Jail Journal
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Jail Diary of BP Koirala

Explanatory notes in parenthesis are given to help readers locate the characters in BP Koirala's personal and political life - Editor.
  • January 20, 1967:

    My friendly critics had been telling me that my greatest political liability was that I did not know Nepal, and that therefore my method of work and my ideas were unsuitable and impractical. I have had enough time in prison to ponder over that criticism. Even Thuldaju (Matrika Prasad Koirala, the elder brother of BP Koirala) used to be contrasted with me and treated as a better example of political sagacity. I have never agreed with the analysts of my politics. I know I am not steeped in Nepal's history, which bores me no end and which I consider to be least educative, except as a horror story. I do not know the psychology of the various tribes and their social atmosphere. This I consider to be a liability. I am not one of those who would like to preserve the so-called special qualities of tribal communities and their culture and social colours (whatever they may mean) because we cannot have them and at the same time build up a society on modern lines. In one instance, I did not know the condition obtaining in Nepal - as a matter of fact, the condition about which I think I was not aware of is not peculiar to the politics of Nepal. It obtains everywhere - where the chance of feudal dictatorship to emerge is present. I did not know the mind of the King, because I thought he would not go against the present current of History. His dictatorship is feudal and reactionary and I know it; being against the spirit of the time and the progressive need of the country, it is only a temporary imposition like an incubus. If I did not understand such feudal mind I do not think I should be charged with not understanding the politics. My modern conception of politics did not come in the way of my building a sizeable party, which from every account was the best organized and most effective of all the parties in the country and of creating a democratic socialist atmosphere which stood us in good stead in the general election. As a matter of fact, I was so much in tune with the spirit of the time and had such an instinctive grasp of the mood of the people and their aspiration - perhaps better than anybody and the king who is wrongly accredited with practical sense - that the king had to give up politics and resort to arms. The king was against us in an admission of his political defeat. War is not politics, at least it is not the kind of politics which takes into account the moods of the people, their aspiration and their welfare and needs. Victory in a military war is conquest, not a political success. In such a military conquest, there is always an element of colonial suppression; a military victor always takes on the character of a foreigner. Mahendra is once again a Prithvi Narayan Shah, a foreign conqueror and not an indigenous ruler.

  • January 22, 1967:

    Hope is a clever task master, who drives us voluntarily to our work; but pays in wages of mere pleasure. Work through intervention of hope, is pleasure. Through subtle intervention of hope our task is no more a duty - it becomes a pursuit of pleasure. A compulsion of duty, through hope, is rendered into a voluntary pursuit of pleasure.

  • January 24, 1967:

    Read in the paper that the king has appointed a committee to consider his draft of an amendment to the constitution. There is total secrecy as to the nature of amendment, draft of which has been sent by the King to the committee. Necessarily, there is a lot of speculation outside. I think the amendment contemplates mainly the enlargement of the executive authority of the Chief Minister who will most likely have the authority of a Prime Minister. If it is so, there will be some other minor changes also allied with this basic one, namely (1) Ministry will be of cabinet type with collective responsibility; (2) Ministers to be responsible to Prime Minister; and (3) Ministry will be responsible to parliament.