Girija’s body at Dashrath Ranghashala for public viewing
Kathmandu 21 March: Thousands of people filed past the body Girija Prasad Koirala at the Dashrath Ranghashala Sunday.
Ordinary people, government officials party workers and foreign diplomats filed past the body offering their last respect.
The body was taken from Mandikatar Sunday morning first to the Nepali Congress where Acting President Sushil Koirala and Sher Bahadur Deuba draped it with the party flag.
The body was placed there only for 10 minutes to the disappointment of many people.
The funeral process will start from the stadium at two in the afternoon for cremation at Aryaghat with full state honour.
The procession could be delayed because of the huge crowds queuing up to pay their last respects.
A special aircraft Sunday is flying in a team from New Delhi consisting of Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Lok Sabha Speaker Mira Kumar to participate the funeral procession.
Former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai gave a guarded comment on Koirala’s death.
Bhattarai, the only surviving founding member of the Nepali Congress quit the party after Congress adopted a republican agenda.
“There were a lot of disputes and differences between us. Everything would be resolved when the two of us agreed. The death of Girijababu is an irreparable loss for the nation.
“I can’t say much about my dead and at one time dear friend. I can only say good things about him.
“I’ve forgotten a lot about Girijababu,” Bhattarai said.
“The proper tribute to Koirala will be to take the peace and constitution drafting processes to a decisive phase,” Chairman Prachanda said.
‘In my last meeting with him Friday he emphasized national unity to take the nation forward,” Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said.
Former King Gyanendra’s Secretary Pashupatibhakta Maharjan Friday visited Mandikatar and expressed the then king’s condolences and offered a bouquet.
“He has hoped other parties will fulfill Koirala’s unfilled desire for the establishment of peace,” Maharjan told Acting President Sushil on behalf of the former king.
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Girija Prasad Koirala bio last update
By Bhola B Rana
Kathmandu, 21 March: Five-time Prime Minister and three-time president of Nepali Congress Girija Prasad Koirala, 85, died Saturday at 12.10 in the afternoon .
He never regained consciousness after he went into a coma at five in the morning at the residence of his daughter Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala at Mandikatar.
Girija was born in a town in the Indian state of Bihar across his hometown Biratnagar.
His father Krishna Prasad Koirala had gone into self-exile during the Rana regime.
Girija was born 1925.
He was the youngest of three sons of Krishna Prasada to became prime ministers; the first was Matrika and the second was BP Koirala, Nepal’s first elected prime minister after the fall of the Rana regime.
An emergency meeting of Nepali Congress decided to put his body for public viewing at Dashrath Ranghashala from eight in the morning.
A funeral process will begin at two in the afternoon and his body will be cremated with state honours at Pashupatinath Aryaghat.
The government announced a public holiday Sunday and a three-day state mourning for a transitional head of state after the declaration of a republic and a former prime minister.
Thousands of people, including President Dr Ram Baran Yadav visited Mandikatar and paid their last respects.
Koirala’s body will be placed for public viewing from eight in the morning at the Rangashala Sunday.
Koirala was released from hospital Wednesday after blood transfusion.
A heavy smoker, he suffered obstructive pulmonary edema.
He dominated Nepali politics in and out of government since he became prime minister for the first time on 29 May 1991 following the country’s first multi-party elections after the collapse of the partyless panchayat.
He spent seven years in jail during opposition politics and was involved in the hijacking of a Royal Nepal Airlines aircraft from Biratnagar to Jogbani across the border in Bihar during his anti-panchayat politics during 12 years in self-exile.
Girija was commander of the armed movement against the partyless from base in India.
The hijacking of the aircraft with money of Nepal Rashtra Bank was the only incident involving a national carrier.
Giraja confessed he was involved in printing of illegal Indian currency notes during his self-exile to topple panchayat rule.
He was considered an organizer in the party.
The Madhav Kumar Nepal government decided to nominate his name for the Nobel Peace Prize for what the government called his contribution to the peace process by attempting to bring Maoists into the peace process.
Girija attempted to influence national politics even until his dying days by being coordinator of the controversial high-level political mechanism of which Maoist Chairman Prachanda and UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal were members,
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was only an invited member who avoided the mechanism’s meetings.
The mechanism’s declared intention was to put the delayed peace process and the drafting of a constitution by the 28 May deadline.
Girija’s mission after toppling monarchy was unfulfilled.
Giraja, amid charges of nepotism, pushed PM Nepal to appoint his daughter Sujata deputy prime minister.
Girija called mid-term elections in 1993 and lost the vote to UML which emerged as the largest political party to form the first elected communist government in the world even as communist regimes collapsed in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe.
Communists have emerged as Nepal’s main political force.
In the 2008 April constituent assembly and parliamentary elections, Maoists emerged as the biggest party replacing the Nepali Congress.
Congress until then was the dominant party in Nepal.
Girija pushed for the vote under international pressure even when conditions weren’t rife; he abandoned pre-conditions Maoist disband the YCL and return seized assets for the vote.
The Nepali Congress has now resurrected the pre-conditions with the integration of 19,000 combatants in security agencies and society before the promulgation of a constitution to institutionalize a republic declared by a self-appointed and unelected parliament.
Political party leaders, including Maoists, said Girija left behind an unfulfilled mission and job in their condolence messages.
Former King Gyanendra also condoled Girija’s death.
Girija took complete hold of the Nepali Congress even forcing supreme Ganesh Man Singh to resign from the party.
Collective leadership with President Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Singh was smashed.
Bhattarai, the only surviving founder of Nepali Congress, resigned when Girija abandoned the party’s traditional support for constitutional monarchy and declared the nation a republic.
The party was previously run by a trio of BP Koirala, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Ganesh Man Singh.
Girija toppled four times the governments of his own party led by Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Sher Bahadur Deuba.
With the toppling of governments, the country was plunged into political instability.
Deuba took on Koirala’s last challenge and dissolved parliament calling for mid-term polls which he couldn’t conduct in six months after the dissolution creating a political crisis and the fall of constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy.
Maoists launched a 10-year people’s war during Girija’s rule with the rebels charging Koirala and Deuba, home minister under Koirala, for excesses during peaceful protests, forcing them into the jungle.
Girija failed to institutionalize parliamentary democracy despite his struggle and fight for democracy.
Girija colluded with foreign powers, including India, to topple the 238-year Shah dynasty and establish a republic following the announcement of direct royal rule by King Gyanendra in February 2005.
He forged an alliance with eight political parties with foreign help to topple monarchy.
But his ambitions to become the first president never materialized after Dr Ram Baran Yadav from the same party was elected.
Maoists withdrew support at the last moment for Koirala fearing he would create a parallel power center around a ceremonial president.
By his own admission, he said he took a ‘gamble’ to bring Maoists into the political mainstream the gamble failed.
Maoists haven’t accepted pluralism and multi-party democracy and are pushing a communist state.
Nepal is in shambles.
He went to India to negotiate a 12-point comprehensive peace agreement with Maoists on the government, Indian and American terrorist list on the pretext of medical treatment.
He held secret discussions with Chairman Prachanda in New Delhi’s outskirts Noida—a discussion which couldn’t he held without Indian government concurrence, according to political aide and former home minister Krishna Prasad Shitaula during the transition after declaration of a republic.
After the declaration of a republic by an unelected and self-appointed parliament, a republic has yet to be formalized by the drafting of a constitution and sustained.
It’s unlikely a republican constitution will be announced by the 28 May deadline even after the successful Janandolan of 2006 of which Girija was supreme commander.
An intense power struggle between Acting President Sushil Koirala, Parliamentary Party Leader Ram Chandra Paudel and Sher Bahadur Deuba will start in the second largest party after Koirala’s death.
The future of daughter Sujata, who is deputy prime minister and foreign minister, is uncertain with the death of a protector.
Koirala invited direct foreign intervention in Nepali politics by signing a vague 12-point peace agreement with Maoists in New Delhi; the agreement was drafted in Hindi.
The agreement is subject of various interpretations.
Koirala has unleashed uncertainly, instability and even the survival of Nepal is at stake.
There are now demands for a federal structure and cessation in the north and south.
He agreed to a federal structure and regional demands when he was prime minister but then renegaded.
Corruption was its zenith when he was prime minister.
He defied the CIAA and the supreme court and refused to cooperate in investigation of the Dhamija and Lauda cases.
Corruption was rife in his rule.
He signed a controversial Tanakpur water deal with India conceding water rights on Mahakali river declared unconstitutional by the supreme court.
Besides the governments of Bhattarai and Deuba, he also conspired to bring down other governments after 1991 leading to political instability and ultimately the declaration of direct rule by King Gyanendra.
Deuba took on Koirala when is government was toppled leading to the split in Nepali Congress –a division that hasn’t yet been put together.
By his own admission, Girija said he took a ‘gamble’ to bring Maoists into the political mainstream—nobody gave him that mandate.
He imposed his will on the party without debate and discussion, including the declaration of a republic.
But as he grew inform, he was challenged in the party.
Even the formation of the high-level political mechanism without discussion in the party came under criticism.
Girija started his political career by participating in the Biratnagar jute mill labourers’ in strike in 1947 and for the fist time because the party’s central committee member in 1958.
Girija abused and destroyed democracy for which he said he fought.
“Parliamentary democracy was the biggest suffer,” said an analyst.
The nation’s future is bleak with Maoist threatening a communist take over and cessation in the terai amid demands for federalism on ethnic lines.
Girija forced King Gyanendra to take ‘ a political’ or unconstitutional decision’ to and restore a parliament that had completed its five-year mandate.
The same parliament toppled the king who restored it.
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