By IANS,
Kathmandu : Two years after Nepal’s interim parliament officially abolished monarchy, Nepal’s last king, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, continued to dominate the news Friday with his bitter foe, the Maoists, going on war footing against him once again.
The former Maoist guerrillas, who had fought a 10-year war to dethrone the king, began a war council of its top leaders here Friday to decide their future course of action following a public statement by Gyanendra that monarchy was not yet dead.
At the end of the meeting at Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s residence, the leaders called for unity among the major parties to oppose the return of the crown, just like the uneasy unity they had forged in 2006 to unitedly oppose the coup staged by Gyanendra.
“Taking advantage of the political turmoil, the former king is conspiring to catch fish in muddy water,” Maoist deputy chief Baburam Bhattarai told the media at the end of the meeting.
“But he is day-dreaming if he thinks monarchy can be reinstated in republic Nepal.”
The unease among the parties comes after Gyanendra, who had been keeping a low profile since the abolition of monarchy, began attending Hindu religious festivals since last month.
On Wednesday, his visit to the Ram Janaki temple in Nepal’s Terai generated more attention than President Ram Baran Yadav’s, especially after a brief interview given to a private television station.
Gyanendra told Avenues TV that people’s wishes and opinions should be respected on the subject of monarchy or any other issue. “I want whatever the majority wants,” he said.
“May the garland that our ancestors assembled be never torn asunder,” he said, in a tacit reference to his ancestor conqueror Prithvi Narayan Shah, who was regarded as the unifier of Nepal but is now vilified as a colonialist.
Still using the royal “we” that he had been wont to employ as king, Gyanendra denied dabbling in power politics, saying he could have done that much earlier had he wanted to.
He also admitted he had erred in 2005 when he sacked the prime minister and seized power.
“I learnt the lesson that people wanted an inactive king,” he said. “But people should remember that the king is also their guardian and should take steps dictated by time.”
The interview also irked Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who said the former king was day-dreaming, thinking monarchy would be restored.
But though they are scoffing at monarchy, the major parties are yet to get their act together.
A week after Koirala’s death, they are yet to choose a new chairman for the high-level political committee that was chosen to reach an agreement on contentious issues.
Though the Maoists, Koirala’s Nepali Congress (NC) and the prime minister’s Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist met Friday, they could not name a new chairman.
The search has caused a tussle between the Maoists and the NC and also in the NC itself, with three second-generation leaders claiming the right to step into Koirala’s shoes.