"My place of detention was in front of the women's prison. The chowkidarni (female guard) of the prison brought an aluminium lota (a small vessel) which she used to take to the latrine and which was partly broken and very dirty. She said I should clean it and use it to cook rice. I took the lota and cleaned it thinking fire would destroy any infectious germs it contained. There was a small opening in the wall through which they used to push my ration as well as water every morning and I used to prepare a kind of gruel. I lived like that for six months."

This is part of the story that the late B.P. Koirala (BP henceforth), one of the founders and tallest leaders of the Nepali Congress had told his friend and fellow Socialist Bhola Chatterjee some time in 1980-81, about a year before he had died of cancer and other ailments in July 1982. Based on these conversations, Mr. Chatterjee wrote the book, "B. P. Koirala, Portrait of a Revolutionary" based on the prolonged conversation with BP which was taped and a copy of that tape has been deposited with the Jawaharlal Nehru Museum and Library, New Delhi.

"The jailor came on the first morning. He said that I would be given three Paus (about one and a half pounds) of rice, not properly husked, one paisa, three red chillies, some salt and a bundle of firewood." "They did not give you vegetables or any other foodstuff?"

"No, nothing of the kind. The jailor said – he was with me for about an hour before he locked me up and went away for six months – that if I wanted I could sell the rice and get other things in exchange. Because I could not possibly eat three paus of rice, I could sell half of it and buy vegetables with the money thus obtained". (This was the situation and system in the jails during the Rana regime in Nepal for 104 years and even sometime after it ended in 1951).

As elections for the Constituent Assembly of Nepal is due on April 10 and some who were terrorists responsible for the death of 13,000 people are claiming that they would become the Prime Minister or President of Nepal after the elections because "the people" have already made him one, it is relevant to recall the inhuman treatment the Ranas had inflicted on one of the greatest Nepali of all time, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, popularly known as BP and who had fought the Rana and Shah dynasties on one hand and cancer all his life on the other in order that Nepal became a democratic country with a representative government "of the people, by the people and for the people".

"I was kept there six months, during which I did not see a human face. I lost count of the days. In the beginning, I used to scratch a mark on the wall daily to keep count of the days I had spent but after some time, I gave this up because I had got confused. I was put in fetters, and one of my hands was handcuffed and my waist was tied to a grill. With a long chain".

This is the story of December 1948 when BP along with his senior partner Krishna Prasad Bhattarai (he is still around) and Kedarman Vyathit, the poet, had come to Kathmandu from India to launch their party It had to be a clandestine affair because the Ranas were dead opposed to political parties in, Nepal and had hanged two and shot down another two in December 1941 suspecting them of trying to set up a political party in Nepal. BP, however was arrested from his hideout and since he sought to escape he could neither put on his shoes nor his jacket in that winter month of December 1948.

He was kept on a cement floor with bars and fetters with no winter clothes for two full days during which period he would often fall unconscious because of the cold.The idea was to trace BP's contact in the city who would certainly bring him winter clothings. When none came, he was at last provided with a blanket and put on trial Koirala was convicted for a prison term, as was expected, and put in jail and not executed because he was a Brahmin (The Koiralas are Upadhyaya Brahmins and in Nepal killing of a Brahmin or a cow was punishable with death sentence. This law was amended in 1964).

With no change of clothes or opportunity to take a bath, BP had at least decided to go on a fast unto death in mid-1949. Before that he had adopted a stratagem to convey his condition to India, particularly Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. BP told Chatterjee: "Meanwhile, I noticed a guard singing a very amorous song and I called him. He stood outside the closed door. I flattered him telling him he had a very beautiful voice. The guard was a Lama and felt very pleased at my remark. I asked him why he was in the army and why he did not go to Lahore to enlist in the Indian Army. He said he had no help in India and did not know anybody there. I told him I could help him provided I could contact my people outside. He asked me whom. I wanted to contact Master Purna Bahadur, a teacher".

BP said the guard went to the address mentioned by him but always forgot the name of the teacher. BP then gave a hint of the name by mentioning in Nepali a female anatomical feature and the guard succeeded to locate him and bring a pencil and exercise book for him. However, before that, a wrapper of a washing soap had flown near him from a nearby house and the guard had given him that along with a cake of soap and a stub of pencil.

BP said: "I asked him (the guard) to hand over this letter (to Nehru) written in pencil on the wrapper of a washing soap to Purna Bahadur."

Chatterjee: Did the letter reach Nehru?

BP: Yes, it did. I think Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Balchandra Sharma.

(He was general secretary of the Nepali National Congress which was the "original".)

Nepali Congress Party) took the letter to Nehru. One of our comrades who had sewn the letter inside the sole of his shoes (had taken the letter to India). And he handed it over to either Devendra (Devendra Prasad, Koiralas friend and comrade in the Congress Socialist Party of Bihar) or Sushila (Koirala's wife). But the letter was taken to Nehru by Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Balchandra Sharma. They told me later Nehru was visibly moved and became tearful on reading it. He did not actually weep, but his eyes grew moist and he did not speak for some time".

It is generally believed that the Rana Prime Minister then, Mohan Shusmshere Jung Bahadur Rana, had released BP after receiving a message from Nehru. But in the book, Koirala had quoted the Prime Minister Mohuon Shumshere as saying that he had released Koirala (after the 29th day of his fast) not because of the message from Nehru "or your friends". Mohun Shumshere said he had released Koirala out of compassion because he did not want a Brahmin to die in prison.

However Koirala's father, Krishna Prasad Upadhyaya, a rebel like his son, did die in a Rana prison a few years earlier. He was a Gandhian and also a Member of the Indian National Congress and was jailed because of his political belief which had run counter to the Rana philosophy of "Power being written on one's forehead", as he had told BP after releasing him in mid-1949.

Nevertheless, Mohan Shumshere had proved to be the last Prime Minister by 1951.But that is another story.

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