Devi Khadka is a Nepalese communist politician from Dolakha, currently in the House of Representatives.

Life and career

Devi Khadka, a local of Dolakha, was a participant in the Nepalese Civil War, specifically joining the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) faction against the reigning monarchical government. Citing the oppression of the poor, the expropriation of her father's possessions, and the murder of her brother, Rit Bhadkur Khadka, by security forces, she participated in the

1990 People's Movement The 1990 People's Movement ( ne, २०४६ जनआन्दोलन, 2046 Jana Andolan) was a multiparty movement in Nepal that brought an end to absolute monarchy and the beginning of constitutional monarchy. It also eliminated the Panch ...

protests to liberalize the absolute monarchy. She later joined the Maoists in 1996 with the outbreak of the civil war initiated to introduce a People's Republic. During the civil war, Khadka served as founding chair of the Maoist-affiliated

All Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary) The All-Nepal Women's Association (Revolutionary) (ANWA is a Nepalese women's political organization that is aligned with the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) Maoist organisations in Nepal ...

. In 1997, she was arrested, disappeared for a month, and repeatedly raped in police custody for four months. In 1999, she served as a military commander in Dolakha,

Sindhupalchok Sindhupalchowk District ( ne, सिन्धुपाल्चोक जिल्ला ) is a part of Bagmati Province and one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal, with an area of . The district's headquarters is in Chautara. In 2006, 336, ...

, Okhaldhunga, and

Solu Khumbu Solukhumbu District ( ne, सोलुखुम्बु जिल्ला , Sherpa: , Wylie: shar khum bu dzong) is one of 14 districts of Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. As the name suggests, it consists of the subregions Solu and Khumbu. ...

, eventually becoming district secretary of Dolakha in 2002. Khadka has served as a Maoist MP for Dolakha since the conclusion of the civil war and establishment of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly in 2008. From 2011 to 2013, she served as a

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

for the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works. Khadka has been involved in several controversies. Shanti Pakhrin, a fellow Dolakha MP for the United Marxist–Leninist party, has spoken out on the killing of her husband, Buddhi Man Pakhrin, by Maoist cadres in 2002 while Khadka was district secretary. In 2011, she and her husband and fellow Maoist politician, Raj Kumar Shrestha, were accused of overseeing

Red sandalwood ''Pterocarpus santalinus'', with the common names red sanders, red saunders, protect it Yerra Chandanam, Chenchandanam, red sandalwood, Rakta Chandana, and saunderswood, is a species of ''Pterocarpus'' endemic to the southern Eastern Ghats mou ...

smuggling into Tibet through Nepal. In 2017, political violence days before local elections resulted in the murder of Kul Bahadur Tamang, son of CPN-UML candidate Gore Tamang, by Maoist-Centre cadres. Khadka claimed the Maoists were acting in self-defense. Following a complaint filed by Tamang to the police naming Khadka, among others, suspected cadres were arrested and a manhunt was launched. Since late 2017, Khadka has been leading Maoist efforts in establishing a ''janaparishad'' shadow government to strengthen the party's relations at the grassroots level in Dolakha.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khadka, Devi Nepalese politicians Nepalese communists Nepalese feminists Nepalese revolutionaries Women in war Maoism in Nepal People from Dolakha District 1979 births Living people People of the Nepalese Civil War Members of the 1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly