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VOL. 27, NO. 32, April 25, 2008 (Baishakh 13 2065 B.S.)
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Present Tense
Despite the election of an out-and-out republican assembly, key actors put the monarchy at the centre-stage
By SUSHIL SHARMA
Not a single monarchist candidate won in the direct elections for the 240 seats of the constituent assembly. Just a handful of them are expected to make it under the proportional elections for another 335 seats.
So, it should be only a formality for the elected republican assembly to implement the earlier decision of the non-elected interim parliament on abolishing monarchy.
If the impossible-looking constitutional complications are untangled by what looks like an elusive consensus, the assembly should sit in a month’s time. And the first meeting will convert the monarchical republic that Nepal currently is, into a complete democratic republic.
But king Gyanendra is in no hurry to shift from the 3000-royal guard-protected Narayanhity to Nirmal Niwas, leave alone seeking asylum abroad, according to informed sources.
Said a veteran politician after he met the king on Tuesday, “the king seemed very confident.”
Perhaps he is still bidding his time. Hopeful that the situation would ultimately turn in his favour.
While nursing such hopes, it is improbable that king Gyanedra, having badly burned his fingers in the ill-advised take-over three years ago, is not taking key external factors into consideration. After all, it was the Delhi agreement between the Maoists and the mainline parties that ended the suicidal royal power-grab.
As far as internal factors are considered, he is banking on the further deepening of the long-running mistrust between the Maoists and the other main parties over the electoral outcome.
Having travelled together for the last three years against the common enemy – the king -- the Maoists and the mainline parties mainly the Nepali Congress and UML have shown signs of drifting apart.
If the NC and the UML felt “betrayed” by the intimidating Maoists at the hustings, the latter has not yet ruled out a ‘foul play’ to stop it from capturing the seat of power.
Having been drubbed in the elections the NC and the UML have lately been not upbeat over the prospects of a Maoist-engineered republic.
They fear that they could be the next target of a party that has 19,000 verified armed combatants and tens of thousands of unarmed but military-trained young cadres across the country.
That fear speaks for the two major parties’ silence – if not an about-turn yet -- on abolishing the monarchy
They have sent feelers to the king for consultations on future course of action in dealing with a resurgent former insurgents, according to sources. It is not known if the king did respond and, if yes, how. One thing is known. That he has responded to the feelers from a totally unexpected quarter – the Maoists.
The vocal republican Maoists are said to be seeking Narayanhity’s support in their quest for a firm hold in the Singh Durbar. In return of some kind of space for the monarchy in the new republican order.
The message had been conveyed during meetings the top Maoist leaders, Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai, had had with some key monarchist figures.
Incidentally, the meetings had been followed by Baburam’s suggestion, in a TV interview, about a cultural king with a state allowance.
Prachanda talked about a graceful exit to discuss which, he said, he was ready to meet the king.
Sources did not rule out a face-to-face meeting. “Behind-the-scene negotiations are underway.”
Said a source, “the Maoists feared a conspiracy of NC, UML and, more importantly, foreign powers to deny them the power. They wanted an understanding between what they say were patriotic forces.”
The suggestion, some say, may have been aimed at winning the backing of the Nepali army which the Maoists once dubbed “royal American army.”
It was the Nepali army that had blocked the red march to Singh Durbar before the former rebels opted for a different route.
The Maoists deny any closed-door dealings. They insist that the meetings with the royalists are aimed at ensuring a smooth transition to republic and saving the king a humiliating ouster.
“We do not want any vestiges of feudal institutions in any form,” thundered Prachanda, two days after the party’s military strategist, Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’, challenged political strategist Bhattarai’s take on cultural king.
Sources say, it is understandable for the Maoists to show such a public posture. In response to the Maoist leaders’ apologetic explanation ‘we can not make an about-turn in public’, they were reportedly told to find, at least, ways to postpone the declaration of a republic.
That, according to sources, will test the Maoist gesture to the ksing.
