Thapa may turn tables on King

July 16, 2003
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Kathmandu: It dies not look like the Maoist-Government talks have begun on the right foot. One day after Minister Kamal Thapa proclaimed that government was ready for talks when the Maoists were, he had to write a hasty formal invitation to Dr.B.R.Bhattarai for the talks after learning that the Maoists virtually closed their Kathmandu contact office dismantling their office computers.

This regardless the knowledge that the Surya Bahadur Thapa government sends minds reeling. This is particularly so knowing that considerable path finding homework had been dome during Chand’s Nine months tenure and the Thapa cabinet had merely to pick upon it. The mystery behind the seeming attempt to begin anew with afresh negotiations is perhaps explained in the organizational politics of Surya Bahadur Thapa, particularly his politics with the RPP.

No headway moreover, seems to have been made in the other responsibility if wooing the participation and concordance of the agitating parties who oppose the King’s interpretations of Article 127. The agitation on the other-hand has entered its Sixth phase. The fifth phase was concluded with the participation of professional organizations linked to the parties. The sixth phase program envisages the widening of the movement. On short, it is now possible to conceive that the parties in desperation will now attempt closures of essential services in government and outside. This is largely because of the seeming public nonchalance on programs conceived so far under the agitation. Indeed, street rallies and relay hunger strikes have become the butt of jokes in the media and the public given the virtual lack of public strength and tremendous cadre hesitation in participation.

The lack of direction in politics is bound to turn public attention towards speculation on the shape of things to come. The widening of the dissenting triangle-namely, the Maoists, the agitating parties and the King- sets one askance at the seeming neutrality of the Thapa government. Both Maoists and the agitating parties continue to hit the King. The monarchy is no subject for defense in the Government comments. This public posture is topic for suspicion as a two-month deadline approach for Thapa. One is that Thapa after widening the Maoists-Monarchy rift and that between the agitating parties and the Monarchy could suddenly advise the King to restore the dissolved parliament. In keeping with his liberal pretensions Thapa might well cite his credential under the constitutional powers imbibed in article 35 to state that this advice is mandatory for the constitutional monarch.