 May 1959. In the first 109-seat parliamentary elections Nepal\u2019s left party just got four seats and was on fourth position behind Nepali Congress (74 seats), Gorkha Parishad (20 seats) and United Democratic Party (5 seats). Madan Bhandari was one of the leaders to overturn this parliamentary map in the elections of 1991.<\/li>\n
  3. First charismatic communist figure among people
    \nBoth admirers and critics of Madhan Bhandari are on the same page when it comes about his charismatic appeal to the general people. His charismatic figure is manifested in two fronts. First, on making great showing at parliamentary elections of 1991 where he led CPN-UML to be second largest political party in the parliament. Likewise, he himself defeated incumbent Prime Minister Krishna Prashad Bhattarai. This defeat was widely covered in the international media outlets also. Los Angeles Time\u2019s journalist Mark Fineman wrote on 15 May 1991, \u201d Congress Party leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, a respected elder who has served as Nepal\u2019s interim prime minister for the past year, resigned his post Tuesday after losing his Katmandu seat to the general secretary of Nepal\u2019s United Marxist-Leninist Party. \u2018It is a vote for democracy. It is a vote for independence. It is a vote for the alleviation of poverty\u2019, said Madan Bhandari, the 39-year-old Communist leader who defeated Bhattarai by just 750 of the 53,000 votes cast in the largely poor, urban district.\u2019 The report was headlined \u2018Communists Celebrate Nepal Victories : Elections: Katmandu goes Marxist but moderates lead in countryside voting.\u2019
    \nTragically, in the first parliamentary elections of 1959, the then two veteran communist leaders, Puspalal Shrestha and Dr. Kesharjung Rayamajhi had lost elections to Nepali Congress candidates. Shrestha lost his election bid to Ganeshman Singh in Kathmandu and Rayamajhi was defeated by Achyutraj Regni of Palpa district. As a firebrand orator, Madan Bhandari would draw hundreds of spellbound listeners at his mass address. In addition, his speech audios would be sold in the market.<\/li>\n
  4. Fare-sighted and democratic-minded communist leader
    \nMadan Bhandari was always against violent communist struggle. He always advocated for peaceful movement. In his interview for the Newsweek Magazine of USA on 27 May 1991 with journalist Michelle Litvin, Bhandari has said, \u201dIn case of our party, we have decided to establish democracy, and will take power only after we get the mandate from the people.\u2019 Bhandari was vocal advocate of republicanism and secularism in his political documents, media interviews and mass speeches, which finally materialized after his demise. Unlike his radical communists, Bhandari was not a leader who encouraged forceful capture of landowners\u2019 lands. Speaking to Newsweek he had said, \u201dWe will not take the land without paying money.\u201d Just because of his democratic-minded leftist ideology and practices, many orthodox communists criticized him for being deviated from core communist ideology.<\/li>\n
  5. Nationalist leader and advocate of pro-Nepal foreign policy
    \nMadan Bhandari was nationalist by heart. Even in talks of receiving foreign aids, he would not compromise on national interests. This is reflected in his interview with Newsweek also. Newsweek asked, \u201dAre you worried that Nepal\u2019s foreign aid could be cut off if Communists gain a majority?\u201d. Bhandarti replied, \u201dThere is no reason for foreign aid to stop if communists come to power. But we will not ask for aid at the cost of our country\u2019s freedom, independence, dignity and sovereignty. These things are more important than foreign aid. Speaking to the Newsweek, Bhandari had also talked about unequal treaties with India and his desire to make balanced relationships with both China and India. He said, \u201dWith India, in the past, there were some unequal and humiliating treaties. We will review the treaty and try to renew it. We want to remove the provisions which are insulting and unequal to us. One thing we want is to have very good relations with China and India. Neither do we want to be pro-China or pro-India.\u201d (RSS)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Birat Anupam Based on the official Nepalese calendar of Bikram Sambat, today is the 28th Memorial day of Madan Bhandari. The then Secretary General of Nepal Communist Party (United Marxist Leninist- CPN(UML) breathed his last in what it is said was a car accident on 3 Jestha 2050 (16 May 1993) at Dasdhunga of Chitwan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,35,41],"tags":[],"newsauthor":[],"class_list":["post-47823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biography","category-english","category-society"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47824,"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47823\/revisions\/47824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47823"},{"taxonomy":"newsauthor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banijyanews.com\/old\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsauthor?post=47823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}