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Govinda Raj Joshi

Govinda Raj Joshi

गोविन्दराज जोशी

Former Minister of Education and of Home Affairs, Nepal

Teacher, lawyer and legislator. Public life since 1964, from student politics under the Panchayat system to the Cabinet, and from a village school in Tanahun to the UNESCO General Assembly.

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Khalte village, Rupakot, Tanahun, where Joshi was born on 12 August 1949.
Born
12 August 1949, Khalte, Tanahun
Elected from
Tanahun, three times to Parliament
Party
Nepali Congress
Education
M.A., B.L., B.Ed., Tribhuvan University
Family
Married to Hem K Joshi; three children

Started as a teacher, stayed a democrat

Schools, courtrooms, jail cells and a Cabinet table: the four places Joshi's public life has been made.

Schools before office

Joshi was born in 1949 in Khalte village, in Rupakot, Tanahun. He entered politics in 1964, at the start of his student years, and names B. P. Koirala as his ideal. In 1966 he led the independent students' union at the Education campus in Kirtipur, and in 1967 the Gandaki Students' Union in Kathmandu.

He built schools before he held office. He founded Tribhuwan Secondary School in his home district and served as its founding headmaster, teaching as a volunteer for six years and spending his own money to establish it. He later became headmaster of Shiva Secondary School in Rising, and founded Adikavi Bhanubhakta Multiple Campus in Tanahun, where he also taught without pay for two years.

Law and the struggle for democracy

Joshi studied law and practised for twelve years. He served as president of the Nepal Bar Association in Tanahun and vice-president of its Western Regional Court unit in Pokhara, and led Amnesty International's Tanahun group.

His politics cost him his freedom more than once. Across the campaigns against the Panchayat system, from the multiparty campaign to the People's Movement of 1990, he was jailed on and off for a total of three and a half years.

Inside the party

Joshi joined Tarun Dal, the Nepali Congress youth wing, in 1969 and formed the party's Tanahun district committee, serving as its secretary from 1976. He reached the central committee in 1997 and later served as joint general secretary. He also coordinated construction of the party headquarters at Sanepa, Lalitpur.

After the royal takeover, with senior leaders in custody, he announced the Nepali Congress protest programmes. He is credited with shaping the basic concept of the five-party alliance and with travelling to Delhi to open formal talks with the Maoists.

Six decades, in order

Filter by the kind of work, or read straight through. Each colour marks a thread of the same life.

Showing all entries

1960s

  1. Enters politics

    Joins student politics as his student life begins.

  2. Student leader at Kirtipur

    President of the Independent Students' Union at the Education campus of Tribhuvan University.

  3. Leads Gandaki students, jailed under the Security Act

    President of the Gandaki Students' Union in Kathmandu. Imprisoned under the Security Act.

  4. Founds Tribhuwan Secondary School

    Founding headmaster of the school at Manechauka, Tanahun, serving until 1978 and teaching as a volunteer for six years.

  5. Joins Tarun Dal

    Member of the Nepali Congress youth wing in Tanahun, 1969 to 1976.

1970s

  1. Campaigns for a multiparty system

    Secretary of the Multi-Party System Publicity Committee in Tanahun. Imprisoned under the Sangh Sanstha Control Act.

  2. Secretary, Nepali Congress Tanahun

    Forms the district committee and serves as its secretary until 1987.

  3. Jailed under the Rajkaj Apradh Ain

    Imprisoned again during the Panchayat years.

  4. Headmaster and bar president

    Becomes headmaster of Shiva Secondary School, Rising, and president of the Nepal Bar Association in Tanahun. In 1980 he is vice-president of the bar's Western Regional Court unit.

1980s

  1. Jailed in the non-violence movement

    Imprisoned under the Security Act.

  2. Founds Adikavi Bhanubhakta Multiple Campus

    Establishes the college in Tanahun and teaches there as a volunteer lecturer for two years.

1990s

  1. People's Movement

    Imprisoned under the Security Act during the movement that restored multiparty democracy.

  2. First elected to Parliament

    Wins the Tanahun 2 constituency and becomes chief whip of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party.

  3. Minister for Education, Culture and Social Welfare

    Holds the portfolio until 1994 and chairs bodies including the Nepal Olympic Committee, the UNESCO National Commission and the Lumbini Development Trust.

  4. Chief Scout of Nepal

    Returns to Parliament from Tanahun and is named Chief Scout.

  5. Education Minister again

    Serves a second term at Education until 1996 and is elected secretary of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party.

  6. Central committee

    Elected to the Nepali Congress central committee, and again in 2000. Later serves as joint general secretary.

  7. Home Minister

    Takes charge of the Home Ministry, and later the Home and General Administration portfolio.

  8. Minister for Water Resources

    From May 1999, also chairs the Water and Energy Commission and serves as vice-chair of the National Water Resource Development Council.

2000s

  1. Home Minister again

    Returns to lead the Home Ministry.

  2. Local Development, then Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation

    Serves as Minister for Local Development and afterwards as Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.

  3. Protest after the royal takeover

    As joint general secretary, announces the party's protest programmes while senior leaders are in custody. Credited with shaping the five-party alliance and opening talks with the Maoists in Delhi.

2010s & Beyond

  1. Special Court verdict

    The Special Court in Kathmandu convicts Joshi in a disproportionate-property case brought by the anti-graft commission. See the legal record below.

  2. Supreme Court verdict

    On appeal, the Supreme Court upholds the conviction and reduces the sentence to nine months in prison and a fine of Rs 6.9 million.

In government

Cabinet posts held in Nepali Congress governments between 1991 and 2001, and the national bodies he led along the way.

Ministerial posts held by Govinda Raj Joshi
1991 to 1994Minister for Education, Culture and Social Welfare
1995 to 1996Minister for Education (second term)
1998Home Minister
1999Minister for Home and General Administration
May 1999Minister for Water Resources
2000Home Minister
2001Minister for Local Development, then Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation

Led as Education Minister, from 1991

  • Nepal Olympic Committee and Nepal Sports Council
  • Nepal's UNESCO National Commission
  • Social Welfare Council and Non-Formal Education Council
  • Education Reform Committee and Special Education Council
  • Higher Secondary Education Board and the Council for Technical and Vocational Education
  • Lumbini Development Trust; vice-chair of the Pashupati Development Trust
  • Pro-Chancellor of Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu University and Mahendra Sanskrit University

Led as Water Resources Minister, 1999

  • Chair of the Water and Energy Commission
  • Vice-chair of the National Water Resource Development Council

Writing

Joshi's published books, in Nepali, on his own experience, his party and the shape of the state.

  • Mera Anubhatiharu

    My Experiences, in three parts.

  • Sabdachitrama Nepal

    Roughly, Nepal in word-pictures.

  • Nepali Congress: Bigat, Bartaman ra Bhabisya

    The party's past, present and future.

  • Nepalma Sanghiya Shasan Pranali

    The federal system of governance in Nepal.

Nepal's voice abroad

Joshi has headed Nepali delegations to seminars, conventions and conferences at home and overseas.

Conferences and delegations

  • UNESCO General Assembly, Paris, as head of delegation, 1993 and 1996
  • South Asian ministerial conference on women in the 1990s, India, 1992
  • South Asian ministerial conference on children, Sri Lanka, 1993
  • Ministerial conference on economic planning in Asia and the Pacific, Malaysia, 1993
  • SAARC ministerial meeting on disability, Pakistan, 1994

Countries visited

India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia, China, North Korea, South Korea, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Canada.

Legal record

In 2004 Nepal's anti-graft body, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, filed a case against Joshi over property it said he had amassed illegally while in public office between 1991 and 2002. The Special Court first dismissed the case on limitation grounds. After the Supreme Court sent it back, the Special Court convicted him in July 2012 and sentenced him to one and a half years in prison and a fine of Rs 21.6 million.

Joshi appealed to the Supreme Court in 2013. On 28 July 2024 a division bench upheld the conviction and reduced the sentence to nine months in prison and a fine of Rs 6.9 million.

Reported by The Kathmandu Post, The Himalayan Times and Setopati.