KATHMANDU, JULY 12

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's wife Sita Dahal's final rites were performed at Pashupati Arya Ghat this afternoon with state honours.

Sita's two daughters Renu and Ganga, along with their father PM Dahal, jointly lit the funeral pyre. A troop of Nepal Police and Nepali Army provided final honours, as Deputy Prime Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka draped her body with the national flag. Hundreds of well-wishers and people gathered across the Bagmati River to witness the final rites and bid farewell to Sita.

UML Chairman and former prime minister KP Sharma Oli, Nepali Congress President and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka, along with other ministers in the cabinet, Chief Secretary Baikunth Aryal, MPs, secretaries,officials of diplomatic missions, leaders of various political parties, activists, professionals, businessmen and well-wishers came to Pashupatinath to pay their respects to Sita. President Ramchandra Paudel issued a letter of condolence expressing grief over the demise of Sita and condoled PM Dahal in this difficult time.

Sita Dahal, who was under direct supervision of a medical team 24/7 for the last couple of years breathed her last this morning at 8:33am. She was 69.

Sita was rushed to Norvic Hospital in Thapathali, after she suffered cardiac arrest at around 8:00am. The hospital issued a press release saying she was declared dead at 8:33am.'

Sita was suffering from Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare neurological disorder that affects, thinking, body movement, balance and eye movements. She was also a patient of parkinsons disease, a brain condition that causes slow movement, rigidity and tremors. She was also diabetic and a patient of hypertension.

Before the last rites, her body was kept at Parisdanda, the CPN-MC partyheadquarters, to allow party leaders, politicians and well wishers to pay their respects.

Born on 5 July 1954 in Hemja of Kaski district, Sita grew up in Chitwan where her parents had shifted. Sita, who is rarely seen at formal programmes had once told ABC television that she didn't acquire formal education due to her parents' impoverished condition. However, in her youth, she had attended a few 'secret' community-led communist sessions.

Her father agreed to give her hand in marriage to Dahal upon seeing him as a smart, educated man. A few years later she came to know Dahal was an ardent communist leader operating an underground communist movement with the primary goal of overthrowing monarchy and establishing communism in the country.

The communist fraternity in Nepal remembers Sita as the faithful wife of PM Dahal.

Dev Gurung, general secretary of CPN-MC said Sita was a passionate communist leader and fought against Panchayat system. She later went underground during the armed conflict.

'She was a guardian figure who played the role of mediator during the people's war and protected the party from various challenges and conflicts,' Gurung said.

Sita also underwent ordeals raising her four children when Dahal was leading the armed insurgency in the country.

In March 2014, the Dahals lost their eldest daughter to cancer. After that her political career came to a standstill.

She suffered another great shock after their only son Prakash died in November 2017 at the age of 38. Sita was rarely seen in public after that.

Later, she developed multiple health complications and was confined to bed in the last couple of years.

Only a few days ago Sita had celebrated her 69th birthday.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 13, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.