The Hindu god-king, who sought to defeat a Maoist insurgency by seizing absolute power, has instead been stripped of everything except his walled palace in the center of Katmandu.
Nepal ceased to be a monarchy Dec. 28, when a seven-party coalition government declared Nepal a “federal democratic republic.”
In doing so, lawmakers in the nation’s provisional legislature met a key demand of the Maoists to participate in April elections for a constitutional convention.
Voters on April 10 will choose delegates to the convention, charged with writing a democratic charter for the landlocked Himalayan nation of 29 million.
“With monarchy, the main hurdle to the election, gone, we are now ready to go to the polls,” Baburam Bhattarai, the Maoist second in command, told The Washington Times.
Gyanendra was the 11th and the last king from the Shah dynasty, which has ruled since 1769.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala will act as interim head of state until the constitutional convention — formally known as the Constituent Assembly — is elected and finds a suitable interim president.
The convention must also endorse the present legislature’s declaration of Nepal as a democratic republic. At this point, however, the endorsement is considered a formality as the nation embarks on a democratic experiment in which Maoists will have a key voice in government.
“Now, Nepalese people have become really sovereign as they have got the power to make their own constitution,” Nepali Congress party leader and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba told a meeting of political leaders Monday.
He was speaking on behalf of Mr. Koirala, the present prime minister, who was ill at the time, according to a dispatch from the Press Trust of India news service.
Some analysts say Nepal is transforming itself from a kingdom to a republic in “installments.”
Others say the Maoists and the parties have secured a republic on “credit,” expressing fears that elections for the constitutional convention will not take place at all.
In 1990, then-King Birendra allowed multi-party democracy in the face of popular protest. The king kept control of the armed forces and emergency powers.
Gyanendra, the king’s brother, took over the throne in June 2001 after a massacre in the royal palace, in which the crown prince fatally shot his father and all members of his immediate family before killing himself.
The massacre occurred amid a simmering Maoist revolt, which gained popularity as guerrilla influence spread from the countryside to the capital, Katmandu.
Facing Maoist rebels at the door, Gyanendra dismissed the government, imposed emergency rule and ordered the army to suppress Maoist rebels and other opposition parties.
The royal crackdown backfired when political parties signed a historic 12-point agreement in New Delhi in November 2005, in which the Maoists agreed to participate in competitive politics in exchange for parties agreeing to fight for the abolition of the monarchy.
The agreement provided the basis for the 19-day-long people’s movement of April 2006, in which an estimated 5 million people — nearly one in six Nepalese — participated in protests demanding an end to monarchy.
The protests forced Gyanendra to surrender by reviving the dissolved parliament, which began punishing Gyanendra by stripping him of powers. No longer was the king of world’s only Hindu kingdom considered the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, a Hindu god.
The Maoists and political parties then made a new peace deal that produced an interim constitution and an interim legislature.
With the Maoists holding a de facto veto, it also rang the death knell for the monarchy.
Mr. Koirala attempted to give ceremonial space for the king in a future government, but the effort failed in the face of Maoist refusal.
Three months of hectic negotiations led to the Dec. 28 declaration of Nepal to be a republic and plans to elect a 601-member constitutional convention in April.
In fits and starts, the Maoists’ perseverance and Gyanendra’s stubbornness managed to create a republican wave that other political parties could no longer resist.
As for Gyanendra, he continues to live in the Narayanhiti Palace without any power, waiting for a constitutional convention to decide his ultimate fate.
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