He spent his life fighting for democracy and freedom; he led troops in the freedom fight against the Ranas; he stayed in jail for 14 years, mounting a moral challenge against the Panchayat regime; he led the Nepali Congress into Satyaagraha and led the country as the interim prime minister after the Panchayat regime succumbed to People Power in 1990 and propelled Nepali society into multiparty democracy. [break]
But he did all this with perhaps a complete sense of detachment as he, deep inside, always remained saintly, self-aware that there was nothing to gain or lose in the end. He understood how transient life was and lived in complete joy, displaying a wit and humor unseen among Nepali politicians. An epitome of integrity, he entered Baluwatar as prime minister with just his umbrella and water jar, and it was with just his umbrella and water jar that he left it again. He also never married.
Born in a simple Brahmin family in Pancha Gangaghat of Kashi, India in 1924, Bhattarai was one of the founding members of the Nepali Congress (NC) that spearheaded the movement to overthrow Rana oligarchy in Nepal back in 1946.
Bhattarai, along with Rudra Giri, led the Mukti Sena (Liberation Army) in the east that fought against the Rana establishment and captured Udayapur district.
He became the first speaker of the parliament in Nepal at the age of 36 after the Nepali Congress won the first-ever parliamentary elections in 1959 with a landslide. But that victory was short-lived. In 1960 King Mahendra dissolved the democratically-elected government led by NC President Bishweshwor Prasad Koirala and established the autocratic, party-less Panchayat rule, putting Speaker Bhattarai along with Prime Minister Koirala and nine other ministers in prison. Over 10,000 NC leaders and cadres were put in prison and released later gradually.
ADIEU KISHUNJI: PHOTOGALLERY
Bhattarai spent 10 years in prison as he refused to write a petition to the king requesting his release. He became the last to be released from jail because of his uncompromising stance.
“Though it is natural for political leaders to go to jail and get released what I did not and have not understood yet is why I had to stay in prison for the next 20 months even after the release of the person under whose premiership I became speaker,” Bhattarai has written in his autobiography—Mero Ma.
“Bhattarai had taken the bold decision to remain inside the country and fight for the cause of democracy,” says NC leader Dr Narayan Khadka, adding, “I would say the formation of Nepal Students’ Union in 1970 had been possible due to his presence in Nepal.”
A few months after his return from self-imposed exile in India, then NC President B P Koirala nominated Bhattarai as acting-president of the party on February 12, 1976.
B P Koirala passed away after a few years, succumbing to cancer, and Bhattarai took on the mantle of leadership of the NC for the next 20 years.
Bhattarai became prime minister of the interim government at the age of 65 after Janaandolan I, in 1990, swept away the 30-year-old Panchayat regime and restored multiparty democracy in the country.
Any transition period is difficult but with Bhattarai at the steering wheel, the 1990 transition from an absolute monarchy to multi-party democracy appeared smooth.
Bhattarai thwarted an attempt by the royal palace to thrust its own constitution on the country and forced it to accept a democratic constitution that clipped the wings of the monarchy. “Political leaders must draw inspiration from him. He managed to promulgate a democratic constitution and hold general elections within the given timeframe while neutralizing all forces that were against the political change then,” says Deep Kumar Upadhyaya, NC leader.
Politics can be cruel, however. Though he was at the height of his popularity, Bhattarai lost the first parliamentary election in 1992 to charismatic UML leader, the late Madan Bhandari.
This paved the way for the rise of Girija Prasad Koirala in national politics, which he dominated till his own death in 2010.
After Bhattarai lost the election GP Koirala became prime minister in 1992. Once Koirala got a taste of power, he used every means to undermine Bhattarai.
Koirala is accused of having used state influence to defeat Bhattarai during the by-election held in Kathmandu Constituency-1 following Madan Bhandari’s death.
The NC and Koirala once again needed Bhattarai and his popularity when the nation went to the polls in 1999. The NC officially announced that Bhattarai would be the next prime minister should the party garner a majority. The people returned the NC to power with a simple majority and Bhattarai became prime minister for the second time.
However, Koirala forced him to resign from the post after only a few months. Bhattarai quietly swallowed the humiliation but his relationship with Koirala never recovered.
The last surviving founding member of the country’s grand old party, Bhattarai quit the NC after it decided to go for a republic in 2007. He was a fierce supporter of constitutional monarchy. He did not even participate in the 12th NC general convention held in Kathmandu in September, 2010, expressing his resentment at the party’s decision to go republican. It´s not just a coincidence that another founding leader of the NC, Ganesh Man Singh, had also disassociated himself from the party before he died.
Bhattarai also had a brief stint in journalism. He was the first president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), the umbrella organization of Nepali journalists across the country. He always took pride in being one of the first foreign journalists to interview General Secretary of the Communist Party of the then USSR, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev.
Bhattarai earned a BA in Economics from Kashi Hindu University in 1946. But his desire to complete a master’s degree did not materialize as he chose to become involved in the democratic movement in Nepal before he could sit for the MA final examinations.
Bhattarai’s father Sankata Prasad had chosen to live in exile in Kashi following the withdrawal of the family’s title of Rajpurohit or royal priest in Kathmandu.
With his life in Benaras and his faith in Karma as a true follower of the Gita, he evolved into a deeply spiritual person. He summed up his life in his autobiography thus: “My life is guided and its duration is decided not by me but by God Almighty himself. Only all the lacunae and deficiencies are mine.”
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