Nepal's god king loses his power, prestige and palace

Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor

King Gyanendra of Nepal was stripped of his powers last night after the country's provisional parliament voted to abolish the 239-year-old monarchy. He will remain in his palace until early next year, when the decision will be rubber-stamped by a newly elected assembly that will establish Nepal as a democratic federal republic. After that the King will be forced to move to his private residence to live as a private citizen — the culmination of six years of self-destruction by the Nepalese monarchy. “If the King creates serious hurdles in the elections he can be removed by a two-third majority of the interim parliament before the polls,” the parliamentary resolution states. It was passed by a majority of 270 votes to three, with 56 abstentions or absences in a parliament that includes leaders of a Maoist insurgency that has waged war on the Government since 1996. More than 13,000 people were killed before a ceasefire last year and the beginnings of negotiations with the Maoists, who made abolition of the monarchy a condition of their participation in the peace process. “We have supported the motion because it meets one of our demands for a republic and to clear the way for the elections,” Dev Gurung, the Maoists' parliamentary deputy leader, said yesterday. “We will raise our other demands gradually.”

Apart from the pressure of the insurgency, the crisis in Nepal's monarchy exploded on June 1, 2001, when Crown Prince Dipendra embarked on a drunken shooting spree inside the royal palace in which he killed his closest relatives and finally himself. The motives and the precise sequence of events remain unclear. Altogether the Crown Prince killed ten members of the royal family, including his father, King Birendra, his mother, Queen Aiswarya, his brother, Prince Nirajan, and his sister, Princess Shruti. Into the void left by the massacre stepped Gyanendra, uncle to the killer and brother of the murdered king — leading to speculation, without clear grounds, that he had some role in encouraging the Crown Prince's aggression against his family.

In 2005, as attacks by the Maoists worsened, King Gyanendra dismissed parliament and assumed absolute power. His unpopularity increased as he suppressed critics and opponents in politics, the media and the army, amid a failing economy. After an uprising in April last year, he restored parliament, which stripped him of his powers step by step. The Nepalese monarchy dates from 1769, after the unification of the Kathmandu valley by the Gurkha ruler Prithvi Narayan Shah and the establishment of his dynasty. He also founded Kathmandu, the capital. The kings who succeeded him were said to be reincarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu. It is the last remaining Hindu monarchy. “Before kings were part of people's heart,” Mata Pasad Risal, a retired government official, said. “Now people have turned against him. The King has lost his position and popularity; it will be best for him to leave the palace.” It is still unclear whether planned elections will be held given the levels of violence in parts of the country.
Source: Times Online