Krishna Prasad Bhattarai was a Nepalese statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of his country. Although his terms in office were relatively brief, each lasting around a year, he was a central figure in the politics of Nepal throughout the second half of the 20th century, and a key participant in the long struggle for democracy in that troubled nation.
For a hundred years from the mid-19th century Nepal was governed by the oligarchic Rana family, who monopolised senior political positions, including that of prime minister (which became a hereditary post), and reduced the monarchy to virtual powerlessness. Opposition to the Ranas had been met with harsh reprisals, and many critics of the regime, including Bhattarai’s parents, lived in exile in India. It was there that Bhattarai was born, in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi. He went on to read economics at Banaras Hindu University in that city; while a student, he was briefly imprisoned by the British authorities for his opposition to colonial rule in India.
In 1946 Bhattarai was a founder member and the general secretary of the All-India Nepali National Congress, an anti-feudal, pro-democracy movement. This soon merged with other groups to form the Nepali National Congress. In 1950 another merger created the Nepali Congress, which, supported by Nepal’s liberal-minded sovereign, King Tribhuvan, played a central role in the struggle to overthrow the Ranas. The King’s flight to India in November 1950 triggered an armed revolution in Nepal, in which Bhattarai commanded forces on the Janakpur-Udayapur front. The last Rana Prime Minister, Mohan Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, went into exile, and a constitutional monarchy was established.
During the 1950s Bhattarai worked as a journalist and editor for Nepal Pukar, the Nepali Congress weekly, and served as first president of the Nepal Journalists’ Association. He took pride in the fact that he was one of the first foreign journalists to interview the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. He also served as assistant general secretary of the Nepali Congress, which adopted a platform of democratic socialism. In 1959 the first multi- party elections gave Congress a decisive victory, and Bhattarai became Speaker of the new parliament.
However, the pace of reform alarmed King Tribhuvan’s successor, Mahendra, who had acceded to the throne in 1955. In 1960 he staged a coup, suspending the Constitution and imposing direct rule. The deposed Prime Minister, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, was imprisoned along with many other leaders of the Nepali Congress, including Bhattarai, who was to spend a total of 14 years in prison. Banning political parties, the King established a “panchayat” system of government through a hierarchical structure of councils. In practice the system left full power in royal hands. Not for 30 years were multi-party elections again to be held in Nepal.
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During the period of absolute royal rule, which continued under Mahendra’s successor, King Birendra, Bhattarai served as acting president of the Nepali Congress, which by the 1980s, although still technically illegal, had become one of the main forces campaigning for the reinstatement of democracy. In April 1990, in the wake of violent demonstrations, an interim government was established, uniting Congress, the moderate Communists and representatives of the King, with Bhattarai as acting Prime Minister. In that post he oversaw the creation of a new constitution that provided for constitutional monarchy and multi-party elections. The King promulgated the constitution on November 9, 1990, and elections were held in May the following year.
The Nepali Congress topped the poll and won an overall majority. But the various far-left parties did well, and Bhattarai himself was defeated by a Communist candidate in the contest for a seat in Kathmandu. In consequence a government was formed by another leading figure in the party, Girija Prasad Koirala. Nevertheless, in 1992, at the eighth national convention of the Nepali Congress (the party’s first convention in 30 years), Bhattarai was formally elected party president, serving in that role until 1996.
In 1994 new elections resulted in a hung parliament, and a series of prime ministers from different parties, including the Communist Man Mohan Adhikari, formed brief administrations. In 1998 Koirala returned to power leading a minority Congress administration, before establishing a new majority government in coalition with the moderate Communists. But after King Birendra dissolved the House of Representatives in January 1999 Koirala announced that Bhattarai would lead the Nepali Congress into the election. After a campaign marred by violence from Maoist rebels, Congress won 37 per cent of the vote to 32 per cent for the Communists, emerging, despite this relatively narrow margin of victory, with an overall majority in parliament.
Thus on May 31, 1999, Bhattarai became Prime Minister for the second time. But his term in office was undermined by factional conflicts within the Nepali Congress, which led to his resignation in March 2000 after fewer than ten months in office. The divisions in the party worsened in 2002 when, despite Bhattarai’s efforts at reconciliation, it splintered into two rival factions.
By now the situation in Nepal as a whole was increasingly unstable. The Maoist uprising continued. King Birendra, along with other members of the royal family, had been assassinated in 2001 by his own son, Crown Prince Dipendra, who died soon afterwards of a self-inflicted wound, leaving the throne in the hands of Birendra’s unpopular brother, Gyanendra.
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In 2005 Bhattarai was briefly placed under house arrest after the King sacked the Government and assumed direct power under emergency rule. Nevertheless, despite increasingly widespread opposition to the King, Bhattarai continued to favour constitutional monarchy in Nepal, and ultimately broke off relations with the reunified Nepali Congress when in 2007 it decided to support the establishment of a republic, which came into being the following year.
Throughout his career, Bhattarai’s honesty and integrity, his opposition to corruption and nepotism in Nepalese politics, and his tireless support for democracy won him wide admiration. In 1993 he was honoured with the Gandhi Sewa award, conferred by the Indian Government. He published an autobiography two months before his death.
He never married.
Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, Prime Minister of Nepal 1990-91 and 1999-2000, was born on December 24, 1924. He died on March 4, 2011, aged 86