Kathmandu:- Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa’s failure to build up on the achievement of the Lokendra Bahadur Chand ministry suggests he is on his way out. Continuing deadlocks in the talks for the talks with the Maoists and the resumption of violence despite the ceasefire suggest the urgency of a more determined and directional government. Increasingly anti-monarchial statements of the mainstream parties and hectic preparations for a decisive showdown with the monarchy by these organized forces suggests the need for a visible organized response utterly lacking in the Surya Bahadur Thapa cabinet.

If Chand’s nine-month tenure was marked by hesitancy and indecisiveness contributing to his resignation, Thapa’s two-month term is more characteristic of self-centered decisions affecting the administration in his favor at the expense of the King to whom he owes his position. His political task of wooing the agitating parties and talking to the Maoists remains asunder.

These eleven months since the royal action of October 4th, has dampened the initial public enthusiasm for change in the attempt to leave no stone unturned for the participation of the mainstream parties and the resolution of the Maoists problem. Even the initial activities to curb high level corruption have stalled amidst the quagmire of legalism and bureaucraties. The public now asks of the gains. That this is at the expense of the King is a concern reflected in the people.

It is these realities that prompt an immediate public demand for change. The time for talks is over. Even the Maoists who, taking advantage of the mainstream parties agitation, pile up their precondition for talks and delay the parley while strengthening their precondition for talks and delay the parley while strengthening their organization and conducting what is in effect probing armed missions against security forces must be made aware of the cost of the delay. The mainstream parties on the other hand must be told demonstratively that they will miss the public bus if they are not to cooperate.

These the Thapa government is unlikely to do in the effort to preserve the Thapa image of liberalism. Indeed, there is considerable concern that a Thapa attempt to soar up this image will further damage the monarch by concealing failures in a resignation demanding the restoration of the parliament.

That a judicial decision prevents this is lost in the politicization of self-centered interpretations by the political sector. It seems that it is the King alone that is sticking to a constitution which everyone else wants to use in his or her favor. It is the King alone that must act in his constitutional capacity and the time for appeasement in now over.