Kathmandu, June 10
Gopal Gurung, founding president of the Mongol National Organisation and a pioneer republican figure of Nepal, has died. He was 81. Gurung breathed his last at Alka Hospital at 8.05 am on Friday, his aide, Buddha Lal Meche, told Onlinekhabar.
A blood cancer patient, Gurung had been receiving treatment at Alka for about a month.
Born in Darjeeling, Gurung had later shifted to the eastern district of Ilam, Nepal. Even during the Panchayat era, Gurung, a self-described anti-current figure, had stood in favour of federal republic.
The then government had jailed Gurung for his book titled Hidden Facts in Nepalese Politics. Though banned in Nepal, the book became quite popular in Sikkim and Darjeeling. He later founded an outfit named Mongol National Organisation.
Gurung was known for his writings against Chhetri and Bahuns of Nepal.
Though he stood for Mongol peoples, Gurung was always against ethnic states like Tamuwan and Limbuwan. He was in favour of naming states after rivers and geographical regions.
Gurung used to write in English, Hindi and Nepali. At one time, Janajati leaders like Gore Bahadur Khapangi and Maoist leader Gopal Gurung used to regard him as their guiding light. Of late, Gurung had been living at Bagdol of Lalitpur with cadres of his party.
Gurung is survived by a son, who is in Australia. Meche told Onlinekhabar he is coming to Kathmandu on Saturday. Gurung’s last rites will be performed once his son arrives, Meche said.
