A Japanese journalist, Kiyoko Ogura has beautifully chronicled the People’s Movement of 1990 that ushered in the multi-party democracy in Nepal. Nepalnews brings to you selected chapters from the book “Kathmandu Spring: The People’s Movement of 1990” by Ms. Ogura published by Himal Books in 2001 and reprinted in 2004.
King forecasts democracy; Communist upsurge in Kirtipur
By Kiyoko Ogura
Late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shahdev
Late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shahdev (File Photo)
After the national referendum of 1980 to be decided whether the Panchayat system was to be continued or the multiparty system restored, the king had talked with Lokendra Bahadur Chand (reappointed prime minister later) at length. Chand remembered the conversation with the king (late King Birendra), who had then said, “Some day, this country will have a multiparty system. I can’t say if it takes ten years or twenty years to realise this, but you need to be ready for that.”
There was another time when they had talked about something similar. At the end of a monsoon season, Chand had gone to the royal villa on Nagarjun hill for a regular audience with the king. After their official business was over, he got a chance to talk with the king alone. “Your Majesty, the people of Nepali Congress want to work more freely,” Chand had said. “Thankfully, we have no serious problem other than that these days. I think if we could talk to them to solve this political problem, it would be good.”
Former Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand
Former Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand (File Photo)
There were two sofas in the room; the king was on one and Chand on the other. The king told Chand to come sit next to him. Sitting next to each other, the king and his prime minister talked about the demand of Nepali Congress. Finally, the king said, “If the leaders of Nepali Congress have clear ideas about political reform, you should start a dialogue with them.”
Unfortunately, soon after this, Chand was forced to resign from his post due to a conflict among panchas, and Marich Man Singh Shrestha became prime minister. Talks between the Panchayat side and the Nepali Congress could not take place then. It was indeed an historical irony that when the time for a dialogue with the political parties did come around, Shrestha had to go and replaced by Chand. But the situation now was radically different. The demands for political change had become uncompromising and this time it was the people themselves demanding it on the streets.
The small village of Nagaun, to the south of Kirtipur, and its eastern neighbour, Panga, have long been known to be politically active. During the 1950 movement to overthrow the Rana autocracy, the activists who had founded the Communist Party of Nepal, such as Pushpa Lal Shrestha, Shambhu Ram Shrestha, and later, Nirmal Lama, had taken shelter there for some time. The story of how each of the villagers had brought food for them is still fondly remembered. It is said that the farmers from these two villages had become communist supporters since then. After the ban on political parties in 1960, communist activists seldom visited the village, as most of them had taken refuge in India or were in jail. And the villagers resumed their lives, firmly shutting themselves off from politics.
That had changed after the mid-70swhen communist party workers once again started frequenting the villages. Dil Bahadur Shrestha, peasant activist Sanu Maharjan, and Man Mohan Adhikari, one of the founding members of the Communist Party of Nepal, were among those who began visiting Nagaun and Panga. It did not take long time for the villagers, already influenced by communist ideology, to become active members of the illegal communist parties once again. Twenty years later, it was a new generation leading the communist movement in the villages.
The split on the communist party had had an impact on the villages as well and the small communities were divided into three factions: the Communist Party of Nepal (Fourth Congress), the Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) and Ma-Le. In the 1987 elections, the candidates from leftist groups had won the chairmanships of Bairagaun Village Panchayat, which include Nagaun and Chitubihar Village Panchayat, within which lay Kirtipur. Because of this, the authorities had marked out Kirtipur, Nagaun and Panga as ‘Red Areas’. But apart from an incident involving students and youths attacking the police station at Khasi Bazaar on 19 February, the movement had not really taken off there and the local leftists were feeling that Patan had over taken them. But now with the stirrings having begun, they jumped in readily as if that was just what they had been waiting for all long.