A good orator, Gagan Thapa represents the Nepali Congress party in the parliament. Widely popular for his charismatic attitude, youth leader Thapa talks about his party’s leadership and the intra-party wrangling during an exclusive conversation with Kabarhub. He is currently involved in ‘cleansing’ what he says party’s ‘filth’ to take the party to a newer height. Excerpts:

The decision of the party leadership should not be self-centric. It should be made in line with the party statute.

Nepali Congress seems to be weaker internally. The party is gripped with intra-party wrangling. It has not been able to address the internal issues. What is your reading?

Candidly speaking, intra-party feud is not new within the Nepali Congress. We, in fact, have been endeavoring to get into the root-cause of the problems. Take for an instance, we have not been able to sort out the issue of Nepal Students’ Union. Formation of an ad-hoc committee is not the way out. Therefore, the best option is to get into the root cause of the problems existing within the party.

NC President made an effort to alter the decision endorsed by the Mahasamiti meeting. Isn’t this a breach of the party statute? 

Nepali Congress has its own statute. What I believe is that all party activities should be governed in line with the statute. Problems can be resolved if the statute is followed in letter and spirit. However, the top-rung leaders have been found to be ignoring the fact by making decisions arbitrarily to suit their interests. The decision of the party leadership should not be self-centric. It should be made in line with the party statute.

The views and opinions generated through by these factions should be channelized properly in the interest of the party while taking the party statute into consideration. The groups are formed based on some certain ideologies.

Do you mean to say that the party leadership is breaching the party statute?

Let me tell you frankly that we all are responsible for the weaknesses. We are imprisoned by our own habits and traits that we are not willing to shake off. We have to change our attitude.

Observers note that NC is mired in factions with leaders forming factions and sub-groups that led to the party’s downfall. What do you say?

Let me reiterate that the problems, which come to the surface quite often, will be resolved if the party leadership followed the party statute. There could be factions or groups within the party but the party should not be taken hostage in the name of factionalism.

My concern is that the leadership should try to find out the reasons behind the formation of factions within the party. The views and opinions generated by these factions should be channelized properly in the interest of the party while taking the party statute into consideration. The groups are formed based on some certain ideologies.

There were reports about the formation of a youth group to take the reins of the party. How is the preparation?

It is not important who leads the party. The question is whether the leadership will take the party to a newer height. The question is whether NC will emerge victorious in the next elections. Likewise, the concern is whether the party will steer the country to the path of development and prosperity to meet people’s expectations.

Handing over the leadership to the younger generation is just a part of the issue. Even if the rein of the party are handed over to the young generation, I think, it will not bring about any miracle overnight unless we have a pragmatic vision. Therefore, the need of the hour is to have a leadership with a vision and positive attitude.

Does the alliance of youth leaders still exist?

We are still active. We wanted our views to be heard in the central committee, which, unfortunately did not go well as expected. We, however, succeeded to discuss it at the Mahasamiti meeting. We are preparing to take the agenda to the grass-roots level. We are working on both the ideological as well and behavioral aspect so as to consolidate the party. We are also soon launching a nation-wide discourse on how the moral etiquette could be fostered and instilled in every party member in the NC.

We should move ahead with a ‘scientific mechanism’ on what needs to be done in the next five years after emerging victorious in the next federal elections. NC should be able to tell the voters what we will do in the next 50 years. The party should be able to tell the people what it can do in the future, not what it did in the past.