Convenzione dei comunisti nepalesi: controversia sull'assenza del ritratto di Lenin

Si sta concludendo la Convenzione nazionale del Partito Comunista del Nepal (Unificato Marxista-Leninista), attualmente al governo assieme ai maoisti che detengono il posto di primo ministro nello stato asiatico. Come riporta questo articolo tratto dal sito nepalese Republica, una controversia piuttosto animata ha riguardato l'assenza del ritratto di Lenin (a fianco a quello di Marx) nella sala che ospita la Comvenzione.

Controversy over no Lenin portrait

BUTWAL, Feb 20: Communists sometimes find trivial reasons for stirring up a controversy.

Delegates to CPN-UML convention, who have smelled a rat for not putting the portrait of late Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on the wall of the closed-door session hall, made loud noise at the start of closed door meeting Friday morning, further delaying the already delayed session. However, there is a photo of late Karl Marx, a German revolutionary and political theorist.

Leader of the Lumbini-A group, Kamal Shrestha, sought justification from the leadership as to why this was the case and refused to give his presentation for a while. Then, most of the 1800-plus delegates shouted in support of Shrestha. On Thursday too, some of those who gave their presentations had also raised the issue, but it was not raised as intensely as on Friday.

After one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), Amrit Bohora, said he would clarify on the matter later, Shrestha went ahead with his presentation. In his bid to calm the things down, Bohora told the delegates that it was not a policy decision and it could be a fault of the management.

One of the delegates said there was only Marx’s photo in a party poster prepared for UML’s sixth national convention held in 1998, because “Marx is the root of most communist theories”. “Lenin had just propounded the Russian-style Marxism,” he said. Generally, UML used to put portraits of five revolutionaries in its official functions – Marx, Lenin, German Friedrich Engels, Russian Joseph Stalin and Chinese Mao Zedong.