Nepal to set up first museum on communist movement

Nepal will get its first museum on its communist movement in the near future, a senior communist leader told Xinhua here in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Communist Party of Nepal (Masal), one of the oldest communist parties in Nepal, took this initiative to establish the first museum on the Nepalese communist movement.

Chitra Bahadur KC, chairman of the Rastriya Janamorcha, the legal front of the CPN (Masal), said the museum will be set up at the heart of Butwal municipality in Rupandehi district, some 282 km from the capital city Kathmandu.

The Mohan Bikram Singh-led party said that it will take a couple of months to complete the construction work and it will be the first museum of its kind on the Nepalese communist movement.

KC said that books, literary magazines, dossiers, documents, newspapers, manuscripts, photographs and historical records of the communist parties and the international communist movement will be made available in the museum.

"We want to collect archives of historical books and documents related to Nepalese and international communist movements in China, Russia among others," the communist leader said. He said that they will ask for historical documents and archives with the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the near future.

The party's plan is to develop the museum as the center of attraction for people across the world who want to get the knowledge about the international communist movement.

Dozens of communist parties including the CPN-UML and UCPN ( Maoist) have pledged support to run the museum and in compiling records related to the communist movement in Nepal.

"To have a well-furnished museum on the communist movement was a dream for us and we are happy to share that our dream is coming true within a couple of months," KC said.

It is learnt that the total estimated cost of the museum stands at 10.5 million Nepalese rupees.

KC has personally donated 1.5 million Nepalese rupees for the museum. Another member of the party, Mina Pun, donated 1 million Nepalese rupees for the purpose. Meanwhile, former prime minister and UCPN (Maoist) leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has also pledged to support the running of the museum.

A national conference of the CPN (Masal) decided to establish the museum two years ago. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 99.43 Nepalese rupees)