Editing History of Nepal (section)

====Multiparty democracy====
People in rural areas had expected that their interests would be better represented after the adoption of parliamentary democracy in 1990. The [[Nepali Congress]] with the support of the [[United Left Front (Nepal, 1990)|United Left Front]] decided to launch a decisive agitational movement, the [[1990 Nepalese revolution|Jana Andolan]], which forced the monarchy to accept constitutional reforms and to establish a multiparty parliament. In May 1991, Nepal held its [[1991 Nepalese legislative election|first parliamentary elections in nearly 50 years]]. The Nepali Congress won 110 of the 205 seats and formed the first elected government in 32 years.

In 1992, in a situation of economic crisis and chaos, with spiraling prices as a result of the implementation of changes in policy of the new Congress government, the radical left stepped up their political agitation. A Joint People's Agitation Committee was set up by the various groups.<ref>The organisers of the Committee were the [[Samyukta Janamorcha Nepal]], the [[Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre)]], [[Communist Party of Nepal (Masal) (historical)|Communist Party of Nepal (Masal)]], the [[Nepal Communist League]] and the [[Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist)]].</ref> A [[hartal|general strike]] was called for 6 April. Violent incidents began to occur on the eve of the strike. The Joint People's Agitation Committee had called for a 30-minute 'lights out' in the capital, and violence erupted outside [[Bir Hospital]] when activists tried to enforce the 'lights out'. At dawn on 6 April, clashes between strike activists and police, outside a police station in Pulchowk, [[Lalitpur, Nepal|Lalitpur]], which left two activists dead. Later in the day, a mass rally of the Agitation Committee at [[Tundikhel]] in the capital [[Kathmandu]] was attacked by police forces. As a result, riots broke out and the [[Nepal Telecom]]munications building was set on fire; police opened fire at the crowd, killing several persons. The Human Rights Organisation of Nepal estimated that 14 persons, including several onlookers, had been killed in police firing.<ref>Hoftun, Martin, William Raeper and John Whelpton. People, politics and ideology: Democracy and Social Change in Nepal. Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1999. p. 189</ref>

When promised land reforms failed to appear, people in some districts started to organize to enact their own land reform and to gain some power over their lives in the face of usurious landlords. However, this movement was repressed by the Nepali government, in "[[Operation Romeo (Nepal)|Operation Romeo]]" and "Operation Kilo Sera II", which took the lives of many of the leading activists of the struggle. As a result, many witnesses to this repression became radicalized.