Snapshots Of History
Journalist Kishore Shrestha's book on royal takeover of February 1 reveals many unpublished and hidden aspects behind it .
In the course of Nepal 's political modernization process since the fall of Rana regime in 1951, Nepal has seen many ups and downs. The country has seen three different political systems with five constitutions. Despite all these difficulties and political upheavals, Nepal has made certain achievements in institution building.
In the last five decades, Nepalese media has evolved as a strong eye-opener even though it had to pass through difficult phases. At a time when no political scientists and historians have made any efforts to publish a book, journalist Kishore Shrestha, who is known as a ‘scoop journalist’ - as his Jana Astha weekly is popular among the masses for its scoop news regarding the royalty and other interesting political matters - has come up with a book.
In the last twelve years, Nepalese have seen a period of state of emergency during the time when elected parliament was functional. The first state of emergency was under the scrutiny of elected parliament but the second state of emergency imposed under the Royal proclamation was different and harsh as there was complete control of media by security personnel and private radio stations were barred from broadcasting news.
Shrestha reveals that no political leaders including senior ministers had any idea about what was going to happen the next day on February 1, 2005 as he accounts what happened in a party attended by three former home ministers just a day before the royal takeover. According to Shrestha, the incumbent home minister Purna Bahadur Khadka, however, did hint that it was the last night of their rule.
After meeting prime minister Deuba on January 31 in Royal Palace , King Gyanendra called a meeting of security officials and asked them to follow army chief to prepare a plan for state of emergency.
After Royal proclamation of February 1, 2005 , the country has seen a new political situation. The telephone lines were disconnected and Nepal was completely isolated from the rest of the world. Security personnel were sent to censor newspapers and FM radio stations were closed under a government decree.
Under his royal proclamation, the King dismissed the government led by prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the state of emergency was imposed forming the cabinet under the chairmanship of King Gyanendra. Analyzing all the events and consequences behind the context of Nepal's one of the tragic political situations is not an easy work but journalist Kishore Shrestha with all his remarkable sources discusses the events that led up to the February 1 and the players involved behind the scene.
From his own story of censorship, army deployment in his office and difficulties of bringing out the newspapers, Shrestha describes the events and incidents very interestingly. As his newspaper was also under the harsh censorship, the book is full of interesting inside story about February 1. He cites how a senior army colonel pressured him.
Though it is a small book, it is interesting to read to understand how hear-says and rumors of royal takeover suddenly turned into a reality.
