KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 25
Addressing a programme organised by Mahendra Narayan Nidhi Memorial Foundation to mark the 101s birth anniversary of Mahendra Narayan Nidhi, former prime minister and Chair of CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal said he met Mahendra Narayan Nidhi in Jaleshwor jail in 1973.
Mahendra Narayan Nidhi's son Bimalendra Nidhi and journalist Harihar Birahi were among those political leaders who were lodged in Jaleshwor jail at that time. "We respect people for their contribution. Mahendra Narayan Nidhi never deviated from his commitment to democracy and peaceful politics," Nepal said.
Nepal said he had wanted to see Mahendra Narayan Nidhi given a chance by his party to become the PM at least once.
Nepal said attempts were being made to reverse the new political gains and people should guard against such attempts.
"NC leader Ramchandra Paudel has been proposed as the alliance's candidate for president and I am hopeful for his victory, he added. Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Paudel said senior leaders had behaved carefully with Mahendra Narayan Nidhi because of the towering personality he had. He also said Nidhi and his contemporary leaders played a huge role to make the Tarai democratic.
"Mahendnra Narayan Nidhi was a truly democratic Gandhian leader. BP would say the crux of nationality was in the Madhes. A true democrat is a true nationalist," Paudel added. He said the 1960 coup by king Mahendra was an attack on democracy.
Undemocratic forces call democratic forces non-nationalists, he said and added that without being democratic a person cannot be a nationalist. Under democracy, development efforts have reached the far corners of the country. He also said the country needed to conclude the peace process.
NC leader and former deputy prime minister Bimalendra Nidhi said although Mahendra Narayan Nidhi took part in the NC-led armed rebellion against Rana rule in 1950, he pursued peaceful politics post-1950 movement. Bimalendra Nidhi said his party had made course correction by helping form a new coalition of eight parties.
Today, we are together. Those forces that concluded the peace process and brought changes have come together to elect a new president. A long journey has begun to conclude the peace process and protect new political gains, Bimalendra Nidhi said.
Founder Chair of the Mahendra Narayan Nidhi Memorial Foundation Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal said Nidhi was the symbol of peace, communal harmony and simplicity.
Loktantrik Samajwadi Party-Nepal leader Sharat Singh Bhandari said that people aspired for change and political parties should be serious about this.
PM Dahal's decision to start a new political journey through the new eight parties' alliance should be appreciated because if he was concerned about his own chair, he was already getting support from the seven-party alliance, Bhandari added.
Bhandari said the Madhes uprising lasted nine months, but remained peaceful. It was because of Madhesi leaders' association with Mahendra Narayan Nidhi that Madhesi leaders were committed to pursue peaceful politics.
After the royal takeover in 1960, Nepali Congress leaders held a conference in Patna, India, and decided to launch an armed revolution against monarchy.
Nidhi, however, didn't endorse this decision and came back to Nepal to pursue his political goals through peaceful means and dedicated his life to peaceful politics. He was a true Gandhian.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 26, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
