The Nepal Communist Party has never been open to criticism, whether from inside or outside the party. While Prime Minister and NCP Co-chair KP Sharma Oli has asked party members to refrain from criticising the government and support its works, Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called on party members to defend the government and counterattack against “regressive forces”.  All of this incitement seemed to come to a head on Saturday, when Gyanendra Shahi, a self-styled social campaigner, was brutally attacked by an unidentified group in Chitwan. Shahi is the same person who, a few weeks ago, made headlines after he verbally berated Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai for delaying a Kathmandu-bound flight at the Nepalgunj airport. While the police have yet to investigate the attack, many believe that the assault was retaliation from ruling party cadres for Shahi’s tirade against Bhattarai. Attempts had also been made previously. A day after the Nepalgunj airport fracas, Shahi was detained by police after a group of ruling party cadres tried to attack him while he was about to address a press conference. The party’s youth wings had issued a decree banning Shahi’s entry to at least two districts. In a Facebook post, Ain Mahar, chairman of the All Nepal National Free Students’ Union, a wing of the ruling communist party, appreciatively compared the attack on Shahi to “explosive batting” by Nepali cricketers in Singapore. “Friends do not forget we are not only the children of sage but also the cadres of Madan Bandari,” Mahar wrote, referring to the late Communist Party of Nepal (UML) leader. “Our proposition is simple: tit for tat… If we treat dengue with simple paracetamol, one can die. So the treatment of ordinary fever and dengue is different.” However, politicians, analysts and the public have condemned the attack and said that the way Shahi is being treated directly contradicts the fundamentals of democracy. “The ruling party has restored to the kind of civil war-era retaliation it used to take up against the Nepali Congress,” said Bipin Adhikari, a constitutional expert and former dean of the Kathmandu University School of Law. “Such types of action should be considered personal and the government should disassociate itself from them.”