A man needed at home, instead traveling to another country to sit beside his wife's hospital bed.
In early January, Pushpa Kamal Dahal — Nepal's former prime minister known as Prachanda — traveled to Mumbai with his wife Sita, who suffers from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological condition for which there is no cure. Their destination was NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute, where specialist Dr. Alok Sharma would take over her care after earlier treatment attempts in the United States and Singapore had not resolved her decline. The journey unfolded against the backdrop of Nepal's political upheaval, with Prachanda's own faction in open revolt over the dissolution of parliament — a reminder that those who hold public power are never fully free from the private weight of being human.
- Sita Dahal's condition worsened sharply just days before the trip, forcing a sudden hospitalization in Kathmandu and accelerating the family's decision to seek specialized care abroad.
- Progressive supranuclear palsy — affecting roughly five people per million — offers no cure, only management, making every treatment decision a race against an unrelenting progression.
- The family had already crossed oceans to the US and Singapore before arriving in Mumbai, each journey a testament to how far love and desperation will travel when medicine has no easy answers.
- Back in Kathmandu, Nepal's political order was fracturing — Prime Minister Oli had dissolved parliament on December 20, and Prachanda's faction was mobilizing in protest, demanding his presence at the center of the storm.
- Prachanda sat instead at his wife's bedside, caught between the obligations of power and the irreducible claims of family — the political crisis waiting, the medical one immediate.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal — Nepal's former prime minister, known as Prachanda — flew to Mumbai in early January with his wife Sita, their two daughters, and a diagnosis most people have never encountered: progressive supranuclear palsy. The condition mimics Parkinson's disease in its outward signs — tremor, rigidity, a slow erosion of control — but follows its own relentless course. Their destination was NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute, where neurologist Dr. Alok Sharma would lead Sita's care.
It was not their first search for answers. The family had already sought treatment in the United States and Singapore, and just days before the Mumbai trip, Sita had been admitted to a Kathmandu hospital after a sudden deterioration. Rare diseases demand this kind of restless movement — across borders, across specialists, across hope.
The journey came at a moment of acute political crisis at home. Weeks earlier, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli had recommended the dissolution of Nepal's 275-member parliament, a stunning power play within the ruling Nepal Communist Party. President Bidya Devi Bhandari acted on the recommendation the same day, triggering protests from Prachanda's faction, who saw the move as unconstitutional.
And so Prachanda left — needed in two places at once, choosing the hospital room over the political arena. Progressive supranuclear palsy affects perhaps five people per million and has no cure; what medicine can offer is management, the preservation of dignity against a disease that takes what it will. For Sita Dahal, the pilgrimage had already crossed oceans. In Mumbai, it arrived at a new threshold — and what it might yield remained uncertain.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known to Nepal as Prachanda, boarded a flight to Mumbai on a Monday morning in early January with his wife, two daughters, and the weight of a diagnosis that had already sent them searching across continents. His wife, Sita Dahal, now in her sixties, carries a name for her condition that most people have never heard: progressive supranuclear palsy. It is a rare disorder of the brain that mimics Parkinson's disease in its outward signs—tremor, rigidity, the slow theft of control—but follows its own darker logic. The family's destination was NeuroGen Brain and Spine Institute in Mumbai, where a neurologist named Dr. Alok Sharma would lead her care.
This was not their first attempt at treatment. Sita Dahal had already traveled to the United States and Singapore seeking answers, seeking relief, seeking the kind of specialized expertise that rare diseases demand. Just days before the Mumbai trip, she had been admitted to Mediciti Hospital in Kathmandu after a sudden worsening of her condition. The progression of such disorders is relentless and unpredictable; the family had learned to move quickly when crisis came.
Prachanda himself carries a different kind of weight. He is a former prime minister of Nepal, a man who once held the nation's highest office. But he is also a man in the middle of a political storm. His rival, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, had made a stunning move just weeks earlier: on December 20, Oli recommended that the president dissolve the entire 275-member House of Representatives. The president, Bidya Devi Bhandari, acted on that recommendation the same day, dissolving parliament and calling for new elections in late April and early May. The move was a shock, a power play in a struggle between two factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party. Prachanda's wing of the party erupted in protest.
So when Prachanda left Kathmandu that Monday morning with his family, he was stepping away from a political crisis that demanded his attention. His faction was mobilizing against what they saw as an unconstitutional dissolution of parliament. The timing was brutal—a man needed at home, at the center of a political fight, instead traveling to another country to sit beside his wife's hospital bed. The personal and the political had collided in the way they often do for those in power: a family's private suffering unfolding against the backdrop of national turmoil.
Progressive supranuclear palsy is not a disease that makes headlines. It affects perhaps five people per million. There is no cure. What exists is management—slowing the decline, preserving function where possible, maintaining dignity as the disease takes what it will. The search for the right doctor, the right hospital, the right combination of treatments becomes a kind of pilgrimage, one that takes families across borders and continents. For Sita Dahal, that pilgrimage had already crossed oceans. Now it had brought her to Mumbai, to a specialized institute, to a doctor whose expertise might offer something the previous attempts had not. What happens next—whether the treatment in Mumbai brings improvement, whether Prachanda can balance his wife's medical needs with the political crisis unfolding at home—remains to be seen.
Notable Quotes
Sita Dahal has been suffering from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disorder which has similar symptoms to Parkinson's disease— party sources
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a former prime minister's wife's illness matter as a news story?
Because it shows what happens when power and vulnerability collide. Prachanda is in the middle of a constitutional crisis, but he's also a husband watching his wife deteriorate from a disease most people have never heard of. That tension is the story.
Progressive supranuclear palsy—is that something people recover from?
No. It's progressive, which means it only gets worse. There's no cure. What treatment offers is the chance to slow things down, to preserve what function remains. That's why the family has already been to America and Singapore. They're not looking for a miracle. They're looking for the best possible management of something that can't be stopped.
And the political timing—is that coincidence?
It's hard to say. But the dissolution of parliament happened just weeks before. Prachanda's faction is protesting, mobilizing. And he's in Mumbai. The personal crisis and the political crisis are happening at the same moment, which means he can't fully be present for either one.
What does it tell us that they went to the US and Singapore first?
That they have resources most people don't. But also that even resources have limits. A rare disease doesn't care how much money you have or what your title was. You still have to search for the right doctor, the right hospital. You still have to travel. You still have to wait.
Is there any indication of what the prognosis might be?
The source doesn't say. That's the honest answer. We know she's in her sixties, we know the disease is progressive, we know they're seeking specialized care. But what comes next—whether this treatment helps, how quickly the disease advances—that's still unwritten.