Chairman Com. Prachanda's Interview regarding his visit to Switzerland

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Lenin had written the April thesis on the train journey. Have you also drawn any sketch of revolution during your long flight? In my case it is not exactly in the way you have said, however this time we reached the place in Switzerland where Lenin had stayed and organized a conference. That gave us a new feeling. From the idea that Lenin had set off to Moscow by the train in the underground way, we too definitely happened to think of a sketch of revolution, but there was no atmosphere to go to the extent of shaping up a thesis itself. What was the most memorable experience of your journey to Europe? There is an organization in Geneva known as democratic forum for control of armed force. I can never forget the kind of discussion that was held in its head quarters on restructuring the army and about the reformation of the armies of the world and their security mechanisms. What were the responses and reactions upon the idea that you stipulated there when the questions of restructuring the army of Nepal has arisen emphatically? In the general sense, we have found that their understanding was not out and away from the UNO's practice of DDR in various countries but when we put forward our ideas, we felt that they seemed to be convinced about the importance and seriousness of our projection. How did you try to make the foreigners understand that the Maoist came to politics from war? War and politics are the terms that are inter-related to each other. The main thing is that we have tried to make them understand about the process from war to the peaceful political revolution. We put forward about the Nepalese political situation and from that how the peaceful political transformation is possible. We feel that had a big impact through which we think we could make a big political interference. What did you feel about the outlook of European government and European people towards the Maoist movement Europe is positive towards the peace process. Europe doesn’t want that the peace process be disturbed. The neutral nations of Europe are more positive towards the Maoist movement. At the press conference in Switzerland, that I had done after 6 days, if Europe does not come forward then the peace process of Nepal can be disturbed at any time. That could be the great shock, because the superpowers do not want the peace here. Therefore if Europe comes forward, then it brings the positive impact. Does Europe come forward by passing America? I don’t think it can by pass America, but if Europe wished by its culture, tradition and thought that peace process of Nepal must succeed, then the initiation might move forward. You might have studied about the farmers in Switzerland? The farmers of Switzerland and Nepal can never be compared. There only 3% of people are engaged in agriculture. 97% of people are engaged in industry, service and trade. In fact those 3% do not want to be farmers, but the government forced them providing the attractive schemes. We went to the village of farmers too. There a person who has a cow gets 2000 francs per year. If a person has 20 cows, he gets 40000 francs per year. There is also the profit. We have asked the representatives of Swiss government that why farmers are given that much amount. They said that, if farmers are given money, they do not destroy the land. If it is seen from the eyes of Nepalese, they are not the farmers. Did you observe the hydro-power project too? It remained unforgettable about the hydro-power too. It was in Ganjil. While looking from outside, there appeared nothing but a hill only. But in a tunnel there are the power houses and buildings under it. The length of tunnel is 120 kilometers, but from outside nothing like that was visible. It looked some thing like miracle. Not only me, but the whole team felt the same. Is such construction possible in Nepal? Immediately it is not possible in Nepal. It costs a lot. The only thing is that we can gather courage and enthusiasm with the idea that every thing is possible. That type of technology is not necessary for us now, because we have many easy out- flowing rivers, why should we make such tunnels? Secondly, our hills are not as strongly fossilized as that. That was a very old rock. There is no fear of crumbling down, even when the tunnel is made. Our hills are delicate. The situation does not match with that of ours; the tunnel under our hill can be dangerous. Is the federal system of Switzerland useful to us too? Before 1848, many wars took place there. They passed through many incidents of killings, and finally they arrived to this system. They present constitution of theirs is the 1848 constitution. The basic form is the same in spite of some amendments. Generally there are three or four main languages and two religions. The federal system of Switzerland has been developed on the basis of language and religions. To consider this way, we have also said federal on the ground of language, culture and geography. In that sense there are many things to learn for us. But I don’t think that every system of Switzerland is applicable for Nepal. What are the things that we cannot apply here? They have asked us to negotiate in every thing. They do not think that it is good to go through the struggles. They think that even the class struggles can be led to the negotiation. We found that negotiationism there has caused a bit frustration to the intellectuals. Some of them even said that the federalism is a vain practice. There are several cantons. Some of them are much bigger, and some are much smaller too. Zurich, Berne, Geneva are quite big and the size of population too is big in those provinces and some are as small as to have two or four thousand people too. During the amendments of constitution, tens of lakhs of people casting their votes on one side and ten or fifteen thousand people on other side can be considered equal. 20% people on one side can control the majority of 70 or 80 percent on the other side. When the cantons control, it is said that there is the rule of minority, not of majority. But the logic was that if it had not been done, there would have been no peace. Some claim that negotiation brought peace; otherwise, no situation of peace would have come. Therefore, on the theoretical level I said that it was a kind of eclecticism working in Switzerland. They would go on the line of making negotiation keeping all dissimilarities and disharmonies aside. If such things did not prevail, Switzerland would not possibly exist. Switzerland lies between the big countries like France, Germany and Italy. Switzerland remained safe even when Mussolini ruled over Italy and Hitler ruled over Germany. The policy of negotiation saved it. In this sense, federalism and negotiating system favored it. But ultimately if you consider how scientific it is, it has gone along the line of negotiation and eclecticism. We too have to do agreements and understandings among the people of various languages and ethnic groups. Therefore, it can only be an important reference. I don’t mean that it can be applied here exactly as it is there. Does Switzerland have to learn any thing from the Maoist movement of Nepal? It’s not others to say but up to themselves about learning something from the Maoist movement of Nepal. But there also is a kind of understanding that the present political changes would not have been possible if the Maoist had not played the significant role and had not launched the revolution. In this sense, Nepalese people’s political consciousness has become influential. There also we found that the people’s movement has earned much respect. Did you have the discussions with professors and students there? We had discussion on federalism with the professors of Berne University and Pre Berne University. What type of curiosity did the professors there put to you? Everywhere there is positive curiosity. Wherever we went, there were friendly curiosities. The simple farmers seemed to have been touched by a kind of intimacy with the idea that Nepal’s geography is similar to theirs. On a little bit more intellectual levels, most curiosities were positively centered on the constituent assembly election to be held after the people’s movement. When you came back to Nepal, you said that you felt there is Switzerland within Nepal and Nepal within Switzerland. What do you mean? Towards the end of our visit we observed the hydropower stations where we saw high mountains like that of our country. There were small hillocks and ridges on our way to Berne, Zurich and Geneva, although there were mountains visible in the distance. But while going to the power stations, there were high hills, waterfalls, lakes and ponds, and everywhere things appeared exactly like that of Nepal which deeply touched and moved me, and I told the friends about my feelings. I said the same thing in the press conference in Switzerland. I had the feeling that there was Nepal in Switzerland or Switzerland was in Nepal. We have made an appeal to the whole of Europe that we can unitedly do a lot for the mankind from the constructional development to the practice of peace in Nepal. What are the main achievements of your visit to Europe? I feel that our visit remained successful in breaking away many illusions that were left in Europe about the CPN (Maoist) and the people’s war. What we actually want has been positively communicated to the people. In this sense I feel that it became really very important. Secondly, we went to Switzerland first, from which we delivered a message to whole Europe and the whole world. I did not choose any group or any country of the world powers. We delivered a message how we can learn to develop our nation from a country of the same geographical structure, and also how peace can be prospered in Nepal. It was a strong answer to those who have called us terrorists. Internationally that is a big achievement. Was there any confusion about the Maoists? We came to know that there were confusions about us. Some people thought that we don’t want the constituent assembly, but our visit became successful in clearing the confusions. Moreover, Oslo where comrade Baburam Bhattarai visited was the place where many prominent leaders of the world had gathered, and the visit to Oslo remained very helpful to clear away all the illusions, and clarify the real situations. On the whole I feel that it was a very good interference in Europe. see more