Who Is Durga Prasai? Ex-Maoist Who Took Part In Anti-Monarchy Campaign But Now Wants Nepal Royals Back
On police radar over Nepal’s ongoing pro-monarchy protests, Prasai is currently believed to be hiding in India. He continues to propagate his message through social media.
A 50-something controversial business baron has emerged as the cynosure amid the pro-monarchy protests rocking Nepal. Durga Prasai, a former Maoist who played a key role in the campaign that brought the monarchy to an end in 2008, is now batting for its return — so much so, that a committee of pro-royalist groups labelled him the ‘people’s commander’ in March for the ongoing campaign. For Prasai, who is known as something of a powerbroker in Nepal’s choppy politics, this U-turn tops a series of shifts in political affiliations.
On police radar over the protests, Prasai is currently believed to be hiding in India — according to a report in Nepal’s MyRepublica, quoting security sources — although he claims he hasn’t left Nepal. Meanwhile, he continues to propagate his message through social media.
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Who Is Durga Prasai?
Prasai was born into a farming family in 1971, and his family eventually migrated to Jhapa, says a report in The Times of India (ToI). The report says financial constraints caused him to drop out after Class 8, and his political stint came after a failed buffalo-farming venture.
Discussing Prasai’s shift in politics, the ToI profile adds, “Initially aligning with the Nepali Congress, he later went underground with the Maoists. During the war [against monarchy], he provided refuge and logistics to fighters, becoming a trusted link between revolution and resources.”
In 2018, Prasai hosted a “mediation” lunch for KP Sharma Oli of Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and Pushpa Kamal Dahal of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre). The lunch, an article in Nepali Times notes, came amid efforts to unite the parties. The parties did come together until the merger was annulled by the country’s Supreme Court in 2021.
Then came the falling out, ToI reported. “After being denied a parliamentary ticket and seeing his private medical college, B&C Medical College, embroiled in controversies, Prasai broke with the ruling UML. In 2022, he was expelled from the party. By early 2023, he was publicly denouncing secularism and federalism,” it notes.
Controversial Figure
Prasai is described in Nepali media reports as a shady figure. Not only was there a high-profile controversy surrounding the affiliation of the aforementioned medical college, in 2019, The Kathmandu Post reported, “a slander charge was filed against Prasai at the National Human Rights Commission for publicly suggesting that female Nepali medical students in Bangladesh were sleeping with their professors to get medical degrees”.
A November 2023 editorial in the same newspaper described Prasai as “a foul-mouthed and openly misogynistic individual without even basic decency”, adding that his “monarchy and Hindu state restoration campaign was doomed from the start”. “Perhaps even the ex-monarch, Gyanendra [Shah], felt a touch embarrassed that someone so vile was campaigning for his restoration. So instead of supporting Prasai’s Kathmandu-centric protests, Shah chose to fly to Jhapa [at the invite of a rival pro-monarchist],” it said.
Whatever the case, the editorial added, “even the idea of hereditary monarchy is antithetical to the democratic spirit of the 21st century. In modern-day Nepal, you get to rule if you are chosen by the people, not because you have an imagined, god-given right to lord it over others. It is thus no coincidence that many of those who are now clamouring for monarchy are shady figures like Prasai who want to use the fanciful pretext of the institution’s restoration to serve their own interest.”
On his part, Prasai — who has accused the country’s politicians of corruption — claims he is calling for the restoration of monarchy because Nepal’s transition as a democratic republic had failed.
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