NC friction on display at GPK mourning ritual

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

Kathmandu, April 1

While national and international dignitaries gathered at Bankali of Pashupatinath today to pay tribute to the 13^th day of demise of Nepalese politics tower Girija Prasad Koirala, the senior leaders of Nepali Congress looked hesitant to sit together side by side.

After the death of former Prime Minister and NC President Koirala, acting president Sushil Koirala, former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba and NC vice president Ram Chandra Paudel did not sit together even a minute together during the last day of death ritual of GPK. They posed together for media to photograph once.

Sushil Koirala, who arrived earlier than the other senior party leaders and Paudel made a match in a column for about five hours. And Deuba spent almost two and half an hour with GPK’s daughter Sujata Koirala, who is deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs. Deuba and Sujata were seen together in another column of the stage.

Deputy PM Sujata was busy welcoming the national and international guests and thanking them. Hindu priests, Buddhist Lamas and Christian priests chanted mantras as per their religious rites to wish peace for the departed soul.

The guests included Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, former PMs Surya Bahadur Thapa and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Yoser Thinley, CPN-UML chief Jhala Nath Khanal, Chief of the Army Staff Chhatra Man Gurung, ex-CoAS Rookmangud Katwal, Nepal Police IGP Ramesh Chand Thakuri, Armed Police Force IGP, chiefs of judiciary and foreign diplomatic missions.

Other present at the mourning were Deputy PM Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, UCPN Maoist leaders Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai, government ministers and high ranking officials, Constituent Assembly members, Yoga Guru Swami Ram Dev, leaders from the different political parties and more than 10,000 ordinary people, well wishers and NC party workers. People from all ages and walks of life paid tribute to last death ritual of democratic icon for peace process, reconciliation, unity and co-work for the national interest.

However, faces of the political leaders except a few did not read solemnity and gravity in mourning ceremony to remember late Koirala. UCPN-UML head Khanal looked serious while Deputy PM Gachhadar was gloomy. Deuba’s face read uncertainty and Sujata’s desperate. The senior NC leaders looked worried in their faces. Old NC well wishers were sobbing on the stage.

Dharmendra Pandey, president of Democratic Employees’ Union at Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal was disappointed by the early character display of NC leaders and dilemma in future of the nation. “NC leaders not sitting together indicates a very bad signal in the party politics,” he said. “It is the omen symptom of crisis in national politics and compromising for the national interest too.”

Mrs Shuva Kala Jha from Chandragadhi-7 in Jhapa said this made them remember GPK for his guidance and principles. “If the leaders forget his steps, the country will fall into an abyss,” she worried. “I am afraid whether they will follow the steps of Girija Babu or overlook his principles gradually in course of passing time.”

The district chapters of NC paid tribute to GPK throughout the country. Meanwhile, Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi, India along with Nepali and Indian people expressed condolence over his death. Remains of GPK were ritually consigned to the Ganges River in Haridwar of India today, according to the Embassy.

PM Nepal released GP Koirala’s Struggle for Democracy in Nepal: A biography, penned by Dr Paramananda, professor of Delhi University and JNU among other universities.