Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Niraj Aryal

The vertical split in the supposed royalist party- the RPP, sparked off by last month’s royal nominations of the CC members in the royal cabinet without consultations with the party-chief, hints to a clear division among the ultra-royalists and the moderates present within the party and in the kingdom as a whole. Is the monarchy loosing support?

The division in the RPP, not a new phenomenon though this time bears lots of significance. In the past, inner wrangling in the RPP was seen as a mere power struggle to grab the party’s top position. This time it is perhaps an ideological division, writes a regular columnist in his recent write-up. He adds further, the division was already there which was seeking an opportune moment to explode. These unfolding events have filtered out democratic minded royal supporters, he adds.

This clear division between the ultra and the moderate faction in the presumed royalists’ camp also suggests to the fact that the supporters to the royal move of February 1 st, 2005 are also losing in strength at least in numbers. Political analysts believe that in political terms in the long run this division bears some importance.

Other important factors such as the Maoists running a parallel government in the remote parts of the kingdom with the slogan of a democratic republic, the action initiated by the country’s largest democratic parties namely, Nepali Congress and United Marxist-Leninist to formally remove any reference to monarchy in the party manifesto, the non-performing present government under the direct aegis of H.M the King and finally the royal nominations to the cabinet that triggered the division in the RPP, political analysts believe all in all these recent developments are wrecking damage to the monarchial posture in Nepal.

The news that Deuba led Nepali Congress forcefully accepted the notion of republicanism quite recently, also has to be taken seriously. Deuba, who was considered as a lone supporter of the royal moves before February 1 st, is also showing dissent to the monarchial moves there after.

A few questions are thus raised:

What all these events in series signal? Is the monarchy in a position to accept the election of the constituent election at this juncture? Will this be a death trap? This signals more difficult days ahead for common men in Nepal.

Coming back again to the episode of division in RPP, the other side of the division is rather positive. The moderate faction in RPP could be seen as a successor to the Nepali congress. The majority of people who believe in development of a stable democratic setup without harming constitutional monarchy are seeing this development positively.

Assuming normalcy restored in the Kingdom and taking into account the fading popularly of Nepali Congress among the population, the RPP formed by moderate royalists could hold the future, said a political analyst talking to this scribe.

The Maoists at the moment seem to have resonated along with the beat of the rural population but in the long run their double standard will be exposed in the same tone and tune as the UML, which was exposed for their sub- terrain links, says another political observer.

Anyways these are just future prospects which cannot be predicated as easily in the case of present jumbled politics of Nepal.