INDIAN AMBASSADOR JAYANT PRASAD MEETS OUTGOING PM KHANAL

JAYANT PRASAD HOLDS TALKS WITH OUTGOING PM KHANAL


Kathmandu, Aug. 29, Indian Ambassador Jayant Prasad held talks with outgoing Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal at the latter’s official residence at Baluwatar Sunday.
Khanal is preparing to vacate Baluwatar after Sunday’s election of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai as his successor.
Prasad assumed office Friday.
The new Indian ambassador began his Nepal mission at a crucial time of government change by first meeting senior UML leader and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and NC President Sushil KOiralaa.
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FURTHER DETAILS OF DR. BABURAM BHATTARAI BIO







Kathmandu, 29 Aug.: Newly elected Prime Minister Dr. Babu Ram Bhatatrai was born in a lower middle class-peasant family on June 18, 1954, in Belbas, Khoplang VDC, Gorkha district, The Rising Nepal writes.
A vice-chairman of UCPM-Maoist, Dr Bhattarai is widely recognised for his political and intellectual activism. Upholding his popular epithet the ‘Always First’, he was elected from the constituency 2 of Gorkha district in the Constituent Assembly elections securing nearly 82 per cent of votes of his constituency that also made him the first in terms of the votes any candidate got in the elections.
Dr Bhattarai also proved his capacity to be the first even when he held Finance Ministry by collecting the highest amount of revenue in 2008.
Formal education of Dr Bhattarai from Amar Jyoti High School in Luitel village, two-hour walking distance from village. Ever since getting enrolled in grade 3, Bhattarai stood out as a bright student, scoring first position throughout his school life. In 1970 he made the headlines for topping the national-level School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations, till then unimaginable from a remote village school.
He then pursued his Intermediate in Science from Amrit Science College in Kathmandu where he once again excelled and became the only person till date to top two consecutive national exams. In 1977, under the Colombo Plan, Bhattarai completed his Bachelors Degree in Architecture from Chandigarh, India.
In 1979, he went on to complete his Masters in Town and Country Planning with specialization in Urban and Regional Planning, from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. It was here that he met and married Hisila Yami, also a daughter of a prominent scholar-politician Dharma Ratna ‘Yami’ from Kathmandu. In 1986, Yami gave birth to a daughter, Manushi. The same year, Dr Bhattarai obtained his PhD degree in Regional Development Planning, from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His thesis titled— ‘The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional Structure of Nepal’ has been published as a book.
According to family genesis, the Bhattarais were traditional priests and astrologers to the Sen Kings of Palpa who were known to have migrated to Liglig area of Gorkha around 15th century AD. Interestingly, one Gajanan Bhattarai, along with Ganesh Pandey and others, was instrumental in installing Drabya Shah as the King of Liglig and Gorkha. One branch of the same Bhattarai lineage remained in Belbas, in the foothills of Liglig kot, as peasants. It was here, in the mid-hills of Nepal, that Baburam Bhattarai was born to Bhoj Prasad Bhattarai and Dharma Kumari Bhattarai. He was the second son in the family.
In an ironical twist of history, 240 years after the establishment of the Shah dynasty in which the Bhattarais played an important role, a member of the same Bhattarai lineage was to become instrumental in abolishing the feudal monarchy.
Politically conscious but not an activist in his early college days, he soon found himself in the midst of anti-monarchy activities of banned political parties after the royal coup of 1960. In 1977, he became the Founder President of the All India Nepalese Students Association.
In India, he came in contact with top political leaders of Nepal like B.P. Koirala, Tulsi Lal Amatya, Mohan Bikram Singh, Rishikesh Shah, and plunged headlong into democratic politics.
In 1980, he got arrested for the first time by the Indian police while demonstrating black flag against King Birendra visiting New Delhi. In 1981, Bhattarai became member of the Communist Party of Nepal through Mohan Bikram Singh. Subsequently, he became active in organizing migrant Nepali workers in India through All India Nepalese Unity Society (1979-1986). Between 1977 and 1986 he became the Editor of Janamanas and Nepali Ekta published from India.
After completion of his formal education, he returned to Nepal in 1986 and became full-time party cadre and political activist. He was arrested twice, in 1986 and 1988, by the royal regime.
From 1986 to 1991, he was the Chief Editor of Jhilko (Monthly). During the anti-Panchayat people’s movement of 1990, Bhattarai was the Central Spokesperson of United National People’s Movement, a coalition of CPN (Masal), CPN (Mashal), Proletarian Labour Organization and other left groups. Post-1990, his political activism only intensified against, in is own words, ‘the weaknesses and limitations of the chronically infirm parliamentary system after 1990’.
Between 1991 and 2001, he was also the President of United People’s Front. During the People’s War, he remained underground from 1996 to 2006, and led the revolution in different fronts. He was the Convener of the United Revolutionary People’s Council, a shadow People’s Government, during the war time. In 2003, he led the Negotiating Team of CPN (Maoist) for peace dialogues.
He has a number of publications in Nepali to his credit. His publications in English include –
1. Nepal: A Marxist View (Jhilko Publications, Kathmandu, 1996)
2. Politico-Economic Rationale of People’s War in Nepal (Utprerak Publications, Kathmandu, 1998)
3. The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional structure of Nepal: A Marxist Analysis (Adroit Publishers, Delhi, 2003)
4. Monarchy vs. Democracy: The Epic Fight in Nepal (Samakaleen Teesari Duniya, New Delhi, 2005)

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