Nepal’s major political events

December 11, 2017

1951: The year marks the end of the 104-year-old autocratic Rana oligarchy. King Tribhuvan Shah, the Nepali Congress (NC) and Rana rulers arrive at a compromise in Delhi, mediated by Jawaharlal Nehru, and agree to hold elections for a Constituent Assembly (CA).

1959: Parliamentary elections are held under a Constitution granted by King Mahendra Shah. The NC wins two-thirds majority.

15 December 1960: Mahendra Shah dismisses Nepal’s democratically elected government, headed by Prime Minister Bishweshwor Prasad Koirala.

1962: The monarch promulgates a Constitution which institutionalises a party-less framework and centralises power in the Palace. This is known as the Panchayat System.

1972: Mahendra Shah dies at fifty-two and Birendra Shah takes over as the new king.

1979-80: Student protests force the king to call a referendum on the nature of the polity. The party-less framework defeats the multiparty system amid suspension of electoral fraud.

1990: A People’s Movement, the Janandolan, leads to the restoration of multiparty democracy. A new Constitution limits the monarchy’s role, retains Nepal as a Hindu kingdom, paves the way for a parliamentary system, and grants fundamental rights. Radical Left forces reject the Constitution.

1990: Elections are held. The NC wins and Girija Prasad Koirala is elected prime minister.
An internal rift in the NC leads to mid-term polls; the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) [UML] emerges as the single largest party. Veteran Left leader Manmohan Adhikari becomes prime minister.

1995: NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba becomes prime minister with the support of a pro-monarchy outfit, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party.

1996: The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) launches a ‘People’s War’.

1996-99: Nepal’s run with instability continues with three different prime ministers in as many years. The third parliamentary poll results in a victory for the NC. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai is elected prime minister.

2000: Prime Minister Bhattarai initiates back-channel talks with the Maoists, but is replaced by G. P. Koirala, who advocates a more belligerent, security-based approach.

2001
June: King Birendra and his immediate family are massacred. The official investigation indicates Crown Prince Dipendra, amid widespread perception of a conspiracy. Birendra’s younger brother, Gyanendra, takes over as monarch.

July-November: Ceasefire talks are held between the government, now led by Sher Bahadur Deuba, and the Maoists.

23 November: The Maoist attacks the barracks of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) in the West.
The ceasefire collapses; the government declares an emergency and deploys the RNA. The civil war intensifies.

2002

May: As NC president, G.P. Koirala, opposes the extension of the emergency, Prime Minister Deuba dissolves Parliament with the support of the Palace and the RNA. The NC splits.

4 October: King Gyanendra dismisses Prime Minister Deuba, assumes a more direct political role, and appoints a loyalist, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, as Prime Minister.

2003

February: A second ceasefire is signed between the Nepal government and the Maoists.

August: The RNA executes seventeen unarmed Maoists in Doramba. The civil war resumes.

2005

1 February: King Gyanendra assumes direct executive power, arrests political leaders, stifles civil liberties and declares a state of emergency.

October: A Maoist party conclave in Chunbang declares that the party’s immediate political objective is to make a democratic republic; monarchy and feudalism are categorised as the principal enemies.

22 November: A 12-point Understanding is signed between the Seven Party Alliance and the Maoists in Delhi to fight ‘autocratic monarchy’.

2006

April: A nineteen-day People’s Movement, the second Janandolan, succeeds. King Gyanendra concedes that sovereignty rests with the people. The Parliament, dissolved in 2002, is reinstated. A ceasefire is declared and G.P. Koirala takes oaths as prime minister.

May: The Parliament clips royal privileges, brings the RNA under direct rule, declares Nepal a secular state and abolishes untouchability.
16 June: Maoist chairman Prachanda appears over ground, escorted by Nepal’s home minister, Krishna Prasad Sitaula. Peace talks begin at Prime Minister Koirala’s residence.

21 November: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement declares the end of the civil war and creates a roadmap for elections to a CA.

2007

15 January: An interim Parliament is constituted with participation by the Maoists. An interim Constitution is also promulgated, which replaces the Constitution of 1990.

16 January: Upendra Yadav of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum is arrested in Kathmandu after he sets fire to a copy of the interim Constitution.

17 January: A young protestor, Ramesh Mahato, is killed in Lahan. The Madhes movement erupts across Nepal’s southern plains.

7 February: Prime Minister Koirala promises federalism and an equitable electoral system.

1 April: An interim government, with ministers from the Maoist party, is constituted.

December: Parties agree to institutionalise a mixed electoral system and to abolish the monarchy by the time the CA holds its first meeting.

2008

February: The Second Madhes movement breaks out. An eight-point agreement, hammered out between the government and Madhesi parties, commits to a Madhes province, the group entry of Madhesi into the Nepal Army (NA), and to ensuring the proportionate and inclusive representation of Madhesis in organs of the state.

March: ‘Free Tibet’ protest erupts in Kathmandu. China asks the Nepal government to crack down on the protesters.

10 April: Elections are held. In a surprise result, the Maoists emerge as the single-largest party.

28 May: The CA holds its first sitting. The monarchy is abolished and it is decided that Nepal will have a Federal Democratic Republican Constitution.

July: The NC general secretary, Ram Baran Yadav, is elected Nepal’s first-ever President.

August: The Maoist chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachand’, is elected the first prime minister of the new republic. He visits Beijing to attend the concluding ceremony of the Olympics.

September: Prime Minister Prachanda visits Delhi.

November: The Maoist party holds a conclave in Kharipati; the party’s ideology takes a radical, confrontational turn against India and the NC.

2009

3 May: The Maoist-led government dismisses the army chief, General Rookmangad Katawal, President Yadav asks him to stay on.

4 May: Prime Minister Prachanda resigns from office, terming the President’s move ‘unconstitutional’, and blames ‘foreign forces’ for conspiring against the Maoists.

25 May: The UML leader, Madhav Kumar Nepal, is elected the new prime minister.

2010

1-7 May: The Maoists call for an indefinite, nationwide strike, demanding Prime Minister Nepal’s resignation. The strike fails and middle-class defiance forces the Maoists to withdraw.

28 May: The CA’s two-year term is extended by another year. Prime Minister Nepal agrees to resign to make way for a national unity government.

July onwards: A prime minister cannot be elected even after repeated rounds of voting in Parliament.

2011

February: Jhala Nath Khanal is elected a prime minister on the basis of a secret, 7-point pact between the Maoists and the UML.

May: As the CA’s term lapses for the second time, parties agree on a three month extension. Prime Minister Khanal agrees to resign to make way for a unity government.

June: A tactical alliance between Maoists leaders, Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’ and Baburam Bhattarai, forces Chairman Prachanda to nominate Bhattarai as the party’s prime ministerial candidate.

28 August: Baburam Bhattarai is elected Nepal’s thirty-fifth prime minister, with the support of Madhesi parties, and on the basis of a four-point agreement.

1 November: A seven-point agreement is signed. Parties agree to integrate a maximum of 6,500 former Maoist combatants into a specially created NA directorate. Combatants start to ponder their options for the future.

2012

10 April: Dissent breaks out in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ranks. The Maoist-led government sends the NA to take over PLA cantonments. The peace process is now declared to be ‘irreversible’.

15 May: Parties arrive at a pact on constitutional issues, including a mixed form of government and eleven federal provinces.

16 May: The Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’ faction of Maoists, the Upendra-Yadav led Madhesi alliance, MPs belonging to ethnic minority groups, and second-rung leaders of the Madhesi front oppose the pact.

17 May: The Maoists and the Madhesi parties seek a revision of the earlier agreement. The NC and the UML reject it.

18-20 May: A three-day strike called by an umbrella ethnic organisation paralyses the country.

22 May: Law minister and NC leader, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, registers an amendment bill in Parliament to extend the CA’s term by three months. Party president Sushil Koirala opposes the extension.

24 May: NC ministers resign from government, bowing to pressure from within the party to the CA term of operation.

25 May: The Supreme Court forbids any further extension to the CA’s term.

27 May, 10.45 p.m.: Negotiations fail. The Cabinet calls for election to a new CA to be held on 21 November.

29 May: President Ram Baran Yadav terms the Prime Minister-led government a ‘caretaker’ government and restricts its role.

June: The Unified Communist Party (Maoist) splits. Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’ splinters off to form the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist and accuses Prachanda of ‘Right-wing revisionism’.

June-November: The NC and the UML refuse to participate in election under a government led by the Maoists. Prime Minister Bhattarai fails to hold polls on 21 November.

2013

February: The Maoists, led by Prachanda, holds a convention and reiterate their commitment to peaceful political change, a new Constitution, a moderate stance on India as well as to formally drop the protracted People’s War line.

March: An interim election government is constituted under Chief Justice Khila Raj Regmi to hold polls to elect a second CA. Members of the Council of Ministers include former bureaucrats.

19 November: Nepal hold elections for a second CA. The NC emerges as the single-largest party and the Maoists and Madhesi parties face a severe electoral rout.

2014

February: NC President Sushil Koirala is elected prime minister with the support of the UML.*

2015
September: Nepal promulgates a new federal democratic republican Constitution.
India imposes a crippling five-month-long blockade on Nepal on the pretext of the new constitution not addressing the concerns of Madhes-based parties.

2017
Three levels of election held in a crucial step towards institutionalising the federal democratic republic

*(Excerpted from Battles of the New Republic: A contemporary History of Nepal by Prashant Jha)