Reflections on Congress special convention

It was sometime in the early 1970s.

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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.

The recently concluded special general convention of the Nepali Congress was one of those ‘less idealistic’ options. Over the past several years, the leadership of the party, particularly its president, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and his acolytes, had become increasingly unresponsive to the demands of younger leaders. The Election Commission (EC) confirmed the legitimacy of the special general convention and the new leadership it elected.