B. P. Koirala

He was the brother of former prime ministers Matrika Prasad Koirala and Girija Prasad Koirala. He was also the grandfather of Bollywood actors Manisha Koirala and Siddharth Koirala. Koirala was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal. He held the office for 18 months before being deposed and imprisoned on the orders of King Mahendra. He spent the rest of his life largely in imprisonment and exile, during which his health steadily deteriorated. Koirala is widely regarded as one of the greatest political personalities in Nepal. He was a strong advocate of democracy and argued that in a poor country like Nepal, political freedoms alone were not sufficient without socio-economic transformation. He promoted the idea of democratic socialism as a solution to Nepal's underdevelopment.

• Name — B. P. Koirala • Office — Prime Minister of Nepal • Term Start — 27 May 1959 • Term End — 15 December 1960 • Monarch — Mahendra • Predecessor — Subarna Shamsher Rana • Successor — Tulsi Giri (1963) Ministerial offices • Office1 — President of the Nepali Congress • Term Start1 — 23 May 1957 • Term End1 — 21 July 1982 • Predecessor1 — Subarna Shamsher Rana • Successor1 — Krishna Prasad Bhattarai • Term Start2 — 26 May 1952 • Term End2 — 24 January 1956 • Predecessor2 — Matrika Prasad Koirala • Successor2 — Subarna Shamsher Rana • Office3 — Member of the House of Representatives • Term Start3 — 30 June 1959 • Term End3 — 15 December 1960 • Predecessor3 — Constituency established • Successor3 — Constituency abolished • Constituency3 — Morang Biratnagar West • Born — 8 September 1914 • Birthplace — Varanasi, British Raj • Died — 21 July 1982 • Place of death — Kathmandu, Nepal • Party — Nepali Congress • Father — Krishna Prasad Koirala • Children — 4, including Prakash Koirala and Shashanka Koirala • Relatives — Koirala family • Nickname — Jananayak Bp • Awards — Nepal Ratna

The second son of Krishna Prasad Koirala, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala was raised in Banaras. Until the age of 14, he attended a school established by his father. Afterwards he joined the Harishchandra School in the city. He began writing when he was in the ninth grade. The British Raj charged him and his brother, Matrika Prasad Koirala, with having contacts with terrorists in 1930. They were arrested and set free after three months. Because of this, Bishweshwar began to study at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta as per his father's wishes. Towards the end of 1930, he left college and returned to Banaras. In 1932, he completed his intermediate level of studies. His father again insisted that his son join Scottish Church College in Calcutta. So for the second time, he joined the college, but left it soon afterwards. In 1934, he completed his bachelor's degree in Economics and Politics from Banaras Hindu University. He also earned a degree in law from the University of Calcutta in 1937, and practised for several years in Darjeeling. While still a student, he became involved in the Indian nationalist movement. In 1934, he joined the Indian National Congress. During World War II, he was interned by the British in Dhanbad for two years (1942–1944).

• Illustration — Home Minister B. P. Koirala in Delhi, 1951 Following his release, with Indian independence imminent, he set about trying to bring change to Nepal. In 1947 he founded in India the socialist Nepali National Congress, which in 1950 became the Nepali Congress Party. On 9 March 1947, Koirala crossed over to Nepal to help his brother Girija Prasad Koirala instigate the Biratnagar jute mill strike. He was arrested along with Girija Prasad Koirala and four other National Congress leaders and taken with his fellow agitators to Kathmandu via a 21-day long, slow walk across the hills. The prisoners' march attracted much attention and helped to radicalise the peasants whose villages lay en route. The Koiralas along with other detainees were kept in a Kathmandu bungalow but were soon released after a 27-day hunger strike, popular protests, and at the request of Mahatma Gandhi in August 1947. In 1990, Prime Minister Judha Shamsher had deported Mahatma Baundas and Mahatma Sonai Das on the issue of untouchability. He started the movement by staying at the house of Mahatma Sonai Das Yadav, currently in Sunsari, Rajganj, Morang. After meeting Mahatma Baundas Yadav in Banaras, Mahatma Sonai Das helped B.P. Koirala with 51 rupees on Guru Purnima day in 1990 to end the Rana rule of Nepal. Later, Nepali Congress was formed. In 2015, B.P. Koirala won the election by sitting at the house of Mahatma Sonai Das Yadav at booth number 32, Rajganj, Morang. Mahatma Sonai Das made his disciple Suryanath Das Yadav a minister from Siraha. Koirala went back to India, and began looking for arms to storm Kathmandu. Finally, Koirala led the Revolution of 1951, which overthrew Nepal's 104-year-old Rana regime. The last Rana prime minister was dismissed in October 1951 when the Rana-Congress coalition cabinet (in which Koirala served for nine months as the Home minister) broke apart. Koirala then concentrated on developing the Nepali political structure. King Mahendra responded with a new constitution enabling free parliamentary elections to take place in 1959. Only a fragmented parliament was expected, but Koirala's Nepali Congress scored a landslide, taking more than two-thirds of the seats in the lower house. After several weeks of significant hesitation, Mahendra asked Koirala to form a government, which took office in May 1959. • Illustration — B. P. Koirala meets David Ben-Gurion during a visit to Israel Koirala led his country's delegation to the United Nations and made carefully poised visits to China and India, then increasingly at odds over territorial disputes. Yet, he was in trouble at home almost from the beginning. His land reform measures, especially the revision of the tenancy laws so easily passed by parliament, deeply offended the landed aristocracy which had long dominated the army. King Mahendra, on 15 December 1960, suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament, dismissed the cabinet, imposed direct rule, and for good measure imprisoned Koirala and his closest government colleagues. Many of them were released after a few months, but Koirala, though he was suffering from throat cancer, was kept imprisoned without trial until 1968. In 1968, the then Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, played a significant role in releasing Koirala from prison, but he was the main actor for also making sure that Koirala stayed out of the country in self-exile for the rest of his life. Koirala was in self-exile in Banaras, India until December 1976. After his return from almost a decade of self-exile in Banaras, he was kept under house arrest at his Chabahil residence. During that time, King Birendra asked the then Prime Minister Dr Tulsi Giri, a tough political rival of Koirala to recommend to him by the joint meeting of the Council of Ministers and Back to the Village National Campaign Central Committee, whether Koirala should be freed for medical treatment in the USA or not. Accordingly, the joint meeting recommended King Birendra to release Koirala and provide him with the necessary expense for medical treatment in the USA. The passport and necessary visa were arranged by the government of Nepal for Koirala and his wife Sushila Koirala, a doctor and an assistant. The then Royal Nepalese Embassy in the Washington DC, was instructed to provide all support to the Koirala family for the medical treatment. King Birendra, educated in England and the United States, succeeded his father in 1972 when the political climate was believed to be gradually improving. Koirala, however, was arrested immediately upon his return from exile in 1976 and charged with the capital offence of attempting armed revolution. Finally, in March 1978, he was cleared of all treason and sedition charges. Then, in 1981, he was cleared to travel to the United States for medical treatment. The Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa convinced the king to allow Koirala to proceed to the US for treatment as per recommendation from the royal physician Dr. M. R. Pandey. The government of Nepal bore a portion of the cost of his medical treatment in the US, while the rest was arranged by his nephew Shail Updhaya, Dr. Shukdev Shah, family and friends. After returning from a further medical visit to the United States, he had a series of audiences with King Birendra, as he tried for a "national reconciliation". During the student demonstrations in 1979, he was under house arrest. However, he welcomed King Birendra's call for a national referendum on the question of the political system for Nepal. The referendum results were announced to be in favour of retaining the political system led by the B. P. Koirala was the first leader to welcome the result of the national referendum and accepted the people verdict and claimed that the referendum was fair and free. However, owing to differences in the electoral process to seek membership of class organization as mandatory, Koirala demanded a boycott of the 1981 elections. Despite obviously failing health and political strength, Koirala could still draw great popular support. He addressed one of Nepal's largest public meetings in recent years in Kathmandu's Ratna Park in January 1982. He died on 21 July 1982, in Kathmandu. An estimated half a million people attended his funeral.

• Illustration — B. P. Koirala and Sushila Koirala B. P. Koirala was married to Sushila Koirala, a Nepalese classical dancer, theater director, and philanthropist.