"Our ultimate goal is communism," said Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai at a talk in Washington DC last week, adding somewhat apologetically, "I don't want to be dishonest."
Bhattarai's visit to Washington was a study in contrast to the populist, crowd-pleasing talk tour of his boss, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal last month. Being the chief ideologue of the party, Bhattarai seemed to get a psychological boost from the ruins of capitalism all around him on a week that the US economy collapsed.
"Our goal is socialism," Bhattarai repeated several times in his speeches and interviews, invoking Marx and Mao. He talked about his recent budget, and said: "Mao used to say the masses are the creator of history, and we are realistically ambitious if we can mobilise the masses, if we can create jobs within the country."
Nepal would first have to go through an industrial revolution before that socialist dream is realized, Bhattarai said. So that must mean communism is even further off.
Bhattarai was here to attend the annual meeting of the board of governors of the World Bank. It has been a busy time for Nepali ambassador to the United States, Suresh Chandra Chalise, who had just seen off Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav in Philadelphia and Prime Minister Dahal earlier.
Chalise escorted Bhattarai to his talk at the Elliott School of International Affairs, where the finance minister was also greeted by Chitra Tiwari, who sometimes wrote pro-Maoist op-eds for the Washington Times.
During the introduction, moderator Deepa M. Ollapally, Associate Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the venue, mentioned that the minister had also authored the book 'The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional Structure of Nepal.' For some reason she didn't mention the subtitle of that book: 'A Marxist Analysis'.
Later, in a separate interview, Bhattarai played down the ideological dispute within his party back home between supporters and opponents of liberal democracy.
"This reporting on the dispute within the party is highly exaggerated. In a communist party we always have very constructive discussions on ideological issues," he explained, "it's not true that there are hardliners and moderates. Basically we are Marxists, but we are not dogmatic Marxists? want to develop the science of Marxism?we are very practical and realistic Marxists who want to bring out real change in society."
Bhattarai says his budget is aimed at taking Nepal out of economic stagnation, with investments in infrastructure and the social sector. Remittance and tourism are driving Nepal's economy, but sustainable development is only possible after investing in agriculture, he added.
He said the Asian Development Bank or the World Bank have been playing a significant role in Nepal, and he wanted them in the future help Nepal become more self-reliant. "We have our interest of development and they have their interest of making investment. We'll have to find a balance," he added.
Bhattarai warmed up when asked to analyse the current world economic crisis. "This is an inherent crisis of the imperialist economy, or the monopoly capitalist economy, it goes through cycles?"
The finance minister addressed a public event hosted by the Nepali community in Arlington, Virginia, on Sunday. He is speaking at Harvard University at MIT and then will be flying back to Kathmandu on Monday.
The full interview with Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai on www.samudaya.org
