A history ends with the death of Girija Prasad Koirala

In the streets of Kathmandu, life was as usual, Saturday afternoon. But a large number of people and leaders had gathered outside a house in Mandikhatar in nervous mood. There, the supreme commander of Nepalese politics Girija Prasad Koirala breathed his last at 12.10 pm. His party officially confirmed his death at 1:45 pm.

NC president Girija Prasad Koirala (File photo)

Koirala died after battling with bad health for a long time while still commanding the Nepali politics.

Born in Tadi, Saharsha district in Bihar, India, in 1925 when Koirala’s family was in exile, Koirala returned to his homeland Biratnagar at the age of 5. But the Koirala family was again sent into exile for waging war against the autocratic Rana regime. He was the youngest son of Krishna Prasad Koirala and Divya Koirala. Two of his brothers B. P. Koirala and M. P. Koirala also became Prime Ministers of Nepal.

A high school dropout, Koirala was married to Sushma Koirala and has a daughter Sujata Koirala, currently serving as deputy prime minister and foreign minister. He started his political career at the age of 23 as a leader of workers union in Biratnagar Jute Mill. He was jailed for seven years along with his brother B. P. Koirala in 1960 following coup by King Mahendra dismissing the first elected government led by B. P. Koirala. He was released after 21-day strike in jail.
In 1948 Koirala founded the Nepal Mazdoor Congress, later known as the Nepal Trade Union Congress. In 1952 he became the district president of Morang of his party and held that office until he was arrested in royal coup in 1960.
Upon his release in 1967, Koirala, along with other leaders and workers of the party, was sent into exile. He returned to country in 1979 along with B. P. Koirala under national reconciliation campaign. Since then he continued his active participation in national politics.
Koirala served as prime minister of Nepal for five times -- from May 26, 1991 to November 30, 1994; from April 15, 1998 to May 31, 1999; from March 22, 2000 to July 26, 2001 and from April 25, 2006 to August 5, 2008. Besides being prime minister, he was acting head of the state between May 28, 2008 and July 23, 2008 when the Constituent Assembly formally abolished monarchy from the country.
He was the first democratically elected prime minister of Nepal after the restoration of democracy in 1990.
Koirala, who served as the general secretary of the party from 1975 to 1991, was elected as the party president during ninth convention held in Kathmandu on May 11, 1996 and has been occupying the position. During his first term, the house of representatives enacted legislation to liberalize education, media and health sectors in the country. The government also founded the Purwanchal University and the B. P. Koirala Institute of Health and Sciences (BPKIHS) in the Eastern Development region and granted licenses to private sector to run medical and engineering colleges. The government also undertook the construction of the BP Memorial Cancer hospital in Bharatpur.
Koirala took over as Prime Minister from Surya Bahadur Thapa following the collapse of the coalition government led by Thapa in his second term. Koirala first headed a Nepali Congress minority government until December 25, 1998 after which he headed a three-party coalition government with the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and the Nepal Sadhbhawana Party.
He became prime minister for the third time following resignation by Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, under whose leadership party had won the parliamentary election.
During this term, the insurgency in the country had reached to a critical height. The Royal Palace massacre that killed the whole family of king Birandra also took during this term.
He played a crucial role in forging political consensus among parties and held secret talks with underground CPN (Maoist). The Jana Andoland II, led by Koirala forced King Gyanendra to withdraw his steps and reinstate parliament as demanded by the party.
After the reinstatement of the House of Representatives on April 24, 2006 Koirala was selected to become prime minister by the leaders of the Seven Party Alliance. Following the promulgation of the interim constitution, Koirala, as the Prime Minister, acted as the interim head of state of Nepal until election of first president on July 23, 2008.
On April 1, 2007, Koirala was re-elected as Prime Minister to head a new government composed of the SPA and the CPN (Maoist).
He played steering role in armed struggle against the Rana regime. In an interview with the Kantipur Television of Nepal, Koirala admitted to printing fake Indian currencies to run political campaigns while being in exile in India. He was also involved in hijacking the Royal Nepal Airlines aircraft to put further pressure for ending Rana rule in the country.
His latest contribution to national politics was restoration of peace by dragging armed insurgent Maoist into political mainstream. He led the coalition government that included Maoist, and successfully held the first Constituent Assembly, which has been mandated to write new constitution within May 28. nepalnews.com