Slow motion show

King Gyanendra’s puja at Dakshinkali temple on Loktantra Diwas — when the civil society representatives and political leaders were writing off the monarchy in their speeches at Basantapur — has kicked up a public fuss, particularly because a customary salute was offered to him and the old national anthem glorifying the monarchy was played in his honour. Some senior political leaders, including ministers, condemned both these incidents as going against the letter and spirit of Jana Andolan II and the Interim Constitution (IC). Their contention is based on the fact that King Gyanendra is no longer the head of state, nor is he the supreme commander or just commander of the Nepal Army. All his former roles as head of state have devolved on the Prime Minister under the IC. Perhaps because of this that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala asked the journalists in New Delhi recently to call not King Gyanendra, but just Gyanendra.

Many political and civil society leaders have made a strong objection to some of the actions and utterances of King Gyanendra in recent months as running counter to the spirit of the times and the IC — for instance, his Democracy Day message to the nation and the palace’s alleged involvement in activities aimed at obstructing the constituent assembly (CA) elections. Indeed, the IC has kept the monarchy in a state of suspended animation pending the elections to the CA, the first meeting of which is to clinch the monarchy v republic issue. But particularly after the deferred CA polls, Prime Minister Koirala is coming under increasing pressure from many quarters, all the more so from his own eight-party alliance partners, such as the CPN-Maoist, the CPN-UML and Janamorcha Nepal that either the interim parliament should proclaim Nepal a republic by a two-thirds majority or the government should hold a referendum on the monarchy soon before fixing a new date for the CA elections.

If the eight parties so agree, any of the three options — the CA verdict, parliamentary proclamation and referendum — could be adopted as viable. But pending such a decision, the status of the monarchy, how it should be treated, including the playing of the national anthem and firing of a gun salute, should be decided by the government. It cannot afford to remain vague or indecisive on such sensitive matters. Once it does, it should enforce it strictly, and the government should have the courage to take action against anybody who dares defy its decisions or orders. Otherwise, the lack of clarity on its part will only breed more confusion and suspicions about its intent. Public suspicion and fury have arisen because of the Koirala government’s failure to implement many of the points covered in the historic Declaration of Parliament, provisions of the IC, and the government’s decisions, including reducing the size of the security personnel deployed in the royal palace, cutting the royal palace staff and bringing them under the government’s general administration, and nationalising the property belonging to the late King Birendra’s family. The Prime Minister should waste no more time in ending all this confusion.