Nepal’s pro-monarchists announced Thursday they will intensify protests to restore the monarchy if the government does not reach an agreement with them in a week. The newly formed Joint People’s Movement Committee said they will also conduct a rally on Friday near the Tribhuvan International Airport.
Speaking to media, the body’s convener, Nabaraj Subedi, an 87-year-old staunch supporter of former King Gyanendra, said: “We give all pro-republic parties and the government a week to ponder over our demands, which we are pursuing peacefully, and failure to respond to them positively will compel us to intensify protests until our goal is achieved.”
Subedi urged the government to accept the 1991 constitution, which had a constitutional monarchy with a multi-party system of parliamentary democracy as well as a unitary Hindu Nepal as its fundamental features.
Subedi asked the government to make suitable amendments in the current constitution to accommodate these features.
On Friday, the Socialist Forum, a four-party alliance, is also organising a demonstration in favour of republic system at Bhrikutimandap area of Kathmandu to counter the pro-monarchists.
Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Marxist Leninist, among others, are joining the demonstration to strengthen the republic.
The Socialist Forum said the Nepali people have fought and sacrificed for the republic and will not let the Monarchy be restored.
Genesis: The King’s call
The former King has not given any clear indications of his desire to return. He has confined his activities to issuing messages expressing concern over the state of affairs in Nepal, the worsening economic scenario, and the flight of youths abroad in search of livelihood opportunities.
However, he has remained in constant touch with the people, and has mingled with them during pilgrimage tours in the country, and occasionally to India – perhaps trying to assess the extent of the support for him on the ground.
On February 18, eve of Nepal’s Democracy Day, Shah issued a customary message soliciting the people’s support for peace and progress of the country in a spirit of national unity and reconciliation.
But he also suggested that his quiet withdrawal from the Royal Palace, hoping that things would be better had not quite worked out, and that a traditional society like Nepal needed the monarchy as a symbol of unity in diversity.
Shah’s appeal, made from the tourist city of Pokhara where he was holidaying, was greeted with a huge response. As he returned to Kathmandu, thousands assembled at the airport and raised slogans like “Raja Aau Desh Bachau (Come back and save the country, O King)”.
Soon afterward, a committee to build up a movement for the restoration of the monarchy was formed, and Friday’s rally was the first street action to that end.
Street violence and arrests
At Friday’s rally of the Left Front, held six kilometres away, two former Prime Ministers, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda of the Maoist Centre and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the United Socialists, warned Shah not to dream of reclaiming the throne, and advised Prime Minister Oli to arrest him.
Police, who had taken up positions at a private house, dealt a harsh hand to the royalist rally, lobbing tear gas shells on the stage where senior leaders of the movement, including its 87-year-old convener, Nabaraj Subedi, were seated.
Anarchist Durga Prasai, the maverick rightwing leader of the rally, drove his car towards Parliament House, ploughing through police barriers, and is currently absconding.
The mob attacked the party offices of Prachanda and Madhav Nepal after they demanded the arrest of the former king. Following the cabinet meeting in the evening, police put Subedi under house arrest, and arrested three other stalwarts of the movement, Dhawal Shumsher Rana, Rabindra Mishra, and Swagat Nepal.
