Coming down to crunch

May 19, 2004
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Kathmandu: The very shaky grounds on which the current agitation against “regression” stands is illustrated by the furor created by thespian Krishna Prasad Bhattarai who upon return from the consultations with the King casually through his stake in the current gamble for Premiership. The major five-parties are stunned in the sense that Bhattarai is a congressman with a “Saint” image built by themselves and can’t be elbowed by either rival Girija Prasad Koirala or protégé Sher Bahadur Deuba and his appointment as Premier could well turn the clock back to the interim government of 1990 the subsequent constitutional clause, article 128 will in a roundabout way have been reactivated as per demand of the UML’s Madhav Nepal.

The irony is that KP’s statement has so enraged all parties that their public tirade against the monarch has increased and not subsided. They claim that this is a Palace sponsored game. Lost somewhere in the subtle hints at KP’s senility is the fact that it is not the Palace but LP himself who has casually played his game.

This acute vulnerability on part of the agitating parties emanates from the growing and consistent public recognition that what is deemed to be an anti-regression agitation is in actual fact a naked game for electoral government office the initiative for which the parties’ would or must retain for themselves. The King on his part remains clear in seeking their cooperation in the formation of government.

It is not surprising therefore that belligerent posture and republican rebukes notwithstanding must go to the Palace with no single candidate of their own. Hidden in the rhetoric of public demands and rebukes against the monarchy which the parties’ claim illustrates the question of principle of the appointment and not the appointment itself is the fact that the appointment sought is illusive within and among the parliamentary parties. Koirala wants himself in an electoral position so do Deuba and Madhav Nepal. The stalemate remains.

What is also known amidst this milieu is that the King can no longer allow the stalemate to remain.