Nepal, July 6 -- On June 28, in the dignified premises of the Rastriya Sabha Griha Hall in Kathmandu, four former prime ministers sat on the same stage: KP Sharma Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal. Beside them, as chief guest, sat former President Bidhya Devi Bhandari. The occasion was the 75th birth anniversary of the late Madan Bhandari, organised by the Madan Bhandari Foundation, titled 'Nepal's Communist Movement and Madan Bhandari'. It was, on the surface, an act of remembrance. Beneath it, as with most things in Nepali communist politics, ran a current far murkier than tribute.

Madan Bhandari, who gave the left the enduring political philosophy of People's Multiparty Democracy and died in a jeep accid...