Kathmandu. The 43rd Memorial Day is being celebrated today by organizing various programs across the country to commemorate the contribution of the first elected Prime Minister, Bishweshwor Prasad Koirala.
Koirala, who fought hard for the establishment of democracy in Nepal, passed away on 6th Shrawan 2039 BS. He has also made significant contributions to the field of Nepali literature. Koirala was born on 24th Bhadra 1971 BS. He became the first elected Prime Minister in Jestha 2016 BS after the parliamentary elections of 2015 BS.
Koirala, the originator of the psychological realist trend in Nepali literature, has published one and a half dozen works. His six novels, ‘Tin Ghumti’, ‘Modi Ain’, ‘Hitler and the Jew’, ‘Sumnima’, ‘Narendradai’ and ‘Babu, Aama and Chora’, have been published. His two collections of stories, ‘Shvet Bhairavi’ and ‘Doshi Chashma’, and ‘Bisweshwor Prasad Koirala’s Stories and Poems’ edited by Hari Prasad Sharma have been published.
‘Autobiography’ based on conversations with senior advocate late Ganesh Raj Sharma, ‘Jealous Journal’ based on the daily life of Sundarijal Prison, and ‘Pheri Sundarijal’, a diary written after he was taken directly to Sundarijal Prison from Tribhuvan International Airport after returning home on 16 Poush 2033 BS with a policy of national unity and reconciliation, have depicted the reality of the political situation in Nepal at that time. Koirala’s essay on ‘Progressiveness in Literature’, including his works, has also been published in Sisar magazine, edited by Gyannishtha Gyawali.
Koirala, who led the Nepali Congress for a long time and became the first elected Prime Minister after the party won a two-thirds majority in the 2015 general election, provided political leadership for the establishment of nationality, democracy and socialism in Nepal. During his tenure as Prime Minister, he promoted the land reform program of abolishing Birta and ‘the land should belong to the tiller’.
After the people-elected government was overthrown by the Royal Nepali Army on 1 Poush 2017, Koirala and other leaders were imprisoned in Singha Durbar. A month later, the official residence of the chief of the army’s Sundarijal Arsenal was surrounded by a wall and Koirala, the first Speaker of Parliament Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, leader Ganeshman Singh and other ministers were imprisoned in Sundarijal Prison.
Koirala, who was released from prison for a health check-up in 2025 BS, spent eight years in exile in India. Analyzing the weakening of his nationalism while fighting for the restoration of democracy in exile in India, he returned home on 16 Poush 2033 BS without pursuing eight murder cases and adopting a policy of national unity and reconciliation. The policy of reconciliation he adopted is equally relevant in the country’s politics even today.
Koirala, a thinker and user of democratic socialism, contributed to taking Nepali literature to the peak through literature by giving it independent thinking, dimension, tradition and style. The Sundarijal Prison, where the Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament and ministers of the first people’s elected government were imprisoned, was inaugurated as the BP Museum on Bhadra 24, 2061 BS. The museum, which has been made visible by collecting important items from BP’s life, was damaged by the earthquake of Baisakh 12, 2072 BS and has been reconstructed.
The museum also houses important items from BP’s life, including the tanker used in the 2007 BS revolution and the Nepal Airlines Corporation aircraft hijacked by the Congress in 2029 BS to raise funds for the revolution. On the occasion of BP Memorial Day, the Congress, fraternal organizations and the BP Museum Committee will organize various programs across the country, informed Krishna Prasad Poudel, Chief Secretary of the Party Office.
On this occasion, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation is scheduled to distribute the BP Koirala National Award at the Prime Minister’s residence in Baluwatar today, informed Archaeology Officer Bhishma Baskota. (RSS)