The Third Force - Nepali Times

From The Nepali Press
The Third Force
Interview with the NC's Bhim Bahadur Tamang in Annapurna Post, 10 September

FROM ISSUE #520 (17 SEPT 2010 - 23 SEPT 2010) | TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Annapurna Post: You are running in the election for the post of president in 12th national convention, why?
Bhim Bahadur Tamang: My candidacy is for change, to make the Congress progressive and committed to those left behind. I gave my candidacy to address the aspirations of the party cadres. We are the basis from where the party can move forward.

How is your own candidacy seen by cadres? Aren't they asking for younger leaders?
The youth are longing for change. We have given priority for the aspiration of the youth. I believe they will take the decision wisely. The party is stuck in old tradition and norms. There is a need of a complete makeover to meet challenges that we are facing today. We want that change and we are prepared for that.

But you have opened a third faction.
It is not a separate panel within the party. It is rather an attempt to institutionalise the party's spirit. We have returned to the democratic socialism of BP Koirala. This ideology is our stepping stone. More than
40 per cent of the member of the NC are youth, the new generation needs to be inculcated in these values.

You were lying low for a long time, why have you suddenly announced your candidacy. Are you being put up by someone?
It is not true. I was always active within the party. I have been always saying that NC should be result oriented. Search for an alternative leadership had begun before 11th convention. This is just continuity.

What is the Congress' future?
The future of the Nepali Congress is bright, that is why I am joining the leadership fray. Only a new Congress can address the country's current problems. The party is now personality-driven, we want to end this so the leadership comes from ideas.

Is there a possibility of the party splitting after the convention?
If the factionalism is based on losers and winners only, it can lead to disaster. We have to rise above factionalism.

Do you think the current leadership is a failure?
It is obvious to all. Sher Bahadur Deuba became prime minister thrice, Shushil Koirala became the acting party president. I have met them in person and asked their support. I told them that my candidacy is not against them but for a change.

What kind of changes would you to bring about in the party?
About 90 per cent people are living below poverty line. We should reach for them. We should be able to introduce program for them to help uplift their lives. The NC's objective is to build the country and make everyone within the country prosper.

1. who cares
in the beginning, i supported him.

now, i want to know about his solution to maoist problem.

there is a problem regarding so called good guys in nepal, they can never deliver good, they are too focused on method than goal.

Posted on: 17 SEPT 2010 | 11:04 AM NST

2. who cares
not to forget that they always create problem on D-day.

Posted on: 17 SEPT 2010 | 11:07 AM NST

3. Nirmal

You can win and Koirala and Deuba coterie could lose, they may not avoid it because they carry a deadly disease: failureness of all these years. But worst of all is that their minds too are malaise. They are fully convinced that they handle well their near and dear ones by differentiating on the one hand the leaders who think and on the other the performers who screw.

But for you, the management should be(until now it is) precisely the art of mobilizing and coordinating all the intelligence to the service of the project of the NC. Only the intelligence of your people and your project can establish polities to deal with the turbulence and the demands of this new environment.

This is the reason why there are so many youth, three or four times more than before. Therefore there should be kept inside the Convention camp, a dialogue and communication so dense, by constantly asking for everyone's suggestions, hence you need to claim, beyond the habitual system of the NC, preparation of these youth indispensable to face the new era with modern tools essential for the party which need to be fed by permanent intelligence.

There is a theory rather confirmed statistically in Nepal that whenever the NC leaned toward center-left it became the party of mass and made history and when it ceases to represent that segment of the populace it also ceases to govern with glory.

Posted on: 17 SEPT 2010 | 2:39 PM NST