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Kathmandu, Aug 4: CPN (Maoist Centre) Deputy General Secretary Janardan Sharma has said that he is ready to bear any punishment for raising questions regarding party-building.

While presenting his views at the ongoing Standing Committee meeting at the central office in Parisdanda on Sunday, Sharma said that when he raised the issue of party-building, a false narrative of party split was being spread. He also stated that while he raised this issue publicly, other leaders inside the party have been privately saying that the party is not going to survive.

“I raised the question of party-building in front of everyone; others have been secretly going around saying this party will not last. But if I have to face any punishment for raising questions about party-building, I am ready for it. I reject the propaganda that the party will split. No matter how much I am pushed, I will remain in the party,” he said.

“If it is my weakness that the vote count dropped from 3.1 million to 1.1 million, I am ready to self-criticize. If not, then self-criticism must be done from respective places.”

Sharma openly declared his willingness to face any consequences for questioning the party’s direction. He dismissed rumors of a potential party split and affirmed his loyalty, stating he would not leave under pressure. He accepted personal accountability for the party’s electoral decline but insisted that other leaders must also accept responsibility where due.

He stated instead of steering the party towards socialism, the party sat in government and praised liberalism and neo-liberalism. Accordingly, we formulated our policy programs. Even when some reforms were attempted, they were not tolerated.

The reason my affection for the leadership has waned is that our leadership has tried to abandon the path of workers and farmers, distancing itself from class commitment, he said.

When I was finance minister, I introduced programs like farmers’ pensions, deploying 300 agricultural volunteers in each municipality, and utilizing fallow land. But these programs were scrapped while our chairman was the Prime Minister. I want to clarify this here, Sharma added.

If our central leadership had been sincere in implementing federalism, there would already be provincial police forces today, and the provinces would be stronger.

Sharma criticised the party’s shift away from socialism, noting that while in government, it had endorsed liberal and neoliberal ideologies instead. He highlighted that leadership had abandoned farmers and workers, which reduced his trust. He pointed out that his pro-farmer programs, introduced during his tenure as finance minister, were cancelled by the current prime minister, who is also the party chair. He argued that a genuine commitment to federalism would have already empowered provinces with their police forces.

The oppressed castes, classes, regions, and communities are angry with us. We have forgotten identity and related issues. I had proposed in the last Standing Committee to revive and advance these agendas. The fronts’ conferences were held as part of implementing that proposal, Sharma said in his statement.

People’s News Monitoring Service