Even after Nepal’s Legislative Parliament has already declared Nepal a federal republic, the current coalition government of the Seven Party alliance (SPA) has been working under untossed monarchist mechanisms.
The Nepalis have long suffered from feudal monarchy and so abolished it from the streets during their April uprising in 2006. But after millions of Nepalis abolished monarchy by continuously defying the 19-day curfews, the leading parties, mainly the Nepali Congress (NC) and the United Marxists-Leninists (UML), restored monarchy through the restoration of the House of Representatives. After the House restoration, they declared the successors to the present disreputed king. But people wanted to use the restored parliament for peacefully and legislatively ending feudal monarchy. They kept on pressurizing the dominant parties, to end monarchy through the parliament.
When the Maoist insurgents were allowed 73 seats in the Legislative Parliament, they, too, put strong pressures on the status quoist parties to move forward with a decision to formally abolish monarchy. Similarly, people, along with various multi-ethnic communities seeking changes, put pressures on them for making Nepal a federal republic. The Nepali Congress overtly and the UML covertly resisted these efforts. However, when they feared that the overwhelming majority was going to Maoists, they finally and unwillingly, after so many inter-party struggles, agreed on the people’s demand that Nepal be declared a federal republic.
Yet, many leaders within the two dominant parties have formed secret groups to foil the declaration of the republic. They have even forged an unhealthy and undeclared alliance with monarchists. People believe these types of leaders to have been those protecting smuggling and criminal gangs, including weapon contractors.
The Nepalis, familiar with the torturous justice systems, strongly believe that such anti-change leaders with criminalized mindset are still very strong. Most of the state apparatuses are believed to have been under their control. Judiciary, security, and executive mechanisms are still under monarchist grips. Even several of the newly appointed ambassadors are accountable to monarchy. The SPA has not at all changed those monarchist mechanisms.
Royalists even claim their substantial influence in the Nepal Army. The Nepal Army Chief Rukmangud Katuwal recently gave a political speech saying that the Nepal Army would reject any possibility of integrating the two armies (government’s Nepal Army + Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army). This statement was against the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) signed on 21 November 2006. The peace agreement including the current Interim constitution has clearly stated that the two armies would be integrated as the final settlement of the armed insurgency in the country. But the counter statement by the government army chief shows how strong influence monarchy does have on Nepal’s security mechanisms.
The Rayamajhi probe commission had blacklisted the government army chief as one of those to be punished for their crimes against humanity. The consequence of the SPA working under monarchist mechanisms can be seen openly even in the streets of Kathmandu. Monthly paid hooligans, employed under the cover of different religious volunteer youth groups and clubs, have been deployed in the streets of Kathmandu. They are active against the republican forces. They survey the offices of republican parties and their sister wings and single out the leading and influential leaders and party cadres at village and district levels. At different spots of Kathamndu, they informally organize group discussions to create pessimistic and regressive mentality among people. Their main intention seems to be to create a misbelief in people that any change in Nepal is a curse. To maintain fatalism, they organize different anti-social activities. For example, they immediately organize subversive activities when a patient dies in a hospital.
The mass media are not aloof from this royal influence. Some of the major national media houses have been making deliberate attempts to create an environment for provoking Maoist insurgents (the conflict is believed to be managed after the constituent assembly election scheduled to be held on 10 April 2008) back to war.
Some even believe that not only Nepal’s monarchy but also foreign intelligence agencies must have penetrated into Nepal’s media. This apprehension grows bigger as conflict transformation communication has been ignored in Nepal’s mainstream media. Their news coverage, presentation style and editorial contents have not been able disconnect themselves from monarchist mechanisms. Media contents are of status-quoist nature in general though they were historically expected to play a more transformative role in this transition period.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and UML Party Chief Madhav Kumar Nepal, both supported the Army Chief for his monarchist and anti-constitutional statement that directly countered the nation’s major peace accord and the interim constitution. This shows the depth and intensity of monarchist grip even within the leading political parties that previously repeatedly served the royal rule and have now declared themselves as republican parties.
Thus, monarchist mechanisms have affected every sector, including the government and the Legislative Parliament. The Nepalis will not be dignified citizens without first dismantling all the feudal mechanisms formed by the royal rulers. It is essential for them to do so in order to map up the New Nepal, the most repeated phrase in Nepal today.
Leave Your Comments