Besides being a writer, Modnath Prashrit is a celebrated political personality. He is an elected member of the Lower House of Parliament and has been Education Minister. He is a polit-bureau member of the influential main opposition party, the Communist Party of Nepal, United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML).

His political career is quite interesting. In 1982 he was arrested. He escaped from prison forty days later with six colleagues. He was betrayed by a friend and arrested again. He recalls the torture he received at the hands of the authorities and the conspiracy to murder him and his colleagues in Birgunj prison. While he was fortunate, his friend Shanker Gopali was killed.

A plot was then formed to kill them during prison transfer. Prashrit talks of Kamalraj Regmi, chairperson of Gaon Pharka campaign, who asked that Prashrit be spared. Four persons died “when attempting escape” in Sukhani Forest in Jhapa and four persons in Ekanta Kuna, to name two instances.

Opinions may differ regarding his achievements as a politician but his literature has been able to make a strong impression on the general public. Prashrit was nominated a member of the Royal Nepal Academy recently. However, he refused to join the academy pointing out that the body is politically polarized. He says he loves simplicity of language and complains that contemporary progressive literature of Nepal fails to reach the true depths of humankind and is, therefore, ignored by most of the public because it fails to address their problems and issues.