Nepal: Mobilising Youth for New Democratic Revolution

This is part of a continuing report from the Worlds peoples Resistance Movement as a part of a fact finding trip to Nepal.

Comrade Rashmi:

Report by Members of WPRM Britain and Ireland currently visiting Nepal.

---

One evening in Kathmandu, we had the pleasure of meeting Ganesh Man Pun, Comrade Rashmi, which translates as ‘Moonlight’. Coming to our hotel, Rashmi arrived in the middle of one of the daily power cuts which occur every evening, making his name more apt for the occasion as we talked over the light of the moon coming through our third floor window and one small oil burning lamp. Rashmi is a Central Committee member of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) as well as the Chairman of the Young Communist League (YCL).

He began our discussion by telling us his own background in the party. Becoming involved in politics as a student, Rashmi was soon a whole-timer cadre for the All-Nepal National Independent Student Union (Revolutionary) before becoming a district member of the YCL. Rising through the ranks Rashmi led one of the four attacks that comprised the initiation of the People’s War on 13th February, 1996. As commander of one of the groups, Rashmi led the attack on a police post in Rukum district, capturing many weapons and explosives. He explained to us that “after capturing many policemen, we told them the reasons for our action. We told them they are our brothers, but we are fighting for New Democratic Revolution, against feudal and comprador rule in Nepal. We released them and told them not to fight against us in the future.” 29 days after this, Rashmi’s father, a local party and Peasant Association member, was martyred, being caught in his home by the police who had been summoned by a local feudalist. The police promptly led him outside into the yard and shot him. Rashmi spoke of this incident without bitterness, but with an intense pride in the martyrdom of his father, who, he said, died for the people. For rest of the post please visit www.wprmbritain.org