Kathmandu: Nepal’s stagnant politics has suddenly taken a turn. To which side the politics will turn, for good or for the worse, the impending political events will have determined its fate.

King Gyanendra’s consultations with political leaders has begun but then yet real talks with the major real political parties is yet to commence.

It is not that the King has not invited them. He has. However, the leaders of the major parliamentary parties have put forth certain preconditions which apparently has come as a real hindrance for a meeting between the leaders and the monarch.

The King has set out his own terms. Likewise, the parliamentary parties currently in agitation against regression too have their own preconditions prior to the meeting with the King. It is these two already declared preconditions from both the sides that have been creating problems for the meeting.

King Gyanendra’s conditions contained in the much publicized seven point agenda are apparently to bind the leaders from exceeding their political limits and abide by the norms of the system now in place. He also wishes that the country be provided with good governance wherein corrupt practices do not occur. In sum, the King’s intention is to see a Ram Rajya in Nepal which is simply impossible in the given context of political culture which we the Nepalese people, including the political leaders, have adopted of late.

On the other hand, the conditions set by the major political parties to the King’s perusal are equally disturbing for the monarch to concede. If he does so, though chances appear remote, he will turn out to be a titular head of the Kingdom whose hands will have been tied by the stipulations led in the changed scheme of things. At best the King will not listen to their harsh conditions simply to invite troubles for himself.

The conditions are, among others, army be under the parliament; the title of the Royalty be limited to only three top personalities in the palace and the likes.

Presuming the King’s present mood, it is unlikely that the King will willingly invite the agitating political leaders to meet him and discuss the curtailment of the rights which he and his family have been enjoying as members of the Royalty.

However, high placed sources claim that the King is ready to patch-up his differences with the political parties on his terms and that too at the earliest.

One more condition is troubling the meeting with the King. The leaders prefer not to go it alone this time for fear of being seduced by the King in private at time of the meeting. The King in the process has met several leaders, albeit of lesser significance, and has yet to see the main political leaders in agitation en masse.

The issue is whether the leaders should see the King and bargain on a collective basis or do it alone as preferred by the monarch?

Statements and clarifications apart, practically most of the leaders now in agitation appear more than pleased to see the King in private for their own unexplained political reasons. However, what comes into their way is the joint reiteration that they will now see the King collectively. This joint commitment is what is troubling the leaders individually.

Nevertheless, the temptation of the agitating leaders to seduce the King while meeting in private is increasingly becoming evident.

To put it straight, it was nonelessthan the Commander of the ongoing movement, Girija Prasad Koirala was all set to see the King Monday afternoon which however could not materialize.

Koirala had indicated the Palace that he was ready to see the King provided his movement friends languishing in custody under State Offence charges be released unconditionally and that the government lifted its ban that declared the inner Kathmandu as Conflict Prone Areas.

To the utter dismay of Koirala, the government only could comply to his first demand and the second appeal remained as it is and hence the rumor that Koirala too changed his minds at the last minute.

Though interpretations differed from head to head on Koirala’s changed stance towards the King and his sudden desire to see the King and that too in private, however, informed sources told us that Koirala’s wish to see the King had a meaning and that too a political one.

The fact is that when Koirala observed for himself that his archrival Deuba was summoned by the King and the former appeared more than pleased, Koirala could have concluded that he should see the King at any cost in order to damage the prospects of his detractor being elevated to the ranks of the prime Minister. However, things did not happen Koirala’s way. He is yet to be invited or is yet to provide green signal to the Palace that he too possessed a strong desire to see the King in private.

Koirala knows it better that he would never be awarded the prime ministerial post by King Gyanendra under the existing circumstances. However, what he understands that he could damage Deuba’s chances by convincing the King in his own fashion.

It is altogether a different matter as to how the King will take upon Koirala’s appeal even if the latter told the King not to favor Deuba at all.

Local political pundits go to the extent that Koirala could even suggest the King to continue with Surya Bahadur Thapa if he knew that King was all set to correct his constitutional aberrations from the point from where it originated and that being the sacking of an elected prime minister. This logic gets support when one looked into Koirala’s stoic silence acquire over the demand for the resignation of Thapa and his government. Koirala has not demanded Thapa’s resignation while his friends in the coalition have demanded it time and again. Here lies the significance and the crux of Koirala’s politics. After all what restricts Koirala in demanding Thapa’s resignation? Internal or some exclusive extra-territorial factor?

Koirala can face any political ordeal but can’t digest his detractor, a non-entity for him in effect, being elevated to a post, which he loved most.

Though the consultations are on, the politics continues to remain fragile. Until and unless a meeting is held in between the major political parties and the King, things will not budge.