Baburam Bhattarai Recalls 12-Year-Old Article at Balendra Shah’s Swearing-In Ceremony

March 26, Kathmandu – Former Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai reflected on an article he wrote 12 years ago during the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Balendra Shah (Balen). Sharing a lengthy post on Facebook on Friday evening, Bhattarai recalled his editorial titled “Need for a New Force,” published in the Nepali weekly magazine Nepal Saptahik in Chaitra 2070 (March 2014).

At that time, the constitution was being drafted by the Constituent Assembly, and Bhattarai was part of the Maoist party’s senior leadership. He noted, “Analyzing both national and international situations, I had advocated the need for a new force—comprising new ideas, policies, programs, and leadership—as an alternative to the old parties and leadership once the constitution was completed and a new era began.”

Now, with Balendra Shah assuming office as prime minister representing the new party, Rastriya Swabhiman Party (Raswap), Bhattarai said the memory of his article vividly came to mind upon congratulating him at the ceremony.

He also recalled a passage from Karl Marx’s famous work The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, which states, “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.” Bhattarai remarked, “Isn’t Nepal’s current situation similar to this?”