With his remarks on the India businessman who tried to install him as the Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, the current Prime Minister of Nepal has drawn attention to the life of Sardar Pritam Singh, the “Transport King of Nepal”. The story recollected by Prachanda in a book launch event on July 3 dates back to 2014 when his eldest daughter Gyanu was slipping away because of cancer. Prachanda stayed with Mr Singh at his house in Delhi when the latter reportedly volunteered to make him the PM of Nepal once again. Prachanda was Prime Minister in 2008-’09 and had to resign because of a political crisis. The attempt did not succeed then but Prachanda did become Prime Minister once again in 2016 and again in December 2022.
The story provoked criticism about the interference of the “Indian lobby” in Nepal. However, the episode also highlighted the remarkable life that Pritam Singh has lived till now.
The story of Pritam Singh took off in January 1959, when as a 24-year old Sikh man he stood on the banks of the Ganga in Patna. The young man had come from Jammu with the plan to do transport business in Nepal. He had three GMC trucks and was accompanied by three other friends. Nepal was a forbidden land for nearly a century and had opened up to the Indian business class only in 1950 with the Treaty of Peace and Friendship that allowed Indians to do business in Kathmandu.
