FIND WHO KILLED KING BIRENDRA IN THIS ARTICLE...................
The murder of his brother, King Birendra, by Gyanendra’s rotten son underscored the kind of chaffing that the extended royal family was undergoing under the "twin pillars" concept that came into vogue after the panchayati raj movement of the 90s when Birendra conceded some of his powers to a constitutionally-created Parliament so that the monarchy could survive. There were some, like Gyanendra and his sons, within the royal family who were yearning for dictatorial powers and showed that they were not averse to spill blood of both family and citizenry to grab it.
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FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.asiantribune.com/show_article.php?id=3125 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IN CASE:
Date : 2006-04-23
Nepal's new dawn
BY Vinod - Syndicate Features
King Gyanendra of Nepal who ascended the throne after the assassination of his brother Birendra in a bloody coup has ordered elections in his ravaged kingdom in a manoeuvre, he hopes, will save the monarchy. It may well be too late for even a "constitutional monarchy" to survive as hinted by India's demarche to the monarch to stop the bloodletting in his kingdom or face the consequences.
That Gyanendra had to announce post-haste a restoration of democracy through the proposed election after insisting that it would take him three years to take that step is a measure of the loss of control as demonstrated by the successful agitation conducted by almost every section of society within the Kathmandu Valley under the leadership of the seven-party coalition within 14 months of his grabbing power. Beyond Kathmandu, the Maoists had already confined his tenuous writ to small cantonments of the Royal Nepal Army which itself has not been able to use the China and Pakistan supplied weapons and pep talk to much advantage.
No date for the proposed elections was announced by King Gyanendra at the moment of writing which too could be a ploy to delay the inevitable in the hope of driving a wedge between the seven-party coalition and the Maoists both of whom had begun to show signs of coalescing their strategies to mutual advantage.
In any case, elections or no elections, the situation in the mountainous nation-State has become fixated on the relevance of a monarchy that came to power with bloodshed of a predecessor who had come to terms with the reality in his kingdom and allowed himself to recede to being a "constitutional monarch". Gyanendra had tried to turn the clock back to "absolute monarchy" and has come a cropper and it remains to be seen what other trick he has up his sleeve to try and retain absolute control of his rebellious fiefdom.
The murder of his brother, King Birendra, by Gyanendra’s rotten son underscored the kind of chaffing that the extended royal family was undergoing under the "twin pillars" concept that came into vogue after the panchayati raj movement of the 90s when Birendra conceded some of his powers to a constitutionally-created Parliament so that the monarchy could survive. There were some, like Gyanendra and his sons, within the royal family who were yearning for dictatorial powers and showed that they were not averse to spill blood of both family and citizenry to grab it.
New Delhi, which willy-nilly, understood his capacity for mischief on a sub continental scale given the manner in which he sought and secured the support or China and Pakistan, did well to wait for the moment to ripen into open defiance of the people of the kingdom to demonstrate their commitment to democracy before telling Gyanendra where to get off. One input could have come from the poll conducted by the fortnightly Himal which showed that 68 percent of the people of the Kathmandu Valley had given the monarchy the thumbs down.
It has also been demonstrated that there is limited scope for any Chinese support to Gyanendra. Whatever weapons Beijing will give the Royal Nepal Army can only be used by to be repress the common people be it the rural populace largely controlled by the Maoists or those in the Valley who have overwhelming made the call given by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) for bandh into a referendum against the monarchy’s order to shoot at sight. Thus China’s contribution has only served to undermine the monarchy.
So far as Pakistan is concerned its anti-India intent and its use of Nepal as a launch-pad for terrorist attacks (remember the hijacking of IC-814 which began in Kathmandu and ended in Kandahar, Afghanistan) was made evident by its demand that the King allow it to open chanceries in such places as Biratnagar which are close to the porous border and hence amenable to anti-India mischief. The King understood that Pakistan is too far away to be of much assistance if Indian ire rose over Pakistanis terrorist activity from Nepalese soil. He did not concede that demand.
It is in the very nature of the second coming of the people’s movement for democracy (the first was in the 90s when the Panchayati Raj movement underscored the depth of feeling of the people and forced King Birendra to recede to constitutional monarchy as a face-saver) that such foreign interventions will be of no avail to King Gyanendra. He read the writing on the wall and made the move for elections at an unspecified date. Similarly, other cards up Gyanendra’s sleeve that have a potential for hurting India became difficult to use as the combination of the Maoist movement and the Seven Party Alliance applied the pincers on the monarchy and made it swirm. Hence, in hindsight New Delhi did well to wait and watch the developments in Nepal before prophesying, for a King addicted to soothsayers that he is flirting with danger.
The US too, which has taken upon itself to push for democracy on a global scale, has found King Gyanendra difficult to fit into its generally flexible scheme of things (given the manner in which it appear to bend the definition of democracy to accommodate a uniform-clad Pervez Musharraf). The sum total was that the King went to his counting house and discovered that he has very few options left.
Therefore, if democracy in Nepal is to be given its legitimate due, the proposed elections cannot be allowed to be held under the baleful aegis of King Gyanendra and his cutthroat family. The US should use its influence to get the King to appoint an independent Election Commissioner who would not be swayed by the influence of the palace bolstered by foreign observers acting under the UN flag.
New Delhi’s role will be to help forge a wider grassroots political structure encompassing both the Maoists and the Seven Party Alliance. Without such an entente cordiale between the two, Nepal could well slip into chaos and civil war which the monarchy would seek to exploit to perpetuate itself. This it has already tried to do through palace-instigated propaganda that the Maoists had infiltrated into the Kathmandu Valley and the Seven Party Alliance claims to political legitimacy were hollow. The people of Kathmandu proved otherwise and that is why the King has had to bend.
That he is trying to stoop to conquer is obvious and it remains on the shoulders of both the US and India to see that true democracy is assisted to emerge from the Maoist-SPA cocktail. Everyone – political pundits, dispassionate observers, journalists and strategic analysts – are predicting that the moment is flush with signs of the beginning of the end. The only thing that has an entity in Nepal is the monarchy which has been there for the better part of two centuries. Therefore, the only thing that is under threat is the monarchy. Will it go? Time will tell.
- Syndicate Features -
