 |
|
Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal (left), also known as ‘Prachanda’ pays respects to controversial politician Ramraja Prasad Singh in Kathmandu yesterday |
Ramraja Prasad Singh, who pushed for abolition of the monarchy during the autocratic Panchayat regime, was handed a death sentence in absentia for masterminding several explosions during a day of violence in 1985. He then went into hiding and managed to flee to India, returning only after his death sentence was repealed when democracy was reintroduced to the impoverished country in 1990 following three decades of authoritarian rule.
“He died due to multiple organ failure. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease,” said K P Singh, director of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, in the Kathmandu capital.
Born in the Saptari district of Nepal’s southeastern plains, Singh studied law at Delhi University and practised at Nepal’s Supreme Court in the 1960s.
Until his death, he was president of a small party called Nawa Janabadi Morcha, which sought greater political rights for Nepal’s large Madhesi community, who have long complained of being left out of power.
Six people, including a lawmaker, were killed in the 1985 bombings, which targeted government offices, the royal palace and a luxury hotel.
Despite the carnage, Singh was considered a hero by anti-royalists and the Maoist-led caretaker government announced he would be given state honours with a 13-cannon salute ahead of his cremation later.
Nepal’s 240-year-old Shah monarchy was abolished in 2008 and Singh ran unsuccessfully as a Maoist candidate to be Nepal’s first president—a largely ceremonial role.
In the same year, parliament voted for the country to become a republic, meeting one of the main demands of Maoists who fought a decade-long insurgency that ended in 2006. AFP