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Nepal Oppn targets Manisha's father
Actress Manisha's father Prakash Koirala was suspended from NC.
Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala's father Prakash Koirala hit the headlines in Nepal on Sunday as seven opposition parties flagged off a new "peaceful" protest against King Gyanendra.
Prakash, son of Nepal's first elected prime minister, late Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala and nephew of four-time former premier Girija Prasad Koirala, was suspended from the Nepali Congress party for a year for giving statements in support of the king's takeover of the government on Feb 1.
The Nepali Congress announced Prakash's suspension the same day it joined six parties to launch a peaceful mass movement aimed at reviving parliament and forcing the king to hand over power to political parties.
Sunday's peaceful protest here, though watched by a large contingent of armed police, was not cut short by the authorities. Nearly 2,000 people waving party flags gathered in the narrow market place, chanting slogans for the restoration of parliament and democracy.
For the first time since the royal coup, an opposition rally took place without any of the leaders being arrested.
This is being seen as an outcome of the intense international pressure on the king to allow political parties to function and to seek a rapprochement with them.
Besides the Nepali Congress, which has been led by the Koirala family for years, the other parties in the opposition front are Nepali Congress (Democratic) of ousted premier Sher Bahadur Deuba, Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, People's Front Nepal, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi), and United Left Front.
The current mass agitation aims to repeat the success of 1990, when a pro-democracy movement led by political parties resulted in clipping royal powers and limiting the king to a constitutional monarch.
Prakash, though a member of his father's party, lacked the charisma of his elders and was never an important leader.
Both he and his actress daughter have been publicly expressing their support for King Gyanendra at a time the Nepali Congress has been agitating against the monarch.
