The 46th national unity and reconciliation day is being observed across the country by organising various programmes. The day is marked every year on Poush 16 in the Nepali calendar in memory of the Nepali Congress founding president BP Koirala, who along with some other leaders came back to Nepal after a long exile in neighbouring India.

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On December 30, 1976, leader Koirala along with some other leaders, Ganesh Man Singh, Shailaja Acharya, Khum Bahadur Khadka, Ram Babu Prasain and Nilambar Panthi returned home after around eight years of exile in India with a message of national unity and reconciliation. Following a coup by the then King Mahendra Shash on 15 December, 1960, the then people’s elected Prime Minister Koirala was held captive in Singha Durbar for around three months. He was later on 9 March, 1961 transferred to Sundarijal prison.

After eight years in prison, he was released and taken to India for his medical treatment. From there, he launched political activities against the autocratic Panchyat system. On the occasion, the NC and its sister organisations and well wishers will organise various programmes across the country. Similarly, statues of leader Koirala and Singh at B.P. Museum in Kathmandu will be garlanded, it has been said.