King Gyanendra of Nepal insists he won’t take the exile route

Maoists want King Gyanendra to leave gracefully; that may or may not happen - but he says he won't leave Nepal.

22 April, 2008

Even as the Maoists are well on their way to winning the largest single chunk of seats in the elections to the Constitutional Assembly, and are planning to scrap the system of monarchy, King Gyanendra has strongly denied speculations that he would go into exile.

A statement from the royal palace rejected “malicious reports appearing in sections of the national and international media in recent days against the royal palace,” the news agency AFP reported on April 21, 2008.

A source in the palace of Nepal’s King Gyanendra was quoted as telling the news agency,“The reports referred to are about his majesty going to India. He will not be going anywhere. He is not going to leave the country.”

When the counting of votes in the historic elections is expected to end on April 22, 2008, it is widely believed that the former Maoist rebels would win at least 240 seats in a 601-member Constitutional Assembly. If the Maoists pull off that many seats, they will become the leading single party, just short of enjoying an absolute majority.

The ultra-leftist Maoists have already made their post-victory intentions clear: to put an end to Nepal’s 240-year-old monarchy.

According to media reports, the Maoists have also asked King Gyanendra to leave the palace “gracefully” rather than be forcibly thrown out. The king has been, in addition, warned of “a trial and strong punishment if he refuses to accept life as a commoner in one of the world’s poorest nations.”

Gyanendra ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Nepal in 2001 after Crown Prince Dipendra, in a drunken and distraught state, gunned down Gyanendra’s brother and popular King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, Queen Aiswarya and eight other family members on June 1, 2001.

Dipendra, King Birendra’s son and heir to the throne, died a few days later due to self-inflicted wounds.

However, Gyanendra, who became king in dubious circumstances and his son Paras, who was hated for his alleged playboy lifestyle, were generally unacceptable to the public who viewed the survival of the two in the palace massacre as a part of a deep conspiracy.

Four years after becoming king, in 2005, Gyanendra seized absolute power to fight the rebel Maoists. However, in the process, he triggered anti-monarchy, pro-republican sentiments across the Hindu kingdom of Nepal – resulting in the mainstream political parties entering into a historic peace pact with the Maoist rebels in 2006.

It was this deal that, in fact, paved the way for ending a decade-old civil war in Nepal and subsequently led to the elections to the Constitutional Assembly in which the Maoists have now cornered the single largest number of seats.

All monarchial powers that King Gyanendra enjoyed were taken away from him in 2006, including his role as head of state and army commander. Worse, he repeatedly faced demands to step down “gracefully” but he has refused to do that so far.

Media reports have quoted political analysts as observing that Gyanendra might yet get support from sections of the army and Hindu fundamentalists, many of whom, it is said, see him as the incarnation of a Hindu god.