KATHMANDU, NEPAL, January 31, 2008: Nepal is set to sweep away its discredited monarchy, but a new political dynasty is emerging. Ailing Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has appointed his controversial daughter as a minister without portfolio, and she has moved quickly to strengthen her role as the power behind the throne.
Sujata Koirala says she fully deserved the January 10 appointment. “I became very popular among my workers. Some people who wanted to take the leadership after my father objected.” She was elected three years ago to the party’s central committee and put in charge of international affairs.
Sujata has waded into a controversy, creating a storm as Nepal readies for elections in April which will elect a body that will rewrite the constitution and most likely abolish its weak monarchy.
“I am very vocal… say what I think,” she admits. “We should give power to the people rather than the federal system,” she says. Sujata also feels a “cultural monarch” — although not the current unpopular King Gyanendra — could suit Nepal with its distinct Hindu-dominated culture.
Family dynasties are natural, according to Sujata. “My grandfather died in prison fighting against the Rana regime,” she recalls. “I just became a minister, I want to work as a minister, I haven’t thought farther down the road,” she says. However her father clearly has. He told a women’s gathering in Kathmandu on New Year’s Eve: “Very soon we will have a woman prime minister.”