KATHMANDU: Chairman of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that Nepal’s communists, who once struggled to liberate the country from the clutches of autocrats, have now been treading on the same path of absolutism for the sake of power and prestige.

Dahal said that the communist leaders and cadres have deviated from the true principles and ideology of communism. “Communists, who were once recognized as ideal, have currently changed their mindset,” Dahal said at a program organized at the party central office in Dhumbarahi in Kathmandu today.

He said the time has come to ask thus: “Are we on the right track?” Dahal went on to add, “Are we really communists?”

Former Prime Minister Dahal also expressed concern saying that the communists have become lavish and luxurious of late warning that the communist party, too, would lose its identity if leaders and cadres deviated from the party’s ideology.