Girija Prasad Koirala
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Girija Prasad Koirala (born 1921) is the Prime Minister of Nepal. He has been the leader of that country four times, from 1991 to 1994, from 1998 to 1999, from 2000 until 2001, and from 2006. He was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of Nepal since 1959, when his brother BP Koirala and the Nepali Congress party swept the country's first democratic elections. He is also the President of the Nepali Congress Party and leader of the Seven Party Alliance (SPA). Mr. Koirala has been active in politics for over sixty years and started his career as a labour leader in the Jute mills of his hometown Biratnagar.
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[edit] Early Life and Family
Girija Prasad Koirala was born in Tadi, Saharsha district, in Bihar, India [1] in 1921 when his family was in exile there. He is the youngest son of Krishna Prasad Koirala and Divya Koirala. Two of his brothers, BP Koirala and MP Koirala, also became Prime Ministers of Nepal in the years that followed the family's return to Nepal in 1929. He married Sushma Koirala and has a daughter Sujata Koirala.
[edit] Political Career
In 1948 Koirala founded the Nepal Mazdoor Congress, later known as the Nepal Trade Union Congress. In 1952 he became the President of the Morang district Nepali Congress and held that office till he was arrested and imprisoned by King Mahendra following the 1960 royal coup. Upon his release in 1967, Girija Prasad Koirala, along with other leaders and workers of the party, was exiled in India until his return to Nepal in 1979. Koirala was General Secretary of the Nepali Congress Party from 1975 to 1991.[2] Mr Koirala was actively involved in the 1990 Jana Andolan which led to the overthrow of the Panchayat system and the introduction of a multi-party policy in the country.
[edit] First Term (26 May 1991 - 30 Nov 1994)
He was elected Member of Parliament in 1991 in Nepal's first multi-party democratic elections following the Jana Aandolan from the Morang-1 and Sunsari-5 constituencies. The Nepali Congress won 110 of the 205 seats in the Pratinidhi Sabha, the lower house of parliament. He was subsequently elected the leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party and appointed Prime Minister by King Birendra.
During his first term, parliament inacted legislation to liberalize the education, media and health sectors of the country. The government founded the Purwanchal University and the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) in the Eastern Development region and granted licenses to the private sector to run medical and engineering colleges in various parts of the country. The government also undertook the construction of the BP Memorial Cancer hospital in Bharatpur with assistance from the government of China.
He was forced to dissolve parliament and call for elections in November 1994 after a procedural defeat on the floor of the House when 36 MPs of his party voted against a government sponsored motion. This led to the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist)-led coalition coming to power in the elections that followed.
[edit] Second Term (15 Apr 1998 - 31 May 1999)
Koirala took over as Prime Minister from Surya Bahadur Thapa following the collapse of the coalition government led by Thapa. Koirala first headed a Nepali Congress minority government until December 25th, 1998 after which he headed and a three-party coalition government with the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and the Nepal Sadhbhawana Party.
[edit] Third Term (22 Mar 2000 - 26 Jul 2001)
Koirala became Prime Minister in 2000 for his third term following the resignation of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai who faced an impending vote of no-confidence from dissidents within his own party.[3] At that time Nepal was fighting a civil war against the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). During his third term as Prime Minister, his government was plagued by allegations of corruption. Following the royal massacre of Nepal, Koirala was further criticized for his inability to handle the crisis. Koirala resigned in July 2001 following which the military was mobilized in the civil war for the first time, something Koirala had unsuccessfully attempted to do while in office. He was replaced by his one-time protege former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
[edit] Fourth Term (30 Apr 2006 - )
After the reinstatement of the Pratinidhi Sabha on April 24, 2006 following the Loktantra Andolan, Mr. Koirala was selected to become Prime Minister by the leaders of the Seven Party Alliance (SPA).
On July 3rd, 2006, he suffered chest pains and was rushed to hospital in serious condition. Only week before he returned from Bangkok after medical tests and treatmant were carried out. Only day after he was admitted in hospital he was to give a "policy and program" speech at parliament.
During his fourth term, Mr Koirala tabled legislation to strip the King of his powers and sought to bring the Army under parliamentary control through the new Military Act. Both measures passed overwhelmingly. On November 7th, 2006, Mr Koirala and the leaders of the SPA signed an agreement with the CPN (Maoist) to end the insurgency and hold elections to a constituent assembly. On November 21, 2006, Mr. Koirala signed the landmark Comprehensive Peace Accord with Maoist and rightly declared, "Politics of violence and terror has ended." Furthermore, on November 28, 2006 the Government of Nepal led by Mr. Koirala engaged in sigining another landmard tripatriat agreement with the Maoist rebel group and United Nations on the issue of Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies.
[edit] Controversy
Koirala has several opponents among the Nepali public. His governments have been alleged of corruption on occasions. During his third term, he was constantly dogged by the corruption scandal called the Lauda Air Corruption Scam in which he has been alleged of massive siphoning of funds from the leasing of over-priced Boeing jets. [4]However, none have been substantiated.
