On national reconciliation

Across seven decades, reconciliation has emerged as Nepal’s deepest democratic constant.

December carries a distinctive weight in Nepal’s democratic history, marking two decisive constitutional turns—first towards authoritarian rupture, and later towards ethical renewal. On December 15, 1960, Nepal’s first experiment with parliamentary democracy was abruptly terminated through a royal coup that dissolved the elected government and inaugurated three decades of partyless rule. Sixteen years later, on December 30, 1976, Bishweshwar Prasad (BP) Koirala returned to Nepal from exile, fully aware that imprisonment awaited him, carrying not a call for insurrection but a doctrine of national unity and reconciliation.