B. P. Koirala of Nepal: Difference between revisions
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Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, better known as B.P. Koirala (1914-1982) was one of the presidents of the Nepali Congress Party. He founded Nepali National Congress, which in 1950 became the Nepali Congress Party, while in exile in India with his father Krisha Prasad Koirala, who is regularly referred to as the follower of Mahatma Gandhi.
"He was not only a leader of Modern Renaissance," said former Prime Minister of Chandra Shekhar.
He was also active in the Quit India Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi while still young, joining the Indian Congress Party in 1924. Koirala was educated first at Banaras Hindu University, took a law degree from Calcutta University in 1937 and practiced law for several years in Darjeeling, the northern district in West Bengal state, India.
During World War II the British interned him in Dhanbad for two years (1942-1944). After his release, the political situation in India was taking shape for liberation. In the midst of this he set his strategies to bring change to Nepal. He was imprisoned in Nepal in 1947-1948 on reaching his hometown Biratnagar to lead a labor demonstration at Biratnagat Jute Mill. A year later he was arrested again, but was soon released after a 27-day hunger strike, protests and intervention of then Indian Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru.
Politics was his inborn quality. He used to say, "There was politics in the blood of my family. My father had to leave Nepal when I was three years old. Everyone in the family had a warrant of arrest against him; our entire property was confiscated. We were in exile in India for twelve years." After years of struggle against the Rana regime of Nepal from exile, Nepali Congress Party finally won victory and established democracy in Nepal in 1951.
In the new cabinet led by last Rana Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher, he was appointed as the home minister and served for nine months. Koirala then walked away and concentrated on the developing Nepali political structure. Political parties were increasing in importance, and the King was pushed by events to offer some concession to growing democratic aspirations. King Mahendra responded with a new constitution enabling free parliamentary elections to take place in 1959. Koirala's congress won in two-thirds of the seats in the lower house. After several weeks of hesitation King Mahendra approved Koirala's name to lead the government from May 1959. Thus, he became the first elected Prime Minister of Nepal in the first democratic election held in the country, but failed to maintain stability.
His land reform measures, especially the revision of the tenancy laws so easily passed by parliament, deeply offended the landed aristocracy which had long dominated the army. His long-promised reform of the central bureaucracy outraged thousands of entrenched and powerful bureaucrats. And the King and court saw even their residual powers being eroded with amazing speed.
On December 15, 1960, he was sent to jail after a bloodless coup by King Mahendra. The King suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament, dismissed the cabinet, imposed direct rule, and imprisoned Koirala and his allies. Many were released after a few months, but Koirala, although suffering from throat cancer, was kept imprisoned without trial until 1968, when he was finally permitted to go and live in exile in Banaras. Upon his release, he went into exile again. He returned to Nepal in 1976 with reconciliation strategies with the king but was arrested. Considerable international pressure secured his release on parole and enabled him to travel to the USA for medical treatment. He was arrested again on his return from New York in late 1977, but in March 1978 was finally cleared of all treason and sedition charges. He had actively advocated for multiparty system during the referendum in 1980 but failed to get popular votes. He died on July 24, 1982.
After returning from a medical visit to the USA, he held a series of debates with King Birendra and tried for a national reconciliation. During the student demonstrations in 1979, he was kept under house arrest. Despite this, he welcomed King Birendra's call for national referendum to determine whether to adopt multiparty political system or Panchayat. The referendum results were announced to be in favor of Panchayat led by the king amid widespread charges of vote rigging whereupon Koirala called for a boycott of the 1981 elections. He died on July 21, 1982 in Kathmandu. An estimated half a million people attended his funeral.
He followed democratic socialism and supported a constitutional monarchy in Nepal, which has been the hardcore principle of the Nepali Congress till today.
Koirala is also a storywriter and novelist: one of the most well-read and thoughtful writers of Nepali literature. He wrote short stories and novels, and some poems. His first stories were published in Banaras in Hansa, a Hindi literary magazine edited by Prem Chand. His first Nepali short story "Chandrabadan" was published in Sharada (a Nepali literary magazine) in 1935. Koirala was very good at depicting the character and mind of women. Four other stories of Koirala were included in Katha Kusum (an anthology of Nepali stories) published in 1938 in Darjeeling. As a social realist, and a good psychoanalyst, Koirala had established himself as one of the most important Nepali short story writers by 1938. Doshi Chashma (Defective Glasses), Koirala's anthology of sixteen short stories was published in 1949.