A democrat and pluralist

The 20 March passing of Girija Prasad Koirala marks the end of an era in Southasian politics, for he was the lone national-level survivor whose public life reached as far as the Quit India Movement of the 1940s. Born in exile in Bihar to parents who fought the Rana regime in Nepal, 'G P' was, like his elder brother Bisweshwor Prasad ('B P'), groomed in the tenets of classical democracy in the company of Indian stalwarts including Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. While undoubtedly an autocrat who wielded complete control over his Nepali Congress party for the last two decades (after sidelining two seniors), G P was a true democrat as far as the larger polity was concerned. He challenged the autocracy of former King Gyanendra at a time when every other leader of note agreed to compromise. Indeed, his resolute insistence on the reinstatement of the Parliament, dismissed by Gyanendra in February 2005, paved the way for the orderly collapse of the monarchy and the evolution of the new Nepali republic as a democracy.

As five-time prime minister and the person at the helm of Nepali affairs for the last two decades, G P made his share of mistakes in governance. He was also unable to understand and adjust to the pressures of economic globalisation and demographic shifts, and certainly failed to respond as a politician should to the identity-led demands of marginalised communities of the country's hill and plain. Yet he did understand that, above all, it was pluralism that would raise Nepali society from its economic doldrums, and benefit each and every citizen. It was fortunate for the nation that he was prime minister when the royal-palace massacre of June 2001 nearly pushed the nation state off its moorings, and it was mostly G P's stature that kept the opportunists and anarchists at bay at that time. Without him, it would have been far more difficult for the Maoists to come aboveground through the 12-point agreement of the autumn of 2006; while at the same time, without him Nepal may have slid from a 'republic' towards a 'people's republic'.