Sushila Karki, BHU Alumna, Becomes Nepal’s Interim Prime Minister: Politics Learned in Varanasi!

Following a youth uprising in Nepal, Sushila Karki, a former Chief Justice, took oath as the interim Prime Minister. She gained her political understanding in Varanasi (Banaras). Karki is an alumna of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), where she earned an MA in Political Science in 1975. Professor Deepak Malik, a former BHU professor who knew Karki closely, explains that Varanasi was a long-standing center for the anti-monarchy movement in Nepal. Between 1940 and 1980, under BP Koirala’s leadership, strategies against the monarchy in Nepal were formulated from Varanasi. BP Koirala resided in Sarnath, Rath Yatra, and Ravindrapuri in Banaras while leading the movement. Under his guidance, GP Koirala, Shailaja Acharya, and Durga Prasad Subedi, youth leaders of the Nepali Congress, were also spreading awareness against the monarchy.