Nepal, June 4 -- By now there should be no ambiguity about the mainstream communists in Nepal, who are engaged to an ideological slogan but married to a capitalist pattern, but without the required commitment and discipline. The gruelling unification of the Nepal Communist Party might have been finally formalised at least on paper. It might require the UML faction to jack up one or two radical ideas toward what it used to uphold until 1990. The Maoist faction, too, needs to shed much of the remnants of the radicalism it once chanted, and appreciate the value of moderation and rule of law.

Established in 1949 and outlawed in 1954 until the ban was lifted in 1955, the Nepal Communist Party has had a chequered history, but the post-1990 per...