In memory of B.P. Koirala
By Narayan Prasad Mishra
I was interested in political science and law from my childhood when I realized that it teaches rights and duties. So, I studied civics and country law (Muluki Ain) in school and continued political science in higher education. Despite it, I was not interested in political parties, had no attraction to politics, and served Tribhuvan University as an Academic Administrator and the Librarian for a long time. I never became any party member and was never involved in Panchayat politics. Because of that, I had no close, intimate friends among political workers. Not only that, so far, I know there was only one person named Babu Kazi Basukala in the political circle, worker, or leader among my 17 school friends in Shree Padma High School Bhaktapur. He was not only my school friend also from the same locality (Tole). He was a polite gentleman and a good student. I loved him. Basukala was a close friend of Narayan Man Bichukchhe (Rohit) of the Nepal Mazdur Kishan Party and served as the Mayor (Pradhan Pancha) in Bhaktapur Municipality during Panchayat Era. They were together in politics. He may be the first among all the few politicians in Bhaktapur who had been imprisoned longest-term and suffered in custody due to political cause. He is no more in this world. I miss him. It meant there were hardly some who were in politics in that city. Mostly it remained the city of professional people and devotees.
B.P. Koirala, ex-prime minister, the great democratic leader.
So there are not many political leaders in Bhaktapur who are known even now. Only a few appeared in politics at that time. You could account for those on your fingers – Jagannath Acharya and Bishnu Bhakta Bhuju, (Nepali Congress Party), Ganesh Manandhar, Bishnu Prasad Nepali, Narayan Man Bijukchhe (Nepal Communist Party), Ganesh Bahadur Khatri, Madan Krishna Hada (Panchayat System). I know all of them. Except for Bijukchhe and Jagannath Acharya, others had no name and much popularity. Except for Bijukchhe, all others have gone to the unknown world. Even these days, we hear about only two figures – Narayan Man Bichukchhe, Nepal Mazdur Kishan Party, and Mahesh Basnet, Nepal Communist Party (UML). Narayan Man was my childhood friend, but we were not together in school as with Basukala. But I do not know Basnet personally as he is a new leader and not of my time. But I admire his dynamism and courage. He seems to be a shining political leader of this district. Now Bhaktapur is also known because of his activity. He broke the tradition of only one leader of Bhaktapur, Narayan Man Bijukchhe, and became another one.
I know most of the student leaders of my carrier time at Tribhuvan University, including Birendra Bhakta Shrestha, Arjun Narsingh K.C., Debendra Nepali, Narayan Khadka, Sita Ram Maskey, Kamal Thapa, etc. They were and are political leaders in the country. As I do not have political interest, I do not have any close link neither with former Panchayat leaders nor present multiparty leaders. I believe they all consider me as friends when they stand for truth and facts as I can not be a friend of untruth and injustice. I do not have any ill-feeling for any political party. I am not against any person or party. I always want to speak and stand for truth. I am the friend of truth. But I should confess that I love democracy.
I know most of the prime ministers of this country – Matrika Prasad Koirala, Tanka Prasad Acharya, Bishweshwor Prasad Koirala, Dr Tulsi Giri, Kirtinidhi Bista, Surya Bahadur Thapa, Marich Man Singh, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Girija Prasad Koirala, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Man Mohan Adhikari, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal, Khadga Prasad Oli, etc. I had the opportunity to talk to them occasionally. Compared to all others, I had less opportunity to speak and less acquaintance with B. P Babu. I did not have a chance to talk to him when he was the prime minister. But I met him only after he came to live in Nepal from exile in India. I always felt I knew him more than any other since I met him. I had heard about him from my childhood and heard him in his election campaign in 1959 and the referendum campaign in 1979. I had an opportunity to print his speech at the capacity of a prime minister to be delivered on the day he was arrested because of the Royal coup in 1960, as I was in that job in the Gorkhapatra Chhapakhana at that time. I was highly impressed with his confiscated and uncirculated speech, which talked about the beautiful description of socialism, the welfare of the people, and the country’s development. The speech emphasized the upliftment of the poor, underprivileged, needy, and backward people. That was the part of his socialism. I do not know the speech preserved somewhere. That was a beautiful speech worth reading.
I read his beautiful stories with much love and interest. I loved him as a story writer. Later on, when he returned from India, I had a chance to introduce my beloved wife Shanti Mishra and myself to him when we met him in diplomatic circles. We found him very pleasant, communicative, and gregarious. As soon as we mentioned Tribhuvan University Central Libray, he expressed that he had heard about that and was happy to meet us. He talked about the importance of the library as a man of knowledge and wisdom as he was a learned man with a good study and experience and wanted to visit it. We were so delighted to listen to that, and we’re thrilled with joy. We said we would be thankful to have that opportunity. The time passed. We saw him a few other times. We did not have a chance to welcome him to the library. He was such an impressive figure that we never felt we did not know him for long. It meant we got such an affectionate impression that he was our close relative, like brother and uncle. Whenever we saw him after our first meeting, he showed his love, affection, and concern and asked about the library and the university, which was unforgettable for us.
To Be Continued
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