Gyanendra's royal gambit

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All-out offensive against Maoists? Gyanendra's royal gambit By Arabinda Ghose

Putting an end to the virtual farce that was being enacted in the name of

democracy in his kindgom, His Majesty King Gyanendra dismissed the government

headed by Shri Sher Bahadur Deuba on February 1, and declared an Emergency in

his kingdom, placed most political leaders under house arrest and declared, in

a message over Nepal television, that there would be no elections in the

country for three years. In the message, he stressed that the action taken by

him was aimed at strengthening both multi-party democracy and constitutional

monarchy in the time-honoured tradition of the monarch and his subjects working

together for strengthening Nepal and ensuring the welfare of its people.

Somewhat surprisingly, there was no mention of the Maoist factor in the royal

message, but political observers feel that the King's step to

establish a de facto monarchy is aimed at launching an all-out military

offensive against the Maoists. There is no possibility of any dialogue with the

Maoists because talks have failed in the past and the Maoists are firmly in

favour of establishing a republic in Nepal, which in other words, means

abolition of monarchy. His statement about failure of the Deuba government to

make preparations for the General Elections is, however, not a very convincing

argument in favour of declaring an Emergency and dismissing the Prime Minister.

In no case can General Elections be held in the forseeable future because of

Maoist depredations all over the country, attacks on police and the army,

kidnapping of schoolchildren and even traders in recent days, and writing off

of the present political system in Nepal as the ‘old regime’. King Gyanendra

has declared he would set up a government under his leadership. How soon, he

has not said. He, however, has announced his

intention to attend the SAARC summit in Dhaka on February 6 and 7.

Deja vu over Royal Takeover

It appears that the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India, or

rather the political leadership of this country, will stick to its guns in

respect of the rhetorics employed to describe the events in Nepal on February

1, 2005. The External Affairs Ministry spokesman told mediapersons on the

afternoon of February 1 that the steps taken by King Gyanendra were a ‘‘setback

to the democratic process’’ in Nepal. This reporter cannot but recall that on

December 15, 1960, when his father, the late King Mahendra, had dismissed the

Nepali Congress government led by B.P. Koirala, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

had said, at a place some distance away from New Delhi (probably Ambala) that

this was a “setback to democracy in Nepal”. This reporter, who was then

functioning as the Bureau Chief of the Kathmandu office of the Hindusthan

Samachar, had observed thereafter that Nehru's remark had resulted in Nepal

undertaking an increasingly

anti-Indian stance thereafter. Incidentally, while doing away with parliamentary

democracy in Nepal, King Mahendra had described the system as an implant from

the West and had introduced the non-party Panchayat system, which however had

turned into actually making the system an absolute monarchy. The Nepali

Congress and the other parties, besides the people, who are craving for a

parliamentary system, had ultimately got King Birendra to scrap the Panchayat

system on April 8, 1990, resulting in re-establishment of the multi-party

system after 29 long years of the Panchayat system. Most governments and people

across the world had described the King's action as a setback to democracy.

However, the fact is that democracy had already received a setback on October

4, 2002 when the same Sher Bahadur Deuba ministry was dismissed by the King on

grounds of ‘incompetence’ on the part of the Prime Minsiter to make

preparations for holding General Elections by November

13, that year. After that event, the country continued to be ruled under the

King's direct supervision, as it were, and as many as three governments were

appointed by him and dismissed or the Prime Ministers resigned on their own.

The first to be appointed was Shri Lokendra Bahadur Chand who stayed on the

post from October 2002 to May 2003. Then ruled the senior Surya Bahadur Thapa

from June 2003 to May 2004, and subsequently, Sher Bahadur Deuba from June 2004

to January 2005.

According to Constitution

It may be a travesty, but the action of King Gyanendra on February 1, 2005

cannot strictly be called ‘un-constitutional’. First, the King is empowered to

take action under Article 127 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990

(the official name of the present Constitution) to remove ‘obstacles’ in the

path of implementing the provisions of the Constitution. More importantly,

Article 27(3) of the Constitution empowers the monarch to “abide by and

conserve the provisions of the Constitution for the greatest benefit and

development of the people of Nepal”. These two provisions in the Constitution

will always be quoted by him for justifying the action taken on February 1 and

those which are to follow in the coming days. King Gyanendra, in his address to

the nation, has also referred to his “bounden duty to preserve multi-party

democracy and constitutional monarchy”. These are the basic features of the

Constitution which, according

to Article 115, cannot be amended.

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