In a country riven by Monarchists and Maoists, Girija Prasad Koirala served as peacemaker. Nepal's four-time Prime Minister and champion of democracy died on March 20 at 86. His six decades in politics began amid striking laborers in jute mills, rose through civil war and regicide and ended with the future of his impoverished nation still poised on a knife edge.
Koirala, popularly known as GP Koirala, was at the forefront of mass protests in 1990 that eventually forced Nepal's King Birendra to introduce multiparty democracy into the Himalayan kingdom. Elections then catapulted Koirala and his Nepali Congress Party into power...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
