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From Chhabilal to Prachanda to full-fledged Prime Minister
By KTM Metro reporter in Kathmandu
Mukti Ram’s wife gave birth to a first son in Dhikur Pokhari: one of the villages in the Kaski district on December 21, 1954. Mukti Ram called him Chhabilal. Astrologer writing the horoscope of Chhabilal told Mukti that the newborn baby had the luck of being a ruler.
When Chhabilal was seven year old his father Mukti Ram Dahal moved his family from the hill to Chitwan in the plain area called Terai in search of a better living. At that time, the then king lured many hill people to move to the Terai.
When Chhabilal was at school in Chitwan, one of his teachers told him he looked like a lotus flower and called him Pushpa Kamal means a lotus flower. After some time, Chhabilal liked the new name and changed his name from Chhabilal to Pushpa Kamal.
After completing the school in Chitwan, Pushpa Kamal came to Kathmandu to study science at the Patan Multi-purpose Campus in 1972. He completed two-year science course and went back to Chitwan to study Agriculture at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science set up with the funding of the USAID/Nepal in Rampur for a Bachelor’s Degree.
After completing the four-year course in agriculture in 1976, he went to teach at Bhimodaya School in Arughat of Gorkha for a year as the part of the curriculum of that time for receiving a Bachelors’ Degree in Agricultural Science. However, he stayed on at the school for teaching one more year and helped students to learn from his personal tuition. At the same time, he studied Marxism and Leninism.
He went in hiding in 1980. He begun associating with one communist party after another, as the communist party split. Ultimately, his communist party became the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist). He held the position of General Secretary of CPN-Maoist in 1995.
In 1996 his party submitted 40-point memorandum to the then government headed by Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba to meet the demands within the deadline his party had set. However, Prime Minister Deuba brushed him off thinking he was a leader of an insignificant group of communist. Thereafter, his party launched a people’s war against the State on February 13, 1996.
In July 2001, in his second term of office, Prime Minister Deuba opened a peace dialogue with the rebels. One of the main demands of the rebels was the election for a Constituent Assembly for crafting a new constitution. Prime Minister Deuba was not in a position to meet this demand of the rebels, as it needed to amend the Constitution of Nepal of that time even if the king and other political stakeholders agreed to meet this demand for the sake of peace.
In November 2001, the Maoists declared that the peace-talks was a failure and went back to fighting against the State. The then king Gyanendra ordered the then Royal Nepal Army to crush the insurgents. The war took a new turn and bloodshed has increased on both sides.
In January 2003 the government and the rebels declared a ceasefire. The representatives of the government and the rebels again held peace-talks but the rebels did not budge from their demands. So, after seven months of truce and failed-peace-talks held in between, the rebels pulled out of the peace-talks and went back to fighting. By that time Pushpa Kamal became Prachanda means awesome.
On February 01, 2005, the then-King Gyanendra fired third-term Prime Minister Deuba the king had appointed to form an all-party coalition government and took power on his hands curbing all civil liberties. The king snapped Internet and telephone lines and restricted other media causing immense political and economic losses to the Nepalese people.
On November 22, 2005, the leaders of the seven-party alliance (SPA) and the Maoists reached a 12-point understanding to jointly fight against the despotic king. Leaders of the SPA and Prachanda of the CPN-Maoist signed on the understanding.
After nineteen days of the street movement, on April 24, 2006, the king surrendered the power to the leaders of the SPA and reinstated the House of Representatives he had dissolved on May 22, 2002.
On June 16, 2006, the SPA Government and the Maoists signed an eight-point peace agreement. On the evening, Prachanda appeared in the public and talked to the reporters on the premises of the official residence of the Prime Minister.
The Maoists fought the election for a Constituent Assembly held on April 10, 2008, and emerged the largest party on the Constituent Assembly. Prachanda won the elections at two constituencies: Kathmandu-10 and Rolpa-2.
On August 15, 2008, the Constituent Assembly members elected Prachanda the first Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal with the overwhelming votes. Prachanda took the oath of office of Prime Minister and secrecy from the President on Monday, August 18, 2008. Thus, Chhabilal at childhood became the first Prime Minister, Prachanda of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
