RUKUM EAST: Pushpa Kamal Dahal, coordinator of the Nepali Communist Party, is currently busy in Rukum and Rolpa as part of his election engagements.
Having contested elections from six different constituencies across the country since the end of the decade-long armed conflict, Dahal has this time focused his political activities in Rukum East. While leaders of other parties are intensifying efforts to tilt electoral outcomes in their favor, Prachanda has been touring the hills of Rolpa and Rukum with visible confidence.
On Thursday, he visited his wartime shelter located at Bhumme Rural Municipality–7, Lawang, in Rukum East, where he had once stayed during the “People’s War.” He observed the house, the room he occupied, and even the bed he used at the time.
Becoming emotional, Dahal recalled memories from the insurgency period and attempted to convey a message to local residents. Before entering the wartime shelter, he reached Mahat village, where he danced with local women to traditional folk tunes, reminiscing about the past.
Climbing up to the house that served as a shelter during the conflict, he said, “This is the house where I stayed. This was my room. Possibly, this was the very bed. It feels thrilling now. It feels like a story, yet it is history.”
He also recalled drafting key documents during his stay there. “I wrote documents in this very room. Preparations for Politburo meeting proposals and programs were made here,” he said. “Pampha Bhusal and I were in the Politburo at that time. Today, we are here together again.”
Dahal said the wartime shelter had sent a message across the country. “A message has gone nationwide. I pay tribute to the great martyrs across the country,” he said. “During those stormy days, revolutionary people throughout the nation helped us reach the republic.”
He also remembered that a bounty had once been placed on his head while he was staying in the house. “While I was living here, a price was set on my head. I had to stay here for a long time. Yet we were free here, open among the people,” he said. “Even when the then state declared a bounty, we did not feel threatened. We were across the country, while they were limited to Kathmandu.”
Recalling the conflict period, he claimed that Maoist forces had controlled around 80 percent of the country’s territory at one point. “Even the United Nations had acknowledged that 80 percent of the territory was under Maoist control,” he said. “Even today, we are among the people. The Communist Party is a shelter of the people.”
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