Nepali Congress Party (NC)
From its very birth in 1947, the Nepali Congress party came under the dynastic grips of the Koirala family. B.P. Koirala was the most dominant leader of the Koirala dynasty who provided the most effective leadership to the party. After the departure of the British from India and Nepal, Indian influence brought about the development of the Nepali Congress Party [NCP], which was elected to lead a national government in 1959. The Nepali Congress Party, a reform-oriented centrist party, had been in continuous operation since it was founded under a slightly different name in 1947. Elected to office in 1959 in a landslide victory, the Nepali Congress Party government sought to liberalize society through a democratic process. The palace coup of 1960 led to the imprisonment of the powerful Nepali Congress Party leader, B.P. Koirala, and other party stalwarts; many other members sought sanctuary in exile in India.
Although political parties were prohibited from 1960 to 1963 and continued to be outlawed during the panchayat system under the aegis of the Associations and Organizations (Control) Act of 1963, the Nepali Congress Party persisted. The party placed great emphasis on eliminating the feudal economy and building a basis for socioeconomic development. It proposed nationalizing basic industries and instituting progressive taxes on land, urban housing, salaries, profits, and foreign investments. While in exile, the Nepali Congress Party served as the nucleus around which other opposition groups clustered and even instigated popular uprisings in the Hill and Tarai regions. During this time, the Nepali Congress Party refused the overtures of a radical faction of the Communist Party of Nepal for a tactical alliance.
Although the Nepali Congress Party demonstrated its ability to endure, it was weakened over time by defection, factionalism, and external pressures. Nevertheless, it continued to be the only organized party to press for democratization. In the 1980 referendum, it supported the multiparty option in opposition to the panchayat system. In 1981 the party boycotted the Rashtriya Panchayat elections and rejected the new government. The death in 1982 of B.P. Koirala, who had consistendy advocated constitutional reforms and a broad-based policy of national reconciliation, further weakened the party.
In the 1980s, the Nepali Congress Party abandoned its socialistic economic program in favor of a mixed economy, privatization, and a market economy in certain sectors. Its foreign policy orientation was to nonalignment and good relations with India. Although the party also boycotted the 1986 elections to the Rashtriya Panchayat, its members were allowed to run in the 1987 local elections. In defiance of the ban on demonstrations, the Nepali Congress Party organized mass rallies in January 1990 that ultimately triggered the prodemocracy movement.
Following the humiliating defeat of party leader K.P. Bhattarai by the communist factions in the 1991 parliamentary elections, Girija Prasad (G.P.) Koirala was chosen by the Nepali Congress Party as leader of its Parliamentary Board. As prime minister, he formed the first elected democratic government in Nepal in thirty-two years. G.P. Koirala was the third of the Koirala brothers to become prime minister. Along with his elder brother, B.P. Koirala, he was arrested in 1960 and was not released until 1967. After a period of exile that began in 1971, he returned to Nepal in 1979 under a general amnesty. He was elected general secretary of the party in 1976 in a convention at Patna and played a key role in the prodemocracy movement. G.P. Koirala was known for favoring reconciliation with the left, but he also wanted to pursue national unity and Western-style democracy.
By 2002 neutral-minded leaders in the Nepali Congress Party, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Ram Chandra Poudel, former Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, and former Speaker Taranath Ranabhat, joined party patriarch K.P. Bhattarai's ongoing efforts to heal the rift between Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress Party President G.P. Koirala. Complicating efforts at reconciliation, however, was the personalization of politics both Deuba and Koirala cultivate. Soon there were two factions of the Nepali Congress Party - Nepali Congress and Nepali Congress-Democratic. Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba soon became Chairman of the Nepali Congress splinter party.
On 05 July 2004, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expanded his cabinet to a bulky 31 Ministers, State Ministers and Assistant Ministers. The cabinet expansion, which ended a month long delay in the anticipated formation of a four-party government. Dueba,s own Nepali Congress Democratic (NC-D) held fifteen of the total 35 positions (including Prime Minister and the three positions retained by Deuba). Deuba maintained personal control over the portfolios of Royal Palace Affairs, Defense, and Foreign Affairs. G.P. Koirala's Nepali Congress was always ready to play the spoiler when not in a position of primacy, would continue to try to undermine his rival, PM Deuba, as the new government faced the insurgency and the possible holding of elections.
By 2006 Girija Prasad Koirala, the president of Nepali Congress who was also the Prime Minister was all focused on unification of two Nepali Congresses. Koirala’s unification call in February 2004 was ignored by the NC(D) leaders saying it was aimed at merging the breakaway group without recognizing its separate existence and without giving its leaders dignified positions in a unified party. NC(D) had decided to go for democratic republicanism. Sushil Koirala was the last patriarch in the line of dynastic politics of the Nepali Congress Party. He had the privilege of dynastic succession but was not confident and charismatic as his predecessors were. The new constitution was promulgated during the premiership of Sushil Koirala. At the time, the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML made a gentlemen’s agreement that the baton of the government would be handed over to the CPN-UML after the promulgation of the constitution. But the Nepali Congress flatly refused even having made such an agreement with CPN-UML. Consequently, an election for the Prime Minister had to be held, in which KP Sharma Oli became the Prime Ministers by defeating Sushil Koirala.
By 2016 the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had reportedly come into existence with an agreement with the Nepali Congress that the government will last for nine months and thereafter the reins of the government will pass to the Nepali Congress, which would then rule the country for as many months.
The paradox of Nepali Congress was that the organization was the biggest democratic force of the country that had led three successful pro-democracy movements in Nepal. But there was no democracy in the party itself and every time democracy was derailed in the country, the undemocratic tradition within the party was blamed for it.
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