Nepal prepares to dump monarchy and declare republic

[suchandra]

What can be said, it's sad to see that monarchy is globally abolished, it just didn't work in kali-yuga. Now they dump it forever in Nepal. Also see, Nepal’s god-king becomes a common man.

 

Nepal prepares to dump monarchy and declare republic

 

TELEGRAPH

By Joe Jackson

Last Updated: 4:14PM BST 28/05/2008

Nepal is preparing to abolish its monarchy and declare a republic, with its new Moaist dominated government saying it would give the once revered king 15 days to leave his palace.

 

AP

Demonstrators have carried effigys of the king through the streets

The Constituent Assembly, elected in April to rewrite Nepal’s constitution, will hold its first meeting today to end the rule of King Gyanendra, the last head of the 239-year-old Shah dynasty – the world’s last Hindu monarchy.

“There has been a proposal to give a formal notice to ask the king to vacate Narayanhiti palace within a certain time frame,” spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

“He will be asked to leave in between seven to 15 days’ time,” he added, explaining the precise timing of the deadline was still being discussed.

 

The end of King Gyanendra’s rule will be a major victory for the Maoists, who fought a decade-long insurgency that killed more than 13,000 people.

More than 10,000 former rebels marched in the capital Kathmandu today carrying hammer and sickle flags and pumping their fists in the air as they shouted “Down with the monarchy!”.

Thousands of other people opposed to the unpopular king, who ascended to the throne after a bloody palace massacre in 2001, also poured into the streets around the new assembly building to celebrate his impending departure.

“Let’s celebrate the dawn of a republic in a grand manner,” one loudspeaker blared from the top of a taxi, as the crowds chanted slogans including “Thief Gyanendra leave the country.”

Security is tight in the capital after a series of bomb blasts, some blamed on pro-royalist groups, over the past few days. No one was killed in the explosions.

It has been a dramatic decline for a king once waited upon by thousands of retainers. Many Nepalis revered the monarch in majority-Hindu Nepal as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the god of protection.

Now, his portrait has been wiped off bank notes and his name has disappeared from the national anthem. He has even been asked to pay his own electricity bills.

King Gyanendra has made few comments on his future plans, other than to say he wanted to remain in Nepal.

[theist]

Maoists. Sheesh what scum. I know nothing about this king but I know that Chairman Mao was perhaps the biggest demon of our recorded history. After all this time it is baffeling how anybody could look to him as a role model. Not only did he kill millions and sought about destroying all manner of beauty and culture in China the pig was famous for never brushing his teeth.

 

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE2.HTM

[theist]

I am appaled and embarrassed to admit that the first mantra I every chanted was in the late sixties. This was it.

 

MAO MAO MAO ZEDONG!

HO HO HO CHI MIHN!

 

 

[suchandra]

 

I know nothing about this king but I know that Chairman Mao was perhaps the biggest demon of our recorded history.

 

 

 

King Bipendra - did he know about the psychology of debt?

 

Well yes, the news media would never mention what realy happened. In 1961 the King of Nepal foolishly signed membership of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development also known as World Bank.

They told him in free seminars that he needs to upgrate his country to keep up with modern infrastructure.

Thereupon the World Bank sent with free delivery huge containers via Antonov of paper money printed on recycling newspaper in New York and by the end of the year a certificate of indebtedness with a small print mentioning something like accruing interest.

Same what one by one happened to all those Asian nations - the Heads of State somewhat didn't figure the level of debt. May be they were allured with false promise - we can never find out.

From whom all those rebels like at Bali, Philippines, Malayasia, Sri Lanka etc. etc. are getting the paper money and are put into high tech operation seems a great mystery no one will ever figure out.

In early June 2001 King Birendra of Nepal and eight other members of the royal family, including Queen Aiswarya (member of the Rana dynasty), were fatally shot in the royal palace in Kathmandu, allegedly at the hands of Crown Prince Dipendra, who then reportedly attempted suicide. Dipendra initially survived his gunshot wounds in a coma. At least that's what they said on FOXNEWS. His subsequent death officially made his uncle Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah the new regent of Nepal. An official investigation of the massacre confirmed earlier reports that Dipendra had killed his family members in a drunken rage.

 

Dipendra standing in the middle

 

The Maoist insurgency intensified following the massacre, fueled in part by unsubstantiated conspiracy theories surrounding the incident. Prime Minister Koirala, meanwhile, was widely criticized for embarrassing setbacks at the hands of the rebels and for a perceived failure to provide adequate protection for the royal family. His government was also mired in a bribery scandal.

[suchandra]

Reuters: Nepal abolishes centuries-old Hindu monarchy

 

Wed May 28, 2008 4:15pm EDT

 

NEWSMAKER: The decline and fall of Nepal's last king 28 May 2008

 

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By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's political parties voted on Wednesday to abolish the Himalayan kingdom's 239-year-old Hindu monarchy, a key demand of Maoists after they ended a decade-long war against the government.

Delegates at a special assembly voted 560 to four in favor of abolishing the monarchy. Hours before, suspected royalists threw three small, homemade bombs in Nepal's capital, wounding one person.

The government has told unpopular King Gyanendra to vacate his pink pagoda-roofed palace in the capital Kathmandu within a fortnight, or be forced out. He has made few comments on his future plans, except to say he wanted to remain in Nepal.

On hearing the result of the vote, thousands of people danced in the streets of Kathmandu, many waving different party flags and chanting "Welcome to a republic". The government declared the next two days a public holiday.

"Today is the day when my dreams have been realized and similarly the dreams of the nation have perhaps also been realized," Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said in an address to the assembly.

Activists of the royalist militant group Ranabir Sena threw pamphlets at the site of one of Wednesday's blasts, demanding that Nepal remain a Hindu kingdom, police said.

Two bombs exploded only meters away from the heavily guarded venue for the assembly while another went off in a city park.

All through the day, thousands of Nepalis gathered in the historic parts of Kathmandu and near the site of the assembly, ringed by riot police, to celebrate the end of a monarchy seen by many of its inhabitants as out of touch. Continued...

 

VIDEO

[suchandra]

World’s last Hindu king loses his throne

 

New Nepal assembly votes to end royal dynasty and become a republic

 

 

 

Published: 30/05/2008

PEOPLE POWER: A demonstrator urging the king to leave climbs on to a statue of his brother

 

More Pictures

 

THE world’s last Hindu kingdom became its newest secular republic as Nepal’s MPs, led by former Communist rebels, abolished the monarchy that had reigned over the Himalayan land for 239 years.

Before the vote, thousands of people marched, danced and sang in the streets of Kathmandu in anticipation of the result, waving red hammer-and-sickle flags as King Gyanendra awaited his fate in the pink concrete palace that dominates the city’s centre.

He finally found out the fate of his throne late in the day when, as expected, the newly-elected Constituent Assembly declared the country a republic and abolished the monarchy by a vote of 560-4. “We have entered a new era,” said prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, calling Nepal’s rebirth as a republic “the dream of the whole nation”.

Change

 

There was no immediate reaction from the 61-year-old king, who now has 15 days to quit his palace and move to his private residence in the city — or face the possibility of being removed by force.

Groups of celebrating young men yelled in the streets of Kathmandu and set off firecrackers.

“The people in Nepal have defeated the autocrat Gyanendra,” said Gopal Thapa, a 23-year-old supporter of the Maoists, the former rebels.

Not since the Shah of Iran was deposed in the bloody 1979 Islamic revolution has one of the world’s monarchs been forced from his throne.

But what comes next remains uncertain.

While the Maoists say they are committed capitalists and have no intention of nationalising industries or setting up collective farms, they have promised to bring sweeping change. But they are struggling to form a government.

The opening assembly session was delayed for hours while they wrangled with other political parties over who should be president.

[suchandra]

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Nepal as a secular state, a negative development: BJP

Neena Vyas

http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/03/stories/2008060350020100.htm

posted 03 June 2008

 

NEW DELHI: The declaration of Nepal as a secular state is a “negative development,” but the end of monarchy in what was till recently the world’s only Hindu kingdom is the result of the “wishes of the people,” says the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Releasing the party’s seven-page foreign policy resolution here on Monday, the former External Affairs, Minister Jaswant Singh, clarified its views in response to questions.

Clearly, the BJP did not think that the recent election gave the Communist Party of Nepal(Maoists) any mandate, although it expressed its “satisfaction” with the poll. It said the CPN(M) needed to be restrained in its conduct and utterances “as they had only about a third of the popular vote, and that too, obtained through intimidation.”

Asked why the BJP was claiming popular mandate in Karnataka though it had polled just over 33 per cent of the popular vote, which was one per cent short of the Congress vote, Mr. Singh said, “I am talking about Nepal.”

The BJP did not think that the CPN(M) was right in demanding the posts of President and Prime Minister for the party.

As for abolition of monarchy, he said, “It is for the people of Nepal to decide not to have a monarchy.”

Was the BJP happy about Nepal becoming a secular state? Mr. Singh said: “As an Indian and a believer in ‘sanatan dharma’ [Hinduism], I feel diminished. … There are four ‘dhams’ [pilgrimage centres] in India and the fifth, Pashupati Nath, is in Nepal. There is nothing more secular than ‘sanatan dharma’. … This is a negative development [in Nepal].”

Asked whether he and the BJP were also unhappy about India being a secular state, Mr. Singh said that in India, “There was no alternative and no option to secularism.”

The BJP was concerned that relations between Maoists in Nepal and those in India would have “serious consequences” and would be “very dangerous for India.”

[suchandra]

At least they don't force the king into the almshouse like they did with many Indian monarchies.

 

Nepal grants deposed king summer palace home

 

 

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ga5WjjjXlXf_vRqDUaNe-fQXoqvAD9135JM80

 

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA – 4 June 2008

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal's government said Wednesday it will allow the deposed king to live in a summer palace northwest of the capital after the Himalayan nation abolished the centuries-old monarchy last week.

The Cabinet decided to allow former King Gyanendra to move to Nagarjung palace — situated on a forested hill on the edge of Katmandu — after he was ordered to leave the main palace by next week, Peace Minister Ram Chandra Poudel said.

The summer palace — previously used for vacations by the king — is surrounded by walls and has remained off-limits to the public. It has been nationalized by the government along with most of the royal assets.

Gyanendra was dethroned last week by the Constituent Assembly, which abolished the monarchy and declared Nepal a republic. The assembly was elected in April to rewrite the constitution, decide the future political system and govern the nation.

The monarchy's end was the culmination of a two-year peace process that saw communist insurgents give up their armed struggle, join mainstream politics and win the most seats in April elections.

Officials met with Gyanendra on Monday and he asked the government to assist him in finding alternative accommodation. Gyanendra said he could not move back to his house where he lived before becoming king in 2001 because his son and his family were already living there.

[suchandra]

Historical moment, the last Hindu monarch prepares for living in exile

 

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td width="845">Last Hindu King Gyanendra prepares for exit</td></tr> <tr valign="top"><td width="845"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr valign="top"><td width="479"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr valign="top"><td colspan="2" width="100%">

 

</td></tr> <tr valign="top"><td colspan="2" width="100%"></td></tr> </tbody></table> </td><td width="132"></td><td width="120"></td></tr> </tbody></table> </td></tr> </tbody></table> Kathmandu, Jun 11 (PTI) Nepal's last monarch Gyanendra was packing his belongings to vacate the Narayanhiti palace today to move to a modest hill resort on the outskirts of the capital city, ending the 240-year-old royal regime.

The 60-year-old King will issue a statement at the palace premises before leaving the palace this evening, Phanindra Raj Pathak, senior official of the press secretariat in the palace, told PTI.

 

"Gyanendra is vacating the palace Wednesday evening as per the government's decision on May 28. He is packing up to prepare for the exit," he said.

 

The last Hindu King of the world Gyanendra lost his crown last month after a Constituent Assembly voted to formally end the 240-year-old institution of monarchy, turning him into an ordinary citizen.

 

The King will hand over his diamond-studded crown and sceptre to the government before leaving the palace. The government has decided to convert the 124-year-old palace of the Shah Kings into a museum.

 

However, two buildings located within the palace complex have been allocated to the King's stepmother Ratna, 82, and grand mother Sarala, 91, as per their requests.

 

The government is looking for a suitable accommodation the country's first president who is yet to be named.

 

The government is likely to select Sheetal Niwas, the Foreign Ministry Office located in Maharajgunj or Bahadur Bhawan, the Election Commission building, as the possible Rastrapati Bhavan, or official residence of the first president of Nepal.

 

The end of Nepal's monarchy is a key part of the 2006 peace deal reached between Nepal's former rebel Maoists and mainstream parties. PTI