39th Memorial Day of the first elected Prime Minister BP Koirala

KATHMANDU: JULY 21 – The 39th Memorial Day is being celebrated today with various programs across the country commemorating the contribution of the first elected Prime Minister Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala.

Koirala, who fought hard for the establishment of democracy in Nepal, passed away on Shrawan 6, 2039 BS. He has also made significant contributions in the field of Nepali literature. Koirala was born on Bhadra 24, 1971. He became the first elected prime minister in Jestha 2016 after the 2015 parliamentary elections.

Koirala has published a dozen and a half works of psychological realism in Nepali literature. He has published six novels, ‘Teen Ghumti’, ‘Modi Aain’, ‘Hitler and Yahudi’, ‘Sumnima’, ‘Narendradai’, and ‘Babu, Aama and Chhora’. Similarly, two collections of short stories ‘Shwet Bhairabi’ and ‘Doshi Chashma’, edited by Hari Prasad Sharma and ‘Stories and Poems of Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala’ have been published.

‘Autobiography’ based on the conversation with senior advocate Ganesh Raj Sharma, ‘Jail Journal’ based on Sundarijal prison diary, after returning home with the policy of national unity and reconciliation on Poush 16, 2033 BS, he was taken directly to the prison from Tribhuvan International Airport.

Koirala’s essay on ‘Sahityama  Pragati Silta (Progressiveness in Literature)’ has also been published in Sisar magazine edited by Gyannishtha Gyawali. Koirala, who became the first popularly elected prime minister after the party won a two-thirds majority in the 2015 general election, led the Congress for a long time, providing political leadership for the establishment of nationalism, democracy and socialism in Nepal. During his tenure as prime minister, he pushed for the Birta Unmulan and a land reform program called ‘Jaggha Joteko Hunuparcha’.

Koirala and other leaders were imprisoned at Singha Durbar on Poush 1, 2017, after the popularly elected government was overthrown by the Royal Nepal Army. A month later, the official residence of the army’s Sundarijal Arsenal chief was surrounded by a wall and leader Koirala, the first speaker of parliament Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, leader Ganeshman Singh and other ministers were detained in Sundarijal prison.

Koirala, who was released from jail in 2025 for a medical examination, had spent eight years in exile in India. He returned to Nepal on Poush 13, 2033 BS with a national unity policy and reconciliation policy, regardless of the issue of eight lives, after analyzing the nation’s weakness while fighting for the restoration of democracy in exile in India. His policy of reconciliation is equally relevant in the politics of the country today.

Koirala, a thinker and user of democratic socialism, contributed to the rise of Nepali literature through literature by giving free thought, dimension, tradition and style. The Sundarijal Prison, which housed the Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament and Ministers of the first elected government, was inaugurated as the BP Museum on Bhadra 24, 2061 BS. The museum, which was made visible by collecting important items of BP’s life, was damaged by the earthquake on Baisakh 12, 2072 BS and is currently in the final stage of reconstruction.

The museum also houses important materials of BP’s life as well as a tanker used in the 2007 revolution, a plane of the Nepal Airlines Corporation hijacked by the Congress in 2029 BS to raise funds for the revolution. On the occasion of BP Memorial Day, Congress, fraternal organization and BP Museum Committee will hold various programs across the country, said Krishna Prasad Poudel, Chief Secretary of the party office. The party has been instructed to conduct these programs by maintaining physical distance or using zoom technology as the risk of corona remains.