Remembering Dr Harka Gurung

KATHMANDU, Sept 24: September 23, 2006 was a day of national shock. Two dozen prominent individuals, most of them conservationists, were killed all at once in a helicopter crash at Ghunsa, Taplejung district. Among those killed was Dr Harka Gurung, prominent academic and explorer. [break]

On Wednesday, some academics and social activists gathered at a function in Kathmandu to mark his third death anniversary, said the country is in need of someone like Dr Gurung, more so now as the unitary Nepali state is tipped to go federal.

A doctorate in geography from the University of Edinburgh, UK, Dr Gurung was a multi-faceted personality involved in teaching, research, tourism and writing. He also served the country as a government minister and as vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission. He has some one and a half dozen books and numerous research works to his credit.

Dr Gurung would perhaps be best remembered for his vision for the country. He was one of the first in the country to speak up for oppressed groups and argued that Nepal could not progress without addressing the problems of exclusion and discrimination. He also came up with the concept of regional development and decentralization. “He was a man of few words. Whatever he said was thought-provoking and based on facts,” said former NPC vice-chairman Dr Pitambar Sharma at the function. “He rediscovered the country and was a nationalist par excellence,” said Sharma, who was a student of Dr Gurung and had also worked with him.

Dr Gurung came up with his concept of 25 districts for state restructuring, basing this on the availability of natural resources, economic viability and sustainability, but he died before the debate on federalism matured. According to Sharma, Dr Gurung was never for delineating provinces along ethnic lines. “He hesitated to speak on ethnicity-based federalism,” Sharma said. “When I speak of economic sustainability for delineating the federal provinces, some have alleged it to be a conspiracy by a Bahun,” he added.

However, Dr Krishna Bhattachan argued that Dr Gurung would not have objected to ethnicity-based federalism. According to him, Dr Gurung spoke and wrote about the rights of oppressed ethnic groups and the need for their recognition.

“He was a great figure who understood Nepal and we need him now more than ever,” said civil society leader Padma Ratna Tuladhar.

As Dr Gurung never publicly expressed his views on federalism and died suddenly, academics are left debating how he would have viewed ethnicity-based federalism, an idea currently under debate in the Constituent Assembly. The function was organized by the Center for Ethnic and Alternative Development Studies (CEADS), which has decided to hold a series of lectures on the views of Dr Gurung, who had also come in for controversy for some of his views.