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In the beginning it was a bit difficult, I was teaching at an institute, earning money and taking care of my family so I had a very hectic life. But once I went underground I had to adjust to not seeing people around. I overcame it, and finally now I'm quite at home underground. It has plus and minus sides. Plus, we are able to focus on the cause that we are giving our lives for. The negative is that to an extent you are cut off from the public. So you become very subjective. But it is a price you to pay.
What about your daughter?
Manushee must be about 20, I think she's 20. I get to spend time with her maybe once a year, that's it. I can't disclose where she is. I make sure that I write to her. She's also studying political science, so that makes it makes it very easy for us to communicate with her.
Do you travel often to Nepal?
Very often, very often. My job is with the international department. It is Nepal's poverty that is a problem but also the reason that is making people rebel. I have been to America and Europe, there are a lot of people there who are depressed and there is no spirit for rebellion. We may be very poor but we are political and we rebel.
How did you get politicised?
I did my schooling at IIT in Kanpur, and the environment there was very idealistic, the people very cultured, very educated, so every time I comeback to my country I found that people were very backward especially the women. That really made me wonder where my society was, where I came from. I was associated with the feminist journal, Manushee and that's how I came into the Marxist circles. I also got to know about the Nepali workers in India, the harassment they face. I'm from a rich middle class background and it forced me to ask why Nepal is so poor.
What is your current work in the movement?
I am involved with the annual magazine, The Worker, the website, correspondence, information, disseminating our information. Many times our party sends us to see what the problems are, to give them classes, to see if there's any gender disparity. When I was in charge of women's department around 2003, we undertook a study dealing with women, state and one glaring thing we found is that many women have rebelled against their home and joined the movement. This is the first time in South Asian history that you find this.
Do you feel that you are giving people false promises?
I feel really sad, you know, that when people hear the word communist, they see only warmongers. Let's look at the basic word, communist, it has to do with the community. You don't become individually free, when the rest of the people are tied down by poverty.
Your party nearly split last year.
The two-line struggle nearly broke our party into two. But with very skilful political work we were able to solve this problem, we were able to reach a higher unity. There was one incident when we met a martyr's family. They literally pleaded with us saying look it doesn't pain us to lose our sons and daughters we are willing to give you more sons and daughters but it pains us to see this movement splitting and then fizzling out. That really touched us.
What is your message to the women of Nepal?
They should be very proud that Nepali women are fighting against a political system that is enslaving them. Unlike in other parts of the world where there are sectarian, religious or separatist movements where eventually women are the first to suffer, in Nepal, with Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology they are fighting a class war. The world is watching us, and it proves that there is something new taking place in Nepal that our women can be proud of.
Lots women around the world are oppressed. Is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism the only way to fight it?
It's holistic, it takes care of all the oppression. Our whole focus is very much related to economic exploitation. Having said that we also say we are not dogmatic communists, who say that class exploitation is the only kind and negates all other exploitation. In that sense our party is different from other parties because we incorporate gender, regional autonomy, the ethnic struggle. Our party found that in the course of the war, the numbers of women that were coming into our movement, in terms of numbers, sacrifice, in terms of work they were doing was just tremendous. And then we felt we had to consolidate, we had to bring them into the leadership level.
Do you have a message for the king?
He's a prisoner of his own system. The people have been very empowered they can't accept a biological leader anymore. And in that sense I feel really sorry for Paras. Had he not been a prince, he would have been one of the best boxers in the world. All his aggressiveness would have been released. I feel sorry for the king and his son who don't understand that they're living in the 21st century.
But does Maoism make sense in the 21st century either?
Look at the way people regard communism. They don't even get into the essential meaning of what communism is, so it is their ignorance which is speaking, I'm sorry for those who think like that.
What about your husband, do you have intense political conversations?
Last year both of us were put into disciplinary action by our party. We had a lot of political discussions with each other then and in fact that helped us because we started looking into history, its contradictions, how they were solved. The class war helps sharpen your class instincts, similarly the inner party struggle helps you increase your political, ideological instincts. We read a lot of books together, it really enriched not only our knowledge but our relations also. (Laughs.)
What are the links between Maoists in Nepal and the Indian Naxalites?
When you share an ideology, naturally, you have an alliance. The Maoist movement in Nepal has certainly helped the Naxalites to think about themselves. You see the speed in which we have spread is certainly remarkable, within 10 years, 80 percent of the country is in our control. So obviously they are looking to their own ideology as to why they couldn't make the progress we have made in Nepal. Now, they have increased their activities and are now coming in the forefront in the newspapers.
What about the 12-point agreement?
The political solution that the Maoists are seeking with the political parties is for the best. This is going to be very challenging. We don't want to fail like China or Russia. If we Nepalis can't manage the republic it will mean the same end for us.
How come China has shed Maoism?
And look what it did to the position of women there. It's very visible. You have prostitution, look at the kind of commercialisation that is taking place on the women's body, this itself speaks where it is heading. The whole country is being commercialised, cheap prices, cheap labour, sweatshops.
