Nepali Congress Completes Digital Update of Active Members

Nepali Congress has completed the work of updating its active members digitally. We have started this grand campaign to digitize the details related to Congress membership that were in paper. The first thing is that we have tried to improve the record system of Nepali Congress membership in a timely manner. In other words, we have tried to digitize the party's membership system.

Until now, our record system was in documents. During the Janji movement on August 23 and 24, the party's central office, provincial and district offices in Sanepa, Lalitpur, were burnt, and the record system in documents was also burnt. Not only that, but our other party records were also destroyed at that time. It is not possible to find those old records again when we search for them. Therefore, we have tried to transform our records into this digital system.

Secondly, in today's digitized era, any organization has less possibility of flourishing if it does not have a digital network. If those connected to the organization digitally are not connected to each other, that organization cannot exist. Today, the challenge for all organizations is the issue of digital connectivity. Therefore, we have launched this grand campaign to connect everyone associated with the Nepali Congress digitally. We have tried to connect the members and well-wishers of Congress so that they can be contacted digitally when needed.

Thirdly, Nepali Congress is a party. It conducts various campaigns from time to time. Information about those campaigns needs to be delivered to the party members repeatedly. Information about decisions made by party meetings needs to be delivered. When it is necessary to take public opinion nationwide on any issue, it is first necessary to take the opinion of our own party members. By being digitally connected, it becomes easy to understand the views of the party members. Therefore, this campaign has been launched to create an easy situation for the leadership to communicate with the members, the members with the leadership, or all party members with the party.

Before launching the campaign to update membership digitally, the situation regarding active membership was that our record system had members' names and addresses. Digital connectivity was not easy with those names and addresses. Now, while updating membership, we have taken phone numbers or WhatsApp numbers. We have also taken social media IDs as available. We have also collected data on the age of our members. How many voters are there in our members' families? And who are there in the country and abroad? We have collected all these records during the membership update. We have collected the necessary member information through the update to understand the role of a member for election purposes and how that member can be informed about it.

Currently, within our party organization structure, there are thousands of booth committees. There are 6,743 ward committees. There are 753 local committees. There are provincial electoral constituency committees. We have developed this digital record at all seven levels, including 77 district working committees, 7 provincial committees, and the central level. We have also developed a system to connect with them digitally. For example, we have digitally connected with them regarding the deadline for this update, how this update can be done, etc. For instance, if our central president wants to give some message to the active members of Nepali Congress across the country, or wants to say that our opinion on a certain matter is this, and it should be followed accordingly, then his one video will reach all those friends. Therefore, we have developed a method to take the actual digital records of all those in charge within the organizational structure and connect with them digitally.

When we talk about this update, it means removing the records of those among us who have died, or joined other parties, or have been disciplined, and updating the current fresh list. The update also provides for updating all information, such as a change of address.

• Why try to make it a political issue?

Not all leaders and workers participated in our party's special general convention held from Poush 27 to 30. Those who did not participate may have tried to make it an issue to express suspicion towards this leadership. If there is suspicion, it is not appropriate to oppose the work done by this leadership for the benefit of the party just because of that suspicion. The leadership that emerged from the special general convention has done good work, done work needed by the party, and done work that brings benefits and advantages to the party, so in my opinion, there is no reason to oppose it just to claim credit.

There is also no reason to make it a political issue. Leaders and friends who did not participate in the special general convention have raised some political issues. Some of those issues can be discussed, but this has also been mixed in. There is no reason to mix this. Updating digitally does not harm the party in any way.

We have completed the grand campaign of digitally updating active membership by making provisions in the statute through the special general convention. This is provided for in Article 4 of the statute. How can doing work according to the statute be called unnecessary?

(Based on the conversation between Madhusudan Bhattarai and Paudel, General Secretary of the Congress and Coordinator of the Party's Active Membership Management Committee)