There are unmistakable signs that former King Gyanendra is itching to get back into the thick of things. The over-ambitious former king, who is single-handedly held responsible for the demise of monarchy, has been on an extended ‘pilgrimage’ to various parts of the country, in what is a thinly veiled attempt to gauge his popularity and lay the ground for some kind of a comeback, although, at the moment, the return of monarchy in any shape or form seems an impossible prospect.
Whatever his detractors say, he does enjoy some support, not because of anything he has done but what the political players who threw him out of office nearly five years ago have failed to do. [break]
It isn’t a coincidence that political parties are now seen as the most corrupt and the least trustworthy public institutions after their dismal failure to give the country a new constitution after four long years of acrimonious constitutional exercise. It is this sense of discontent that the likes of Gyanendra and Kamal Thapal’s RPP are looking to cash in on. It is impossible to foretell the kind of public support the royalists will get in the upcoming CA polls, but there is no denying that it is an increasingly upbeat camp.
It has come to light that CPN-Maoist top leadership has been in secret talks with the formal royals, exploring some kind of a ‘nationalist’ alliance. Recent pronouncements of Mohan Baidya and Netra Bikram Chand that such an alliance is indeed likely in order to ‘safeguard nationalism’ are indications that bilateral talks with the royals have been fruitful and the dash-Maoists see genuine political benefits in aligning with the royal camp.
The Maoist outfit would not risk its ‘radical credentials’ if it didn’t believe that the benefits of such a controversial decision far outweighed the risks. The same is true for the royalist forces. They too must believe that the backing of once their arch-enemies in the republican camp adds to their argument that monarchy is still indispensible for Nepal. This unnatural match of the extreme left with the extreme right will be closely followed in the lead up to the CA polls, none more so than within the mother Maoist party.
It is an open secret that before the historic Chunwang meeting of the then CPN (Maoist) in 2005, the Maoist ‘headquarters’ was in favor of a tactical alliance with the royal palace to cut the ‘democratic parties’ down to size. Curiously, the groundbreaking decision was taken in the absence of senior leaders Mohan Baidya and CP Gajurel who at the time were in Indian jails. As such, the Baidya camp never willingly owned up the decisions finalized at Chunwang.
In their latest decision to align with the royals, they might claim to have gone back to status quo ante, thereby disowning Baburam Bhattarai’s Chunwang line of aligning with the political parties against monarchy.
But Nepal in 2013 is vastly different to what it was in 2005. As things stand, the dash-Maoists, a staunch advocate of republicanism and federalism so far, will find it extremely hard to justify a tactical alliance with the backers of a unitary state under a hereditary monarch. CPN-Maoist seems to have gotten its calculations badly wrong.
The risk is that the royalists might simply use the backing of Baidya and co as a justification of their pro-monarchy stand and ditch the left radicals at the first sign of inconvenience.
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