Shah himself has distorted facts in his interview to Avenues TV in Janakpur on Wednesday, March 24. His temptation to test the water, certainly after being goaded by aides and supporters who have this breathtaking ability to give him silly and outdated suggestions, is understandable. After all, the ex-king was taking a bet on the so-called “short memory of public” and the present-day instability. The timing of his remarks was no less important.
His feeling that “monarchy has not come to an end” came soon after the death of Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala. Also, it came after his not-so-distant visit to India and some noises from the Bharatiya Janata Party there. In his interview, Shah also said no king ever sought power.
The Constituent Assembly (CA), on May 28, 2008, abolished the 240-year old monarchy and declared Nepal a federal democratic republic by an overwhelming majority, with only four members of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Nepal) voting against the resolution. In the CA election a month before that, pro-monarchy political parties received a severe drubbing by the people. So much so that Kamal Thapa, whose RPP-Nepal advocates return to constitutional monarchy, forfeited his poll deposits from both the constituencies he contested. Now for some people and newspapers to claim that people did not want an abolition of monarchy is but plain bullshit.
Shah himself had accepted that decision and vowed to help implement it. “Respecting Constituent Assembly elections and the decision taken by the Constituent Assembly meeting on Jestha 15th (May 28), I am cooperating in every way towards the successful implementation of that decision,” he had said at a press conference, on June 11 of 2008, in then Narayanhity Palace hours before vacating it.
There’s also problem with Shah’s claim that no king had grabbed power. His grandfather, king Tribhuvan, reneged on his promise to pro-democracy fighters who helped him return from exile in India after overthrowing the Rana rule in 1951. The deal with the Nepali Congress was to have a constitution written through an elected CA. His son and Gyanendra Shah’s father, King Mahendra, actually staged the first coup against a democratically elected government of Prime Minister B P Koirala in 1960, and ushered in Panchayati system which was known for rank corruption, abuse of power and nepotism. The deposed king had himself staged the second coup on Oct 4, 2002. And on Feb 1, 2005, he took all the powers in his hand, cut off telephone lines, imposed a state of emergency and filled his cabinet with known criminals as well as political fossils like Tulsi Giri and Kirti Nidhi Bista.
Sensing that they have a chance to make a comeback post-GPK, the right-wing extremists are twisting historical facts. Take it as an eye-opener.
But perhaps the biggest distortion of events of April 2006 was attempted by a Nepali daily a day after Shah’s interview. There is no disputing, as the daily’s editorial noted on March 26, that Karan Singh had visited Nepal on April 19 as Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s special envoy on a mission to save monarchy. The newspaper claimed that Singh (and then Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran who had flown in from Bhutan) had given guarantee of continuity and protection of the monarchy. The king relinquished power only under that condition, it added.
The newspaper, however, failed to mention events after the Singh-Saran visit.
Gyanendra Shah had accepted India’s suggestion and went on TV and radio on Friday, April 22 asking the then seven-party alliance (SPA) to name a prime minister. India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others, rushed to welcome the king’s proclamation. Some diplomats also trooped to Girija Prasad Koirala’s residence in Maharajgunj to pressure him to accept the “concessions”. Koirala-led SPA defied all pressure and rejected the king’s offer. They were aware that the people on the streets who had defied curfew, batons, boots, bullets, tear-gas shells from the security forces, and pressed on for CA and end of monarchy would have nothing less.
If people in Nepal are determined, no foreign power, including India, can dictate the events and outcome here. Let me explain what I mean.
Once it was reported that India’s MEA had “welcomed” the royal proclamation and reiterated its twin-pillar policy of multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy, people became furious. Sensing that they had gone against popular will, India’s ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee immediately called up foreign secretary Saran in New Delhi. The speed with which the Indian government moved to correct its ill-conceived support for Gyanendra and the institution he represented was remarkable.
Saran hurriedly called a press conference in Delhi and fearful that the full intent of his statement won’t be reported, arranged for newspapers in Nepal to get a summary of the contents of the press conference. The bottom-line of Saran’s press conference was simple: “The so-called ‘twin-pillar’ policy was not India’s position; we were reflecting nothing more than what the people of Nepal themselves and the political parties themselves had committed to”. Yes, even India cannot have what it wants here all the time. India and other powers were for retaining constitutional monarchy; a majority of Nepali people were against. That was that. It was a sublime demonstration of Nepali people taking matters into their own hands.
The rightists have roped in venerable Kishunji (Krishna Prasad Bhattarai) in their mission to reverse time as well. The octogenarian leader has batted for constitutional monarchy. Kishunji’s remarks are not difficult to understand, though. He was never part of the historic Second People’s Movement in 2006 and so he cannot own up that. Besides being wrongly sidelined by GPK who led that movement, Bhattarai can never accept the result of Jana Andolan II. So it would be wise to ignore him.
Those feigning ignorance of the Second People’s Movement and the events of April 19-April 24 and May 28, 2008, are acting dishonestly.
For Maoists and non-Maoist parties, Shah’s remarks and the rightists’ mission should be an eye-opener. Act before the people give you a boot too as they did to monarchy.
damakant@myrepublica.com
Related story
Making space for history
-1780813474.webp)
