Nepal Maoists fear rise of boy king after Gyanendra’s India visit

Kathmandu, March 2 (IANS) Nepal’s ruling Maoist party, who last year won their war against the country’s revered royal dynasty, has now developed cold feet over ousted king Gyanendra’s visit to India, fearing it could lead to the rise of a boy king in the former Hindu kingdom.

The misgivings have been expressed mostly vocally by Nepal’s Maoist Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is suggesting that the deposed king’s nearly three-week-long private visit to India has a sinister ulterior motive.

Bhattarai Sunday told a public meeting in Sindhupalchowk district in northern Nepal that Gyanendra is trying to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other political leaders in a bid to enlist their support for the resurrection of monarchy in Nepal.

Maoist supremo and current Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, whose guerrilla army triggered a revolt that led to the abolition of the crown last year, is also expressing the same fears, though not so openly.

In 2006, after King Gyanendra had to hand over the power he had usurped through a military-supported coup and there was mounting public demand for the abolition of monarchy, the then prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala had mooted the concept of a boy king.

Koirala, whose Nepali Congress party had been supporters of a constitutional monarchy, had asked the unpopular king to abdicate in favour of his grandson Hridayendra so that Nepal’s centuries-old monarchy could be saved.

However, the king had rejected the suggestion, leading to his ouster as head of state and then, to a historic election last year, which overwhelmingly voted to scrap the crown.

Now the Maoists are apprehensive that the deposed king would make a last-ditch effort in India to have his dynasty reinstated on the throne.

Hridayendra, the son of former crown prince Paras, turns seven this July and the Maoists feel New Delhi could heed the proposal to have him installed as a ceremonial king.

A Nepali weekly Monday suggested that the Maoist jitters stem from the party’s growing proximity to China while turning an increasingly cold shoulder to India.

Prachanda is poised to visit China again this summer when he is expected to finalise a new peace and friendship treaty with Beijing. At the same time, the ruling Maoist party is clamouring for the abrogation of the peace and friendship treaty signed with India in 1950, calling it unequal.

The Tarun weekly also suggested that it was the fear of the political repercussions of Gyanendra’s India visit and his forging closer ties with New Delhi that last week prompted Prachanda to announce that his government would begin a fresh investigation into the massacre in the royal palace eight years ago.

Ten royals, including then king Birendra and queen Aishwarya, were killed in the carnage in June 2001 that enabled Gyanendra to ascend the throne.

However, aides of former king Gyanendra, who is in Bhopal, say that it is a purely private visit to attend a wedding and go on a pilgrimage of Hindu temples.

Maoist suspicion deepens about ex-king's India trip

Nepal's Maoist govt may restrict Gyanendra's movement: Report

Kathmandu, March 02: Nepal Government may restrict the movement of deposed king Gyanendra in the country, with growing concern among the Maoist leadership that the former ruler was seeking support to restore the monarchy by pushing the case of his grandson as the “baby king”, a news report said on Monday.

The 62-year-old Gyanendra is on a week-long trip to India where he attended the wedding of his relatives in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The former monarch, who was deposed last May, is likely to meet India's top leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi as well as BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani during his visit.

Nepal's Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai yesterday claimed for the third day in a row that Gyanendra had gone to India with a plan to make his grandson Hridayendra the “baby King” so as to restore the 240-year-old monarchy, which was abolished last May.

According to a Telegraph Nepal online report, which quoted the vernacular Sanghu Weekly, the Maoist-led government may be planning to put Gyanendra behind the bars the moment he lands in Kathmandu from the Indian tour.

The Nepali tabloid, quoting sources close to the Prime Minister's official residence, stated that the government will summon the former monarch, who has been at the centre of many conspiracy theories linking him to the massacre on June 1, 2001, as soon as he returns home after his private trip to India.

The Prachanda-led government has decided to form a high-level panel to re-investigate the 2001 massacre of the then king Birendra and his family at Narayanhiti Palace.

"The Government is planning to summon the last king over his decisions to demolish the Tribhuwan Sadan in the Narayanhiti Royal Place where the members of royalties were brutally murdered on that fateful evening," the report said.

A probe panel set up by the then government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had blamed the then crown prince Dipendra, who was allegedly fuelled by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, for the killings on June 1, 2001.

However, the validity of the report has been widely questioned as no post-mortem of the massacre was carried out at that time. Gyanendra was at the centre of many conspiracy theories linking him to the massacre in which his popular older brother Birendra was slaughtered. That massacre was what led Gyanendra to ascend the throne.

Accusing Gyanendra of "destroying the proofs" of the royal massacre, Prime Minister Prachanda on Thursday had pledged to probe the entire episode to unearth the "inside story".

courtesy: zeenews.com

'Ex-King awaits arrest upon his Nepal return'

Maoists remain alert as leaders rush to Delhi

The central secretariat meeting of the Unified CPN (Maoist) held Tuesday morning has concluded with the decision to remain on high alert for possible political shift as leaders from other parties rush to New Delhi.

Taking the Delhi rush as hint of possible political changes with Delhi’s involvement, the party has decided to start greater homework to avert it. As most secretariat members are out of valley for public opinion collection, the meeting has been postponed until afternoon.

KP Oli has recently returned from Delhi visit while Bam Dev Gautam left Kathmandu for Delhi on Monday. Girija Prasad Koirala and Surya Bahadur Thapa are scheduled to fly on Wednesday and former King Gyanendra is currently in Delhi.

Additionally, the party has concluded to be as flexible as needed towards the protests by Tharus and other ethnic groups and directed the government to call for a all-party meeting to address the demands. nepalnews.com ia Mar 10 09