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Time of reckoning for King

The defence by the Nepal Foreign Minister of his country's "model of democracy" at the United Nations General Assembly was a pathetic attempt at justifying King Gyanendra's reactionary coup of February 1. As Ramesh Nath Pandey, standing in for the monarch at the U.N. summit, theorised that there was no "one-size fit-all" democracy and every country needed to choose the type of governance suited to its history and culture, the world saw exactly how this translates in Nepal — a fierce police crackdown on journalists demanding restoration of a free press. But clearly, King Gyanendra is now under siege. His hope of driving a wedge in the seven-party alliance against him has not been realised. The autocrat who dismissed the Sher Bahadur Deuba Government saying it was inept and unable to tackle the Maoist insurgency has shown himself to be no better. Since the beginning of September, a civil disobedience movement by the alliance and other pro-democratic forces has paralysed Kathmandu — sending out the message to the King that the political parties, far from submitting subject-like to his game plan, will make even day-to-day governance impossible.

But the most significant development is that political parties that swore by the co-existence of a constitutional monarchy with multi-party parliamentary democracy, as laid down by the 1990 Constitution, are now beginning to ask if even a stripped down monarchy is necessary, given the King's unwillingness to abide by his constitutionally prescribed role. At its convention earlier this month, the Nepal Congress formally articulated this shift by dropping from the party constitution its longstanding commitment to a constitutional monarchy. Even though Nepal's biggest party has not formally committed itself to a republic, the change represents a big setback for King Gyanendra. This, and the campaign for a republic by the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), Nepal's second largest party, are strong indications that the political parties are closing ranks with the Maoists, whose declared aim is to abolish the monarchy. The prospect of the two forces joining hands has strengthened after the Maoists announced, on September 3, a unilateral three-month ceasefire. By declaring war on Parliament, multi-party democracy, and the press, King Gyanendra has crassly scripted calls for the exit of Nepal's 267-year-old monarchy. Internationally isolated — he is at odds with India, the United States, Britain, and the European Union — and under siege at home, the only sensible option for the King is to roll back the confrontation and accept, even at this late hour, that he is nothing more than a constitutional monarch.

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