20-26 December 2013 #686

New beginning

Baburam Bhattarai, Facebook, 13 December

After our party’s defeat in the 19 November elections, I took time off for self reflection and have come up with a few resolutions. I hope to receive suggestions and support from my well wishers.

** Our revolution was aimed at creating a better society, culture, and power structure. But in the present political scenario we couldn’t distinguish ourselves from other leaders. So Nepalis didn’t want to gamble with our new political agenda and chose the old parties instead.

** People had great expectations from me because I had been continuously raising several pressing issues. But in the absence of institutional capacity, I couldn’t implement my plans. For instance, on the night of 27 May 2012, I wanted to extend the tenure of the Constituent Assembly by announcing an emergency. But opposition leaders and colleagues from my own party pressured me to step away from the decision and I had to oblige. This proved to be the biggest mistake of my life.

** I will now remain committed on three issues:

  1. National independence and inclusive nationalism

  2. Inclusive democracy

  3. Inclusive development

** To achieve this I will collaborate with leaders from other parties and organisations who share similar perspective on these issues.