Kathmandu: The virtual contradictions in Nepali politics have become confusingly highlighted this week and making sense of it all is not easy. The Maoists reality reflected itself in the separate two day BUNDHS declared in all the regions of the country and there is heightened sense of expectation on the results of its eastern region Bundh timed to coincide with the HM the King’s trip to Biratnagar to receive felicitations there.

This week also sees national focus on the monarchy with remembrance ceremonies dedicated to the late King Birendra, ,official B’day functions of HRH Crown Prince and of course, again the king’s first public trip of the size and strength of public felicitations at Biratnagar.

Perhaps to highlight these contradictions two surveys carry meaning: the one most carried by our loaded media is a survey indicating over 70% of the Nepalese people favors the multiparty system. Another spot poll carried by a major paper and ignored by others is one that concludes that King Gyanendra is the personality of the year chosen by most readers. The fact of the matter is that King Gyanendra is being seen as the lone individual with the capacity to put our democracy on track. The support given the multiparty system is real, but questions regarding its state in Nepal were missing in the poll and so the seemingly lopsided view. The people support the king to correct the aberrations.

By now every one concludes that declaring a Bundh and employing even Kathmandu roads has become easy. For the Maoists, their presence with bombs as to the pressure to close shutters. And so the declared Bundhs have become routine enough to allow corner shops to open, offices to do business and emergency traffic to run. Of course, the inconvenience is there but a declared Bundh will have its effect.

The novelty will lie, however, in the fact that the sea of faces expected in Biratnagar for mass felicitation program for the King will not have been stalled Friday by the Maoists Bundh. This is despite the violence that is expected. More over, this is despite the active opposition to the felicitation program by the Nepali Congress and the UML. The novelty moreover lies in the evident coalition between these parliamentary parties and the Maoists to oppose the Royal program. It is here that the schism is most evident. The people and their King versus the Maoists and the parties. Such a schism is potent indeed.