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Nepal’s divisive king faces the boot

‘King Gyanendra is a non-entity now. He is the most humiliated man in Asia’

KING Gyanendra of Nepal will be the last ruler from his centuries-old dynasty if the Himalayan nation - as expected - abolishes the world’s only Hindu monarchy after landmark elections this week.

The April 10 polls are the culmination of a peace deal between republican Maoists and mainstream secular parties that ended a decade-long insurgency aimed at toppling the monarchy and which claimed 13,000 lives. The ex-rebels and the parties have already agreed the king will step down and that Nepal will be declared a federal democratic republic after the polls, which are to elect a body that will rewrite the constitution.

Maoist leader Prachanda said at the weekend that Gyanendra, 61, can remain in the country as an “ordinary citizen” if he wishes. But while it seems the king has all but already been booted out, staunch royalists have warned of a violent backlash. “If the Maoists can take up arms and come to power, Hindus will also take up arms. It will be worse than the Maoists’ war and many people will be killed,” royal aide Major General Bharat Keshwer Simha said in a recent interview.

The elections come seven tumultuous years after Gyanendra ascended the throne following the massacre of his popular brother Birendra and most of the royal family by the drink-and-drug-fuelled crown prince, who later killed himself. Conspiracy theories linking Gyanendra and his unpopular son Prince Paras to the massacre have made him “the most unpopular man in Nepal,” said Kunda Dixit, editor of the English language weekly Nepali Times.

Gyanendra happened to be away from the palace at the time, while his only son, who was present, escaped unhurt. Paras’ playboy reputation has also hurt the king, although his son is said to have become more spiritual since suffering a heart attack aged 36. However, many people in the Hindu nation continue to revere the king as an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and consider the monarchy to be important for the small but impoverished country.

“The latest polls have shown about half the population would prefer to keep some kind of symbolic monarchy,” said Dixit. “The people make a distinction between a vote for the person of the monarch and the institution of monarchy.” Sujata Koirala, daughter of Premier Girija Prasad Koirala and seen as his political heir, said she felt a “cultural monarch” - not the current king - would suit Nepal and its distinct Hindu-dominated culture.

Gyanendra faced huge opposition after firing the government and seizing direct control in February 2005 on the grounds that the parties had failed to end the war with the Maoists. Direct rule lasted 14 months until he was forced to reinstate parliament following weeks of violent pro-democracy protests, during which crowds burnt effigies of him and called him a “murderer.”

The move to turn Nepal into a republic would be the final humiliation for Gyanendra, already stripped of his political powers and job as head of the army. The government has passed legislation turning Nepal into a secular state, while the new national anthem contains no mention of the king and many of his properties have been seized by the state.

“He’s a non-entity now. He is the most humiliated man in Asia,” said Kanak Mani Dixit, managing editor of the respected Himal South Asia monthly. Since Gyanendra returned power to parliament, the once high-profile monarch has virtually disappeared from view and the royal motorcades that used to clog Kathmandu’s streets have halted.

This is his second stint on the throne. During upheavals in 1950, he was declared monarch at the age of five after being left behind as insurance when then-king Tribhuvan - his grandfather - fled to India. Gyanendra, educated at a Jesuit school in Darjeeling, India, was once said to be one of the world’s wealthiest royals. The crown reverted back to his grandfather when the family returned a year later and Birendra became king in 1972.

“It’s Gyanendra who people have a problem with, not the concept of monarchy,” said Kapil Shrestha, a political science professor at Tribhuvan University. “People have a hatred for the king... but they’re not totally against the monarchy.” afp

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