Nepal former PM proposed for Noble Peace Prize

Nepal government has officially proposed former prime minister and President of Nepali Congress as a candidate for the Noble Peace Prize next year. A meeting of the cabinet held on Thursday made a decision to this effect.

According to Minister for Information and Communications Shankar Pokharel, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal proposed nominating Koirala for the coveted award. The proposal was endorsed unanimously in the cabinet. He said the government would start lobbying for the prize to Koirala.

The octogenarian leader has been named for the prize keeping in view of his contribution to peace in the country. Koirala played key role to bring the Maoists, who were launching armed insurgency, to mainstream politics in 2006.

The decade-long Maoist insurgency claimed the lives of at least 13,000 people and loss of property worth billions of rupees in the Himalayan nation.

Earlier the Nobel Peace Prize Committee had asked the government to recommend the name of a person who has contributed in the peace process.

Koirala was born in Tadi, in Bihar, India in 1925, where his family was in exile at that time. He has been elected Prime Minister of Nepal four times. The four-time prime minister in the country, Koirala was actively involved in the democratic movements in 1990 and in the 2006.

He held the office of the Prime minister in the past, from 1991 to 1994, 1998 to 1999, 2000 to 2001 and 2006 to 2008.

Koirala has been active in politics for over sixty years and started his career as a labour leader in the Jute mills in his hometown Biratnagar.

He founded the Nepal Trade Union Congress in 1948. Later, in 1952, he became the President of the Morang district chapter of the Nepal Congress and held the office until the time he was arrested by King Mahendra's government in 1960.

Koirala, along with other leaders of the party, was exiled in India until his return to Nepal in 1979.

- Asian Tribune -