Congress Leader Pradip Poudel Discusses Party Unity and Membership Updates

Nepali Congress General Secretary Pradip Poudel is a leader who believes in creating an environment of consensus and dialogue to resolve the party's disputes. He was the one who first proposed to the leadership and leaders who emerged from the special convention that the 15th General Convention should be held by bringing everyone together. The path to realizing that is beginning to take shape.

Leader of the other group, former acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka, and Dr. Shekhar Koirala are being met by President Gagan Thapa in an effort to resolve the dispute. Amidst this situation, we asked General Secretary Poudel if the Congress dispute is moving towards resolution.

Here is a summary of the audio conversation focused on the dispute within the Congress –

• Nepali Congress President Gagan Thapa met with former acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka twice, once alone and once with Vice President Bishwaprakash Sharma. After that meeting, is the dispute within the party moving towards an end?

The President himself has taken the initiative to bring everyone together and is working to create a situation where everyone can move forward together under his leadership. There were two meetings in two days, but many more informal connections have been made. Therefore, the party president has taken the initiative to include everyone in the convention, ensure that no one is left out of the party's scope, and create a situation where everyone can be accommodated under his leadership.

• Can we understand that the Congress is now moving towards resolving its dispute?

I believe we need to understand deeply whether efforts are being made to naturally include everyone by examining what can be done through the legal process. This leadership was elected through a special convention. It must implement the mandate of the special convention. It cannot be implemented beyond the mandate of the special convention. Therefore, senior leaders must also understand that there are limits to the special convention. Within those limits, efforts are being made to include everyone, move everyone forward together, and give everyone a role.

To put it simply, there is very little time left until the regular convention. We have many tasks to do. We cannot get stuck in this now. To create a situation where everyone is included, we want to do this quickly because we don't have much time to create representation within the structure based on affiliation. For example, including people in the vacant responsibilities within the central committee, and also including them in the sub-committee structures that are formed focusing on the convention. Such practices have also occurred in the past.

There are different opinions within the party, factions, and ideological groups. There is a long-standing practice of accommodating them. The practice of including everyone, which was followed by the former president or presidents before him, is what is being attempted now.

• The group outside is raising a major objection regarding the update of the party's active membership. What could be the solution to that?

First, I want to say that it is not appropriate for respected leaders who have dedicated their lives to democracy to object to the update. The update is intended to obtain the details of old members. It is to obtain the details the party needs. The update does not mean making new people members. It does not mean making members unilaterally according to one's wishes. I am sure respected leaders will understand these points.

The update means that the party wants to obtain additional details of existing members, digitize them, and place them within a technological framework. It is an update for those who were renewed by the previous committee and for those who were given membership at that time. There is no reason to object to this.

Are we being told not to connect party members to a digital system? Is it being said that it is not possible to facilitate the relationship of party members with the center or any structure? Is it being said that it is not possible to easily activate party members on social media during elections? Is it being said that it is not possible to activate the role of party members on social media to help win party candidates? Surely not. Therefore, objecting to the update is a rather serious matter.

It is inappropriate to say that digitizing the party today is not possible. It is also not appropriate to say that such experienced senior leaders do not understand this. The update is intended to secure the active members of the Nepali Congress who have already taken membership in the digital system. That's all the update is. It will help win Congress candidates in the election. It will help propagate Congress's ideology. It will help activate Congress's active members in favor of Congress. It will help understand the opinions of the people at the grassroots level in forming Congress's stance, and it will help inform the people at the grassroots level about Congress's campaigns.

This does not harm the party in any way. It does not harm any leader. I do not think that the objection is to something that is only in favor of the party, intended to reduce the election expenses of the grassroots worker who has to contest the election tomorrow, increase their publicity, and enable them to mobilize all the people in the party's mechanism.

Their argument is that during the update, one has to go to the concerned ward. People engaged in various professions find it difficult to go to the concerned ward out of season, hence it is not timely.

Firstly, this is a party campaign. If party members do not participate in the party's campaign, who will? We have launched this campaign with the idea that if a friend from the village, the party's village president, who is somewhat disheartened by losing the election, is reassured by a member outside the ward saying, 'Don't worry, elections are sometimes won, sometimes lost, we are here, you and I must move forward together,' it will encourage him. For those friends who cannot go to the ward at all, or do not go, there is also a provision to renew through the ward president, so they do not have to go. The only difference is that we have asked for the renewal to be done through the ward president. We have asked for the digital update to be done through the ward president as well.

The central office wants the digital update to be done through the ward president, not directly. By doing so, we want to 'recognize' the person working on the ground. He has to know and recognize every person there. Based on his information, we have given him the mandate to verify the Congress members himself. This has strengthened the ward president. He has been 'recognized' to strengthen the organization in the ward. It is not necessary to go to the ward itself, but we have said it must be done digitally through the ward president.

If you say that the ward president does not know, and his capacity does not need to be improved, then we can also do it directly from the central office, but everyone in the leadership of the Congress needs to improve their digital capacity. We have done this for the enhancement of digital capacity as well. The person living in the ward should be able to digitally keep a new person, a citizen, in their records, digitally connect with friends, and digitally disseminate information. It is not enough to have only a digital system in the central office. The person in the ward also needs to be made digitally friendly, so that he can keep people within his committee who can work in that digital framework, and build a mechanism. We are trying to enhance the digital capacity of all party members, office bearers, and those in responsibility. No one is harmed by this.

• Leaders from another group have said that many friends were outside during the special convention, and therefore many friends are also outside the central committee, so we propose to form a joint mechanism to make the election fair, independent, and free from rigging. Is that possible?

A joint mechanism could be a membership management committee. It could be a membership dispute resolution committee. It could be an accommodation committee. Whatever sub-committees are formed for the convention, we are saying that we will form them with an inclusive structure based on affiliation. We will include all friends in a way that is acceptable to the mandate of the special convention within the structure. If the central committee is inclusive based on affiliation, then we will form various committees from within it. These committees could include a membership management committee, an election committee, a membership dispute resolution committee, and an accommodation committee. We will form all such committees together, by consensus. This can ensure the fairness of the convention. This is what happened before, and we are saying we will do it now. There are various ways to build consensus and reconcile. We have said that we should adopt those methods.

Yesterday, as soon as we won the election, we ourselves said to the winners, 'There are others besides those who voted for you.' The winners also used to behave accordingly, saying, 'Well, there are friends other than those who voted for me, they should also be included.' Today, a majority were included in the special convention, but not all. This means some remained outside. Now, there are ways, just like in the past, to include those who remained outside and move forward together. We have said that we should adopt those methods.

• Are you ready to make the 15th General Convention a convention of unity and move forward together?

There is no alternative to that. From the 15th General Convention, we must be able to give the message that the party has been organized, integrated, systematized, and is trying to move forward in a new way. If that happens, we must move forward with the confidence that Congress will revive. This is like talking about moving forward together rather than just including; it will create a situation where everyone walks together.