Desist, Chairman Gyanendra!

The king of Nepal apparently does not like his takeover of exactly 11 months ago being termed a military coup, but there can be no other term to describe the use of the army by its 'supreme commander-in-chief' to grab state power. Simultaneously, he designated himself chairman of the Council of Ministers, a post that does not exist in the 1990 Constitution. In every way that was possible in this past year of Rule by Black Ordinance, Chairman Gyanendra has torn that document to shreds. He has also amply displayed his willingness to preside over a shriveling state where administration is a farce, the government's development programmes are at standstill, and diplomacy is in tatters. All of this hurts a citizenry long in search for peace and democracy. As head of both the state and government, the chairman seems to want to have it both ways – remain the aloof monarch even though the new self-applied job description requires him to be functioning as a prime minister.  Meanwhile, the arrogance that emanates from the Narayanhiti royal palace provides a textbook case of how monarchies end – one man's faulty understanding of the dictates of the times and the aspirations of the population.

Today, the chairman is isolated nationally and internationally but remains sullenly defiant. He refuses to listen to advice of statesmen near and far – including a sitting US president, the UN Secretary General, or his own nervous royal advisors. He disregards the views of the wise framers of the 1990 Constitution, and feigns indifference to the massive crowds gathered by the political parties around the country in a continuous show of strength these last two months. By not reciprocating the four-month old unilateral ceasefire of the Maoist (allowed to lapse by the rebels as Himal goes to press), and dismissing their publicly announced willingness to join multi-party politics, he seems itching to take the country back to war.