'Girija had plans to kidnap Crown Prince Dipendra'

You became a minister at a time when King Gyanendra had a direct rule. How do you evaluate the former King’s rule?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: He was not born to become a King. He is a normal individual. I went to see him. He talked on democratic lines. I believed him. But, when he grabbed powers, he included Tulsi Giri type of people. Tulsi Giri is some one who quit his own religion and converted in to another one. Even if I am married to a foreigner but yet I did not quit my religion. When a Hindu King brought a man who was a Christian convert, I was really saddened.  In fact, I rejected the proposal to become a minister at the first request. Later, I thought what sort of democracy he was talking about when he was so fond of people like Surya Bahadur and Lokendra Bahadur who always forced him to become an autocratic ruler. I was getting really annoyed. I thought, I could do some thing tangible to the plight of the women which is why I became a minister. Including Prakash Koirala and some other NC leaders, we, eight in total, became ministers with the intention to bring the NC into the nationalist fold—what late BP had desired of all along his life.

Were all the ministers united in the King’s cabinet?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: There were tussle at times. We had different concerns…they were toeing different lines. Ramesh Nath Pandey, the then foreign minister has now good linkages with the Maoists but he is the one who provoked the King to become autocratic. When I was heading the National Women Commission, I had met both Babu Ram and Hisila Yami-Bhattarai at the personal residence of Hisila Yami’s sister right here in Kathmandu. I tried my best to initiate dialogue between the King and the Maoists. Hisila was even more excited, she was excited to hold talks with the King at the earliest. I had also talked to Shanta Shrestha who later became the Maoists’ candidate for the post of the vice president.

After I became the minister, I had secretly met with some Maoists’ leaders in Dhankuta. They urged me to establish linkages with the King. I conveyed the information both verbally and in written form to the then monarch.

Do you mean to say that the Royal Ministers were divided over initiation of talks with the Maoists?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: King Gyanendra maintained that the Maoists should lay their weapons down and stop killing the people…then there will be talks. This was his stand. However, it was not fixed how, where and when the talks would or could be held. Later, Kamal Thapa showed me the letter that I had written to the King. I still have those marks that I got in my body due to Kamal Thapa...how can I now on try to establish the Maoists’ links with him? In fact, I had directly handed over the letter to the King…the chief secretary of the Royal Palace Pashupati Bhakta Maharjan was also present there. Then I thought the King was in effect living a solitary life and was alone…people like Kamal Thapa were only trying to push the King to the point of no return.

Where did Kamal Thapa beat you?

Durga Pokharel: In the year 2032 (1975-76) TU elections were on. We were addressing a student gathering. It was then student leaders like Hari Neupane and others including me were attacked by Mandale people like Kamal Thapa and the incumbent minister of Forest, Deepak Bohora. Hari lost his two teeth, I still have black strip in my back when I was hit mercilessly.

Who had advised Gyanendra not to fight the Maoists but settle the conflict with them?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: When King Gyanendra arrived in Ithari, Sunsari District, Queen Komal had summoned me and Yangkila Sherpa, both of us. She talked to us for over one hour plus.

Queen Komal was drinking wine and told in a voice choked with emotion:

“Nepali women are being killed, Nepali sons are being indiscriminately murdered, Nepali mothers are losing their sons and daughters…please try to settle this horrible conflict”, she told us repeatedly. She turned emotional…she wept for long. We then met the King. People were asking for this and that from the King. I told the King point blank, “Your Majesty you are visiting different places and you are listening to their pleas but nothing is happening”. He replied “yes we need to do something”. I again told him of the possibility for talks with the Maoists.  He said, “After arriving Kathmandu he will do everything in order to initiate talks with the rebels”.

Was he being pressurized by his own wife to hold talks with the Maoists?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: Komal repeatedly requested me to take steps to establish linkages with the Maoists and she assured that she will convince His majesty the King. She also said that all those who were being killed were our own children…she wished no Nepali children would ever be killed like this.

“I am not a political personality, however those who are killed were our own children”, Queen Komal told me. Aishworya was not like Komal…she was very cunning…it was because of Aishworya that I was imprisoned.

Then, did King Gyanendra try to hold talks after returning from Ithari?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: After he returned to Kathmandu, Tulsi Giri told the King that he had no idea if there were Maoists at all and that he did not see the Maoists around. After I heard that I was all prepared to resign. But I was advised by my friends not to do so in haste. In each and every village, poor Nepali citizens had all become Maoists but Mr. Giri had no idea if there were Maoists?

Tulsi Giri also contributed to the fall of monarchy then…?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: Tusli Giri, Kamal Thapa and Ramesh Nath Pandey were mainly responsible. Kamal Thapa wanted to reveal it to the King that he was the only one staunch royalist in the cabinet.

Ramesh Nath Pandey is quite close with the Maoists, it is said that he is an undeclared advisor to the Maoists’ Party?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: Of Ramesh Nath Pandey, I would suggest no one to believe this person. He is the one who always threatened King Mahendra of B.P’s intents and threatened B.P of King Mahendra’s intents…the process continued for long…he always benefited from this tact.

He is the person who parked his car in and around the main gate of Narayanhiti Palace…in reality he would go to the Annapurna Hotel for tea and later claim that he was having a meeting with the King at the Palace.

Now he has no contacts with King Gyanendra. As and when Gyanendra complains that he was betrayed by his own people, actually it should be Ramesh Nath Pandey about whom the ex-King is complaining of.

Who forced Tulsi Giri’s induction in the King’s cabinet?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: Look, his wife is a religion promoter…including Sonia Gandhi and all those non-Hindus might have forced him in the King’s cabinet to ultimately trap the monarch. 

When the Peoples' Uprising was at its peak, describe our readers of the scene that prevailed in the cabinet?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: In the last cabinet meeting we had heard that a sea of human being was being brought to Kathmandu. I told not to take repressive measures. Some ministers negated my point. Giri was the one who strongly favored taking repressive measures. Gyanendra said that he would take the measure what his inner conscience said. The next day, the King himself observed the sea of human being. And, he said he will not let blood shed of even a single Nepali citizen.

Isn’t it the Nepal Army that had advised the King not to shed blood of any one?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: No! I will tell you what he said exactly. He said, “I want no human casualties.” Now he is writing a biography. Hope that he will pen this also. I think that it should be Queen Komal who had fervently advised the King not to go in for confrontation. The Army had guaranteed the King that it was capable to tame the agitation. The Army viewed that if Gyanendra and Paras were both rejected by the people, there should be a Baby King. It was not the Indian idea, instead it was the Army that had floated the idea of the Baby King for Nepal. Girija babu talked of Baby King only after listening it from CoAS Rukmangad Katawal.

Karan Singh has apologized three times with Gyanendra. He had assured the King that the monarchy will remain intact.

You were once charged for trying to abduct the Crown Prince Dipendra and later put under detention for long? What is the mystery behind it all?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: Now I am not afraid even if I am murdered. B. P. Koirala came to Kathmandu in 2033 (74-75). Girija babu was not granted amnesty by then. Ram Babu Prasai and Shailaja Didi also came to Kathmandu. Girija babu was all pervasive from Okhaldhunga to all other places in the country and was against the King. He provided with explosives to Bhim Narayan Shrestha and others to kill the King…he sent Captain Yagya Bahadur Thapa to carry out an attack on Okhaldhunga.

Even after the Referendum results were out, Girija babu was still not granted amnesty by late King Birendra then, thus it was decided to further threaten the King. There were plans to threaten the King by threatening his life and that there were plans even to abduct the Crown Prince Dipendra.

How you were involved in this plan?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: Then Crown Prince Dipendra was just eight years old, he was studying at the Budhanilakantha School. Girija babu sent two persons to meet me who were in possession of explosives with them. However, I rejected to keep the explosives in my private residence. They had plans to terrify Crown Prince Dipendra by carrying out an explosion close to him but the idea was not to kill him. I do not believe in violence…I adhere to the norms and values of non-violence…how I could support the move to even threaten a child by carrying out an explosion? Those two men told me that Girija babu had told them that I should manage political asylum at the Indian Embassy in Lainchour after carrying out the explosion. I had no links with the Indian embassy. I was out an out an anti Indian. If there would have been the explosion, all three of us would have been killed. I was then imprisoned.

Later I understood the Koirala’s inner motives of why he wanted to explode the bombs around Crown prince Dipendra. Girija Babu had plans to issue a statement deploring the incident explaining in the statement that it was not the Congress but the act of some anti-social elements, in the eventuality of explosions taking place, and later this way to enter into Nepal declaring that the NC was still committed to the Theory of Reconciliation. This was the design of Girija Prasad Koirala and the then Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa.

Did you meet Dipendra there after?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: I met Dipendra in Washington D.C. I told him, “I did not try to kidnap you”…he questioned  “so you want to kidnap me now”. I told me, “I wish I could…someone who was as handsome as you.”

I told him then those who wanted to kidnap or kill him were right inside the premise of the Royal Palace. He would have been killed anyway.

When did you meet Sujata?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: I met her once. She was enjoying her life…not interested in politics at all.

A democratic person like you…why you supported the King?

Mrs. Durga Pokharel: I understood that it were first Surya Bahadur Thapa and second Girija Prasad Koirala who would exploit the King and provoke him to turn autocratic. Beginning 2017 to 2046 (B.S) it was Surya Bahadur who forced the King to become an autocrat and they ruled in the name of the King.

If these leaders lived for hundred years more, nothing will change in this country. If they brought any thing good to this country…I would simply quit my motherland. Nepotism is prevalent, those who contributed for the country have been forced to walk in the streets bare footed. Prachanda is no different. No real revolution has taken place in this land. People have begun fighting on communal grounds. The Upper part, China will swallow…the lower part, India will grab. It became very much clear the day when we elected the vice president who said “Hamara Rastra Bhasa Hindi Hai-Our National language is Hindi”.  A person who served the judiciary for more than three decades in Nepal…guess how he would have done justice without understating the Nepali language? Understandably, the Pahadi community must not have enjoyed justice from his rulings and verdict. What would Nepal achieve by keeping a person like him in such a post?

What relations you share with the Maoists?

 Mrs. Durga Pokharel: After we were released from the ministerial job, some 40/60 YCL cadres came to my house and resorted to vandalism. After that incident my family members left Nepal. I am living alone in my house now in Kathmandu. This loneliness gave birth to a musical album “Ritto Ghar” (Empty House). In between, I also published a book called “We tried to advise the King.” That’s all.

Text Courtesy: The Jan Aastha weekly dated 19 August, 2009. Thanks are due to Mr. Kishor Shrestha, the Chief Editor of the Jan-Aastha Weekly-Ed.

Posted on : 2009-08-22 17:20:37

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