 After this unification of all the things, we'll have a nationwide campaign to go to the districts, to the villages, and call to the people that this is the party whom you can trust. This is the party of the poor, the party of the nationalist forces, the party of change. Welcome to People's Dispatch. We're here with Madhav Kumar Nepal, the former Prime Minister of Nepal, and a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal. How are you doing? Yes, very good. So it's been one year since the unification process started between the two Communist parties. We were wondering if you could tell us a little bit about this process, an evaluation of how it's been, the challenges? Yes, you know that the Communist movement in Nepal is very popular. It has strong ties with the people. Even though there may be many parties here, several different parties may exist here. But they all are propagating Marxism and nationalism. And among all these parties, two parties emerged as the strongest one. One has been the Communist Party of Nepal, Unified, Marxist, and another is Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist center. And this party, the UML, has its own long political background. At the same time, this Maoist center has their own historical background. We realized in 1990s that there is a need to move to the peaceful path of revolution, depending on the people's awareness, unity, and mobilization. And Maoist Party had to go through one decade of armed revolution since 1996-2006. But in the process, we both come together during the struggle against autocratic monarchy. We both realized that without the unity among the left and democratic forces, we cannot win. That's why there was a need to bring the Maoist Party who were in the far from the cities. It means mountains, jungles, remote areas, and they were launching armed revolution. So what we have done is to persuade them or make them realize that with the joint efforts of the parties and the people, the unity of the people and the Maoist people will be stronger. It can challenge the monarchial forces and throw away. And for this, there was a need to bring them into the peace process, to the mainstream of politics, and we took the initiative. I myself, from the Communist Party of Nepal, Unified Marxist, took the initiative to bring them into the peace process and persuaded other democratic forces as liberal, bourgeoisie forces to work with us and together with the Maoists fight against the monarchial forces. Because the autocratic monarchy has served power into its own hand and arrested us, and the activities the parties will control. That's why there was a need to overthrow the monarchy. And for that, we thought that a new constitution has to be dropped. And for the constitution, there was a need to have a constituent assembly. So the election for the assembly was the demand of the Maoist Party and people's democracy was also the demand of the left parties. Whereas democratic right was the demand of the bourgeoisie parties. We combined all together for the right of the people for bringing back the sovereignty into the hand of the people. So we united, we fought together, later on, both of us realized, during the election period, after the promulgation of the constitution, during all these periods we worked together in the government, in the assembly, in the framing of the constitution, in the parliamentary committees or constituent committees, and then both of us realized that these two parties must have to come together, get united and fight the election, the parliamentary election together. So during the election to the local bodies, we were separate, fought against each other. Despite that we got together almost 55% of the total local seat in the municipalities and the village councils. Whereas during the central and provincial elections, central and provincial elections, we come together, we thought that we need to be together. So fought the election together, not bringing the party into one single entity. But our electoral candidate were selected by both of us and we got almost two-third of the majority in the central election, in the federal unit, parliament. And in the provincial level, out of the seven provinces here in Nepal, we have comfortable almost two-third majority in the six provinces. Even in the seventh, means province number two, we are the largest party in the provincial assembly. So all this has inspired us to be together. So we discussed about our political line, ideological political line, and then we come to a conclusion that there is need to go towards socialism of Nepalese characteristics. So socialism orientation is our orientation. And then the Badan Bhandari, who was the ideal look of the Communist movement of the UEML, his people's democracy, his multi-party people's democracy, his new idea was actually taken positively. Whereas the new democracy of the 21st century, that was the idea of the Maoist party. So both has to be combined together and we have to create a new democracy thinking in mind to move towards socialism. So now in last year, today, the same day, 1 May 4, it was declared that both these two basic parties will be united. And we united and make the party, the name, the Nepal Communist Party, NCP. And we united the central committee, composed of both parties, central leaders, 241 and 200. At the same time the standing committee, 45, number 45, 26 plus 19. And then the central secretariat, 9, where the number is 6 and 3. Because the UEML has been the biggest one and the Maoist has been the second one. That sort of equation has been set. And then in the process of unifying the party, we have to unify all the central units, mass organizations. Because just unity among the central committee of the party is not enough. You have to think about other units, as for example, Politburo. Then the central departments, then the central disciplinary commission, central electoral commission of the party, central editing commission of the party, central advisory councils and senior citizens council. So these are the central units of the party. So we are gradually uniting all these units and a few days before, few weeks before, we declared that all the district level bodies will be united. So we decided about who will be the chairman, who will be the secretary. And that was been done. What will the number of the district committee, that was also been set. And today, all the mass organizations, almost all have been united today. And then gradually we will do all these things within few weeks of time. So the unity process is going on. We have been working together. The only thing is that it took long time. It was a, it has not done good. Actually, we should have done the things very fastly. But because of, you know, a busy schedule of the leaders in the government and outside, it was delayed. And to finding the formalize is not so easy. Talking about unity may be very easy thing. But while doing the job, it has to counter many complications and the problems. So you have to keep in mind the psychology of the other side as well. And both of them must respect each other and know each other well. Have the evaluation, proper evaluation of each of the candidates. So what we are insisting on is that proper organizational procedure must be followed. Organization norms must be followed. Criteria must be shared. Evaluation process should be very clear. And all of the candidates has to go through the screening process. So what we have been doing is that after this unification of all the things, we will have a nationwide campaign to go to the districts, to the villages and call to the people that this is the party whom you can trust. This is the party of the poor, the party of the nationalist forces, the party of change, the party who needs, gives attention to the problems of the people. And we have to be close to the people, integrate with the people and win the trust and confidence of the people. So that we are in the process and we hope that in the coming few weeks the other remaining talks of the irrigation will be completed. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us. That's all we have time for and keep watching People's Dispatch. Thank you.