Reflections on Congress special convention

It approved an ambitious plan to strengthen the party and as well as democracy in the country.

It was sometime in the early 1970s. BP Koirala was in exile in Banaras and advocating an armed rebellion to overthrow King Mahendra’s autocratic regime. In a speech on the anniversary of Gandhi’s death, he defended the call for arms thus: Violence is never desirable, but there are times when, for the greater good, violence becomes inevitable. “Take, for example,” he said, “a woman in labour who is likely to die with her baby unless the baby is delivered by the caesarean method.” The caesarean section is intrusive and violent, but it is the only option to save both the mother and the baby. His message was that when idealistic remedies fail to correct malfeasance by the powerful, a less idealistic approach is the only option.