Baburam Bhattarai
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Dr. Baburam Bhattarai (born 26 May 1954) is a Nepalese communist. He is an intellectual and a senior Standing Committee Member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which had been fighting a revolutionary People's War in Nepal since 1996. He is also the Head of the International Department of the Party, and Convener of United Revolutionary People's Council, Nepal, an embryonic Central People's Government Organizing Committee.
He has a number of publications to his credit, including The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional structure of Nepal: A Marxist Analysis (Adroit Publishers, Delhi, 2003) which is a cursory rewriting of his PhD thesis. Other works include Politico-Economic Rationale of People's War in Nepal (Utprerak Publications, Kathmandu, 1998), and Nepal! krantika adharharu (in Nepali) (Janadisha Publications, 2004).
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[edit] Early Childhood
Born in the Gorkha district, Bhattarai went to a missionary high school run by the United Mission to Nepal in rural Gorkha, a place renowned for the rise of the Shah dynasty in Nepal. He always came in first position in his classes throughout his primary and secondary education. Only once, however, during a midterm exam, he was beaten by his fellow classmate, Dr Upendra Devkota a neurosergeon in Nepal.
Dr. Bhattarai had the highest score in the national School Leaving Certificate (SLC) in 1970. In 1972 he came first in the Intermediate Science exams. He received his Bachelors in Architecture (Honors)in 1977 from Chandigarh under the Colombo Plan Scholarship and his PhD in Architecture from Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi)in 1986.
[edit] Political career
Bhattarai became politically active during his student days in India. In 1977 he founded the All India Nepalese Students Association. He became active in the Communist Party of Nepal (Masal). As a prominent leader of CPN(Masal) he was the spokesperson of the United National People's Movement during the 1990 uprising. In 1991 he and a group around him broke away from CPN(Masal) and joined the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre).
Dr. Bhattarai then became the head of the Samyukta Janamorcha Nepal (United People's Front Nepal) - the political front of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) - in the parliament. When CPN(UC) split in 1994, Bhattarai sided with the hardline section (which later took the name CPN(M)), and he became the leader of the parallel SJM led by the Maoists.
Bhattarai became known throughout the country after the beginning of the Nepalese People's War due to frustration over continuous anti-democratic anti-people policies enforced by the monarchy through the constitutional monarchy system.
In early 2005, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has reportedly been demoted within the Maoist ranks as a result of an internal party dispute about the prominence of Chairman Prachanda. Although he did not use the phrase, the substance of Bhattarai's complaints were that Prachanda was building a cult of personality around himself. Prachanda countered that Bhattarai was merely resentful of the decline of his own prominence 1. However, in July the same year, he and Prachanda reportedly worked out their differences and Baburam's position was restored 2.
[edit] Personal life
Bhattarai is married to Hisila Yami, a fellow Maoist leader. Along with Bhattarai, Yami was a leading figure in student politics in India. They had two children together, Manush and Manushi. Manush died of jaundice 31 hours after being born.
[edit] Hobbies
Before committing himself fully to politics, Bhattarai was also a brilliant chess player. He used to say that chess was to Communists what water was to ducks, and tirelessly pointed out that Lenin was also a chess enthusiast.
When the then FIDE president Max Euwe gave a simultaneous exhibition in Kathmandu, Bhattarai played against him and beat the former world champion in 23 moves with a brilliant queen sacrifice. Afterwards, Dr. Euwe was reported in local media as saying, "Alekhine lives in Nepal!".[citation needed]
Many Nepalese chess fans rue the fact that Nepal lost its first potential FIDE Grand Master when Dr. Bhattarai gave up competitive chess to devote himself exclusively to the revolutionary struggle.
