Prithvi Narayan dedicated himself at an early age to the conquest of the Kathmandu Valley. Recognizing the threat of the British Raj in India, he dismissed European missionaries from the country and for more than a century, Nepal remained in isolation. He started a hereditary reign of the Rana Prime Ministers that lasted for years. The Ranas were overthrown in a democracy movement of the early s with support from the-then monarch of Nepal, King Tribhuvan.
The Nepali Congress Party was victorious and their leader, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala formed a government and served as prime minister. But by , King Mahendra had changed his mind and dissolved Parliament, dismissing the first democratic government.
Paving way for democracy, the then-King Birendra accepted constitutional reforms and established a multiparty parliament with King as the Head of State and an executive Prime Minister. In May , Nepal held its first parliamentary elections. Then on 1st June , a horrific tragedy wiped out the entire royal family including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya with many of their closest relatives. King Gyanendra abided by the elected government for some time and then dismissed the elected Parliament to wield absolute power.
Eventually, King Gyanendra relinquished his power and reinstated the Parliament. A Constituent Assembly election was held on April 10, On May 28, , the newly elected Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a Federal Democratic Republic, abolishing the year-old monarchy. The Constituent Assembly made significant progress to accomplish the mandate of writing a new democratic constitution of Nepal during its first 4 years term. The country also had an extensive democratic exercise in that direction including collection of public inputs on the contents of the new constitution and intense deliberations in the Assembly.
However, due to political disagreements on some of the contentious issues like federal provinces and form of government, the first CA could not accomplish the historic task and there was natural termination of its mandate in The election of CA II was held in November and in its first meeting, leaders of political parties set the timeline of 1 year to complete the task of writing the new constitution.
Devastating earthquake of 7. Most mid hill districts of Nepal including Kathmandu valley saw massive devastation. In , Nepal proclaimed the dawn of democracy. Nepal adopted a multiparty system with the constitutional monarchy and wrote a new constitution in King Birendra and his family were killed in the royal massacre.
A Constituent Assembly in drew up a new constitution, which was promulgated amid reservations from various sections of society. As Nepalis mark Democracy Day, to commemorate the historic day of , the country is yet again facing a democratic crisis. Many blame a lack of political culture among the parties for why the country has failed to strengthen democracy. As in after , the Nepali Congress was voted to power after the restoration of democracy in Democracy hugely suffered because of the growing intra-party feud in the Congress.
Despite leading a majority government, then prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala dissolved the Parliament and called snap polls. Congress senior leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai had to face a defeat largely due to the internal conflict in the party.
As the governments were formed and pulled down in Kathmandu, the Maoists waged the war in , which continued until By the time it ended, at least 17, people had died and thousands were disappeared and maimed. In , Nepal grabbed international headlines when Birendra, who now in the hindsight many believe was a benevolent monarch, was killed along with his family.
His younger brother Gyanendra succeeded. The Maoists who were looking for a safe landing agreed to lend their support. The same year, a historic peace deal brought the Maoists to mainstream politics. But the parties that were together to fight the king once again could not maintain their unity for the larger interest of the public and the nation. After the first Constituent Assembly elections in , the game of musical chairs began again.
The constitution guaranteed Nepal as a secular federal republic. But five years later, the country is running the risk of losing all those gains and democracy is under threats. A democracy should be able to establish a link with the general public and society. We failed to inject democratic values and ethos in society. When Nepal heralded democracy for the first time in , it was crushed by Mahendra and the country suffered for three decades.
When democracy was restored in , politicians instead of nurturing it, made it feeble, thereby offering Gyanendra an opportunity on a platter to seize power. Oli has argued that he was forced to take the drastic step because he was being driven into a corner by his opponents, especially Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Dahal led the decade-long Maoist war, and Oli is among those politicians in Nepal who has always been critical of Dahal.
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