Kathmandu: King Gyanendra has returned to the Capital in a pleasing mood.

The monarch’s beaming face does indicate that he has accomplished what he said to the Time magazine and made a statement in Nepalganj while receiving civic felicitation despite the fact that his political detractors in the political parties did not liked the manner the monarch presented himself in the villages and districts.

The one political personality who has expressed his greatest reservations regarding King’s western region tour is Koirala. Koirala, for example, has gone to the extent that he sees a grand design in what the King has accomplished this time around in the far western region.

In Koirala’s opinion, the King should not have done what he did this time in the remote villages and districts. In doing so, the King, according to Koirala’s conclusion, has not only exceeded his constitutional limits but has also hinted that he would not remain in the boundaries allowed to him by the 1990 constitution. It is Koirala who sums up the King’s trip to western region as to have been a design of the King to play an active role.

In the process, a disheartened Koirala, is blowing hot and cold these days against the monarch.

For example, he blows cold when he says that his struggle is not with the monarchy as such but with a monarch who apparently exhibiting a lust to rule the nation by becoming active.

At yet another plane, he blows hot when he warns the King by saying that if the latter did not yield to the prescriptions offered to him by the agitating political parties, the nation might go in for a republican order.

In the process, he commits a blunder. For example, he is in favor of the institution of the monarchy, is what he admits. According to his own admission, he is in favor of the one who denotes the monarchy that is King Gyanendra. Plainly speaking, it is King Gyanendra who represents the institution whom Koirala respects and by the same token what is also clear is that the institution is an institution because King Gyanendra is there at the moment.

Be that as it may, a clever Madhav Nepal is on a trip to some European and Nordic countries wherein he is supposed to learn on how to manage the Nepali problems including those of the Maoists.

Madhav Nepal, a frustrated lot at best, too became pretty angry with the King recently and bluntly challenged the monarch that if the latter wished to play politics to come to the field by abandoning the throne.

It is to be noted that Mr. Nepal had so far acquired a somewhat restrained approach vis-à-vis the King’s regional tour and the latter’s speeches made out in Nepalganj. However, this time, prior to his European tour, he has openly challenged the King in a more blatant manner.

The King has yet to react to Madhav’s fiery speeches made against him. Nevertheles, a section of the Nepali intellectuals take Madhav’s fiery speeches against the King as to have been aired simply for the public consumption. For, Madhav Nepal understands it better, opine intellectuals, that it is by and large the King who can elevate his ranks to the post he is dying for. To recall, it was Madhav Nepal’s predecessor, Madan Bhandari, who too had challenged the authority of the then King Birendra. Late Bhandari, however, was all praise for the King when the latter granted audience to th former at the Palace. Late Bhandari also made it clear that the King that is the institution of the monarchy did constitute a force to be reckoned with by all the existing forces. In effect, it is from this time that the monarchy is being taken as a strong force which could not be dismissed altogether.

After a lapse of several years, a sort of similar challenging tone has been aired by UML supremo against the monarch.

Summing it up, Koirala is on an offensive. Madhav Nepal too poses that he is not happy with the monarch recent activities. The smaller parties have been toeing Madhav’s and Koirala’s line without knowing where they will land ultimately if the King did not heed to their threat-loaded pleas.

The King remains undeterred and has visibly indicated that he will continue to remain almost active of the kind he exhibited to the national population more so to the agitating political parties at least till he summons a new parliament after the convening of the elections.

Whether the elections could be held or not at this troubled juncture is a matter under serious debate. However, what is for sure is that neither the King nor his appointed Thapa government would oblige the agitating political parties by yielding to their prescriptions. This means that the highly controversial Article 127 will continue to haunt the brains of Koirala and Madhav Nepal for some more time. A long wait indeed.

If this is so then what is also clear is that the King’s and the government’s adamancy will invite a sort of wrath of greater dimension that will apparently further crystallize the already fragile national politics.

It would be this crystallization of the politics that would bring the King and his government closer to confrontation with the agitating political parties that might facilitate a solution to the present impasse.

Nevertheless, it would be highly premature at this juncture to predict as to which force will prevail on the other when the two opposing forces meet each other in the streets.

The fact is that this time India would not come to the rescue of the agitating political parties simply because Thapa has been very kind enough to look into the sensitivities of India. Had it been not so, India would have rushed to support the agitating parties and later to gain from them.