Lokendra Bista is a Rukumay Constitution Assembly (CA) member and chairperson of the State Reconstruction Committee. He joined the “People’s War” to change Nepal, “for a Naya Nepal” and he currently heads the committee which is set to propose how the new face of a federal Nepal should look like.
A while ago, as Bista was recalling his jail breaks, Ganeshman Pun, president of Young Communist League (YCL) dropped by his rented room at Kupondole. He shared bits of his escapade story of when he was being transferred from Nepalgunj to Rukkum jail along the same lines of Bista.
FIRST JAIL: PANCHAYAT
Lokendra started his prison life “on behalf of his party leader” on 28 or 29 Mangshir 2043 BS— on a Panchayat afternoon when all political activity was banned. As for the date he is not sure. Back then, he was a committee member of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) - Masal and was also affiliated with the student’s co-regional committee.
He was on his way to Dang. Coincidently, his visit was concurrent with the wedding of party leader Dev Gurung and Yasodha Subedi. Yasodha, at the time, was a central student member. During Teej (a festival where women fast and pray for the long life of their husbands) she sang a revolutionary song for which inquiries were aplenty. An arrest warrant had also been issued in her name.
Yasodha had plans to visit Rukum. To accompany her on the journey, a meeting was arranged in Tulasipur Buspark. Yasodha arrived at the bus park. But the police arrived with her. Surrounded by police, she began to panic. “Handing her bag to me, Yasodha called out ‘dai’ (brother)”, he recalls the day. “If I took the bag I would get caught but if I didn’t, that would have been the first and the last time she’d panic.” Meanwhile, she managed to hide what she was carrying with her but the police had already got hold of Yasodha’s documents.
He too was arrested, mistaken for another leader. The administration had misidentified Bista and Yasodha as the Dev Gurung couple. The Mongoloid face baffled the police leading them to believe that, “I was Dev Gurung.”
“They beat the hell out of me when I said I wasn’t Dev,” he recalls. By the time he was proven falsely accused, the damage was already done.
Yasodha was kept in Tulasipur, and he was brought to Gorahi.
When Marxist Leninist (ML) leader Radha Krishna Mainali visited Dang for some party- related work, he too was imprisoned. On learning that Radha Krishna spearheaded the Jhapa revolt and had spent 14 years in Nakkhu prison, Lokendra was tempted to exchange personal experiences of life in prison. Meanwhile, Shiva Raj Gautam was also thrown in jail.
“I idealized the Jhapa Revolt but could not find a trace of it in Radha Krishna. He indulged himself in cards and paan. He slept and snored a lot, he opines, “Shiva Raj also could not make the kind of impression that a leader does on the youth.”
Lokendra longed for his friends to visit him while in jail. “Back then, the party was not well organized,” he consoles. Only Yasodha Subedi’s mother and Purna Gharti would visit.
Back home, he only had his younger sisters. Their upbringing and concerns over their well-being always bothered him. “I have brothers but during troubled times, who are there to help?,” he ponders.
Working out and writing poems occupied his jail time. He worked on his physique to the extent that it swelled. “But if the administration came to know about the poems they would either destroy them or file a case against him,” he informs. Thus, Lokendra hid his poems under the sole of his shoes. And he managed to save almost two dozen of them.
“I feared the poems would get seized so I didn’t write much,” he adds, “And besides whom would I send the poems to? After all Dang’s party didn’t pay any attention.”
He couldn’t write much while in Gorahi jail. But those poems hidden safely under his soles allowed him to publish about 19-20 poems after his release. Reminiscing the day he was released he says, “I was asked to take off my shoes and socks. I was certain I would land back in prison but fortunately, they didn’t search under the sole.”
Lokendra developed his passion for poetry right from his primary level while studying alongside Hemanta Prakash Oli. By sheer coincidence, both of them happen to be politburo members of the Maoist party.
Six months later in 2044 BS, he was finally released.
“I had heard that there was a proletarian revolution of sorts within the communist party itself. I thought every party did that,” he says. So while in prison, he made up his mind to support the movement.
Following his release, Lokendra shared his thoughts with Mohan Baidya ‘Kiran’, the general secretary of the party.
He recalls what he was told, “You are completely right. But let’s not talk about it right now,” He was not satisfied with the response-“I felt that he didn’t provide a good solution,” he opines.
What after all that? He planned to sell his property and spend the money gradually. “I felt the party would have done the same had I given them the money,” he assures.
In 2045, he sold his property for Rs. 90, 000. “I distributed the money amongst my sisters and daughter,” he recalls.
He estimates that today, the money he received from his property would be worth something along the lines of 12-15 lakhs Rupees.
“I guess I was the first one in my party without any wealth,” he apprises and adds, “We still have landlords in our party, who have sent their children abroad for further studies.”
As planned, he gradually spent all the money he had on his party. Although his party and the leaders never truly became the voice of the proletariat, he himself ended up becoming one. The jail bird says, “The ancestral property was all gone, so wasn’t I now a proletarian?
SECOND JAIL: DEMOCRATIC
On Ashoj 3, 2051— 18 months prior to the People’s war, Rural Class Struggle, as the Maoists lingo goes, had sharpened and preparations were gaining momentum. It was almost four months since Lokendra had become a central committee member.
Along with Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’, Lokendra traveled to almost all the villages of Rolpa-Rukum. Soon after the Central Committee meeting, they headed towards Dolpa and Jajarkot. On the way, he visited his home at Chhaukhabang. Once again he was arrested, only this time, from his very home. “Intelligence was after me. The police showed up. My five minutes at home cost me seven whole years in jail,” he recalls.
A few UML leaders visited him in jail but Nepali Congress (NC) leaders did not. “They were fearful. Why would they come visit me when they were the ones who threw me in jail in the first place?”
Lokendra was charged of plotting the murder of NC leader Ganesh Shah from Kholagaon. He was murdered on Bhadra 17, 2051. Six others were jailed under the same accusation – a Chaurjahari School teacher Shahsiram karki, Purnaprasad Sharma, Prakash GM, Tital Basenet and Tikaram Oli.
UML leaders— Jhalnath Khanal, KP Oli, Shankar Pokharel and Bidhya Bhandari who visited him at the Rukum jail and filled him with fears that he would be killed. “Their objective was to turn me into a UML,” he adds.
“But I revolted. For me it was better not to live than to become a revisionist.”
Soon, the Maoist political gear took center stage and with it Lokendra’s popularity, both at home and abroad.
“I had recently been incorporated into the Central Committee. And a youth has a faster pace,” Lokendra adds, “But there was loss too.” He claims that of all the struggles, life in jail was the most difficult one. “For seven years I passionately fought both a moral and political battle.”
In jail, he initiated hunger strikes and started sewing work. “Why keep people idle? Instead, teach them skills and let them acquire knowledge,” he adds.
To some extent because of his stance, reformations gradually came within the jail. “It created an environment for politics,” he says. He claims that the new found environment gave birth to leaders, commanders and even martyrs.
The man asserts that many conspiracies were crafted in an attempt to murder him. “Kamal Singh Budha, Dhan Raj Budha and Harka Bahadur, who were jailed for murdering Maoists leaders Shyam Pun and Mohan Pun of Chunbang were looking to kill me.”
He has plenty of such stories to share. He graphically describes one. “I used to sleep near the windows. And once, a policeman verbally abused me for three hours and cocked his rifle,” he recalls. According to his understanding, such incidents were intended to provoke the prisoners and eventually kill them. These deaths were later publicized as being killed during random encounters. Often, such tactics were used to suppress the prisoners psychologically.
In seven years time, there were 13 Chief District Officers. “I have asked for a list. I don’t even have a count of how many DSPs were changed.”
“Forget taming me with your thrashings. Stop dreaming. It’s futile. I am innocent. I live my life under political philosophy. We want to achieve through political means,” I remember telling the CDO, “Shoot me if you want to destroy my mortal body. But they had lost all hope.”
During the ceasefire, the number of visitors grew, but they were not allowed to meet Lokendra. “Some were imprisoned, tortured and killed,” he adds, “In sign language I used to inform my friends not to visit me.”
A UML government was formed, and soon dissolved. Suppression inside the jail increased as the People’s War commenced. The frequency of physical torture increased and plans to kill him surfaced. He adds, “If he was not a central leader and if there were no publicity I would have been murdered.”
From 2054, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) came to Rukum jail. “After that the plots to murder me foiled.”
He claims three reasons that saved his life—his status as a leader, the fact that the controversy surrounding his arrest was politicized and also because he was registered by the ICRC. He says, “ICRC people later told me that if they were not there, I would not have been saved.”
He claims that the administration took about six to seven thousand books from him. “I was stared at when I requested that they not misplace my books.” He says, “I think it’s time now to ask for my books back.” He still remembers the books being kept there.
He wrote about 500 poems while he was jailed, which were burnt down by the administration. His spirit was not dampened, though. “I was released along with my remaining 300 poems,” he recalls.
Though Lokendra won the case five years later, he was again charged for Peace Security reasons and imprisoned for other one and half years. “In court it was proved that I was released every three months and taken into custody again citing terrorist activities.”
One day a policeman in Pyuthan informed him that he and Dev Gurung were being exchanged for Thuley Rai and Mukti Prasad Sharma. Mukti Prasad was Girija Prasad Koirala’s right hand man. Lokendra recalls, “I blasted the policeman for being a spy.”
The Maoists captured Holeri on Ashar 25, 2058. And on Ashar 29 he and Dev Gurung were released during the barter of the leaders. “Hasta Bahadur K.C, the then UML leader who is a Maoist now, came to receive me.”
“The world had changed in seven years. The sky had become earth and the earth had become sky. Some of my friends had become martyrs. Children had become leaders and the old system had been replaced by a new power structure in the villages.”
Netra Bikram Chand and Barshaman Pun were promoted as Central Secretariat Members. Both were District Committee Members (DCM) when Lokendra was a central member. “At the time, they both were fighting from the frontlines and thus were promoted. These days, I work under their management. Or let’s say, we are colleagues,” he says, “I was cut from the frontline while participating in the class struggle.”
THIRD PRISON: INDIA
After his release, Lokendra was appointed the in-charge of Rukum-Rolpa. Under the special central command, he was transferred to Bagmati in Shrawan 2060. For ten months under the eastern co-regional bureau, he worked in Sindhupalchowk, Makwanpur and Kavre. He was promoted to politburo after being a Company Commissar for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Following that, a meeting was held in Maisur, India. On Jestha 20, Lokendra along with 11 leaders were dramatically arrested on their way back to Nepal from five-six different places. Amongst the arrested, four were regional bureau members and a few were DCMs.
“We were arrested within 20 minutes. It was a commando raid,” he says, “If anybody could escape, it was certainly god willing.”
For 20 months, Lokendra was imprisoned in Bewoar jail of Patna, where there are more than 4,000 prisoners. They were mentally and physically tortured. He recalls Kul Prasad K.C. ‘Sonam’ was threatened that his wife Tara Gharti would be raped in front of him.
During his imprisonment at the Indian jail Lokendra met several Indian ML and Maoists leaders, including its central leaders who were fellow prisoners. He organized literature programs with them. “More than 500 mobiles secretly operated inside the jail. And every hour we contacted our head office.”
“We even filed our case to the head office with queries regarding whether we were arrested under the master plan of India, with the help of a disloyal member of ours.” The issue peaked in the sidelines of Chunwang Baithak.
Amidst all these ups and downs Lokendra’s love for writing didn’t lose color. Here, he wrote about three dozen songs which have been recorded and are available in the market. “The jailers always raided and on finding the poems, they were torched,” he informs.
One night while in Patna jail, Lokendra and the 11 other arrested had just gone to sleep when they were asked to wake up. “A vehicle then took us to Boxer Jail situated on the banks of the Ganga. We had left at 11 and we reached at 4 in the morning,” he laments. This was sometime after the Jahanabad jailbreak. Kul Prasad K.C. ‘Sonam’, Chitra Bahadur Shrestha, Kumar Dahal and Rajendra Karki accompanied him.
There they were kept in a ‘cell’, where they spent seven months and one week. In his words, the cell is a prison inside a prison. “The space was enough for only one person and the person even had to excrete inside the cell,” he recalls.
In 2063 when Nepal made the transition into a Republic, Lokendra was released finally after about three years. He has the exact calculations— two years, seven months and a week. “I feel like writing a book based on my jail experiences but have not been able to do the preparations.” In his understanding, the inside story of the frontline is more complicated than it appears.
Summing up his jail years of the Panchayat, Multi-party Nepal and in India, he says, “I lived my life in jail for 10 years, custody included.”
Evaluating his experiences, he says, “Multi-party system was more liberal than Panchayat but the former became bitter after the People’s War. The systems under the aforementioned regimes in Nepal cannot be compared to India’s. India still is in the British era.”
“The rules implemented inside Indian jails were of the 1890’s British era.” He argued that the state prisoners were treated, comparatively, worse. “The prisoners were taken to the courts in a very shameful manner. Four-five of us were tied around the waist with big ropes, which made movement impossible.”
In gist, “Be it of Panchayat, Multi-party, UML or India, the jails of reactionaries, were akin to each other.”
Were there any good aspects of life in prison? He doesn’t fail to remember them.
“For us, prison was like a university from where we could closely study the state authority,” he observes for a while and says, “In retrospect, when analyzing the lessons I learned in jail, I went to a university, not prison.”
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