05-20-2006, 12:34 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> Coup against King
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Koirala has strengthened Maoists ---- It is absurd to hail Thursday's parliamentary coup in Nepal as a "modern Magna Carta," as is being done by those who are cheering the grossly ill-advised move to strip the King of all powers and privileges. The parliamentary resolution moved by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on behalf of the seven-party alliance that now rules Nepal, and unanimously adopted by the 205-member Pratinidhi Sabha, is astounding in its scope. Apart from removing King Gyanendra as the commander-in-chief of Nepal's Army and placing it under the control of the Cabinet, the resolution says the monarch shall no longer have the right to take a final view on major issues, that he will lose immunity from prosecution and taxes, that Parliament will now decide the royal family's benefits, and, that nothing in Nepal will any longer come attached with the 'Royal' tag.
As if all this were not bad enough, the resolution also declares that Nepal shall no longer be known as a 'Hindu Kingdom' but as a 'secular state'. What the Maoist terrorists could not achieve in more than a decade of bloody insurgency, Mr Koirala and his colleagues have succeeded in doing in less than a fortnight: They have destroyed the basic identity of Nepal by reducing it to a perversion of its past and erasing its civilisational history. It is another matter that the sanctity of resolution is suspect because the present Pratinidhi Sabha is an interim arrangement and does not have the mandate or the legitimacy to bring about such sweeping changes in the Constitution. What is, however, significant is that despite denuding the symbol of Nepal's sovereignty and its unique cultural identity in so grotesque a manner, Mr Koirala has failed to satisfy the Maoists.
This is evident from the Maoists' response to the resolution. While Mr Koirala has claimed that his parliamentary coup against Narayanhity Palace, which has just stopped short of dethroning King Gyanendra, "represents the feelings of the people", Maoist leaders have spurned it as "insufficient", saying they want the monarchy to go. It is as good as declaring that the Maoist onslaught shall not cease till such time Nepal becomes a Communist state ruled by Comrade Prachanda's thugs. Given the stranglehold of the Maoists over vast areas of Nepal, established through terror, murder and extortion, and a political class robbed of all credibility, it is more than likely that the proposed Constituent Assembly, as and when it is "elected", will be packed by Prachanda's men who will then opt for the final putsch, the contours of whose terrifying consequences defy imagination.
If Mr Koirala and his colleagues believe that they can buy popularity with the masses by weakening the monarchy, they are sadly mistaken. On the contrary, they have only whetted the appetite of the Maoists and made it that much easier for them to achieve their goal. It's Nepal's tragedy that rather than stop Mr Koirala from destroying the unifying symbol of that country, the world has refused to lift a finger. Perhaps realisation shall sink in when the arms the US has now promised to supply will become the armoury of Prachanda's People's Liberation Army. We have seen this happen elsewhere, most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Koirala has strengthened Maoists ---- It is absurd to hail Thursday's parliamentary coup in Nepal as a "modern Magna Carta," as is being done by those who are cheering the grossly ill-advised move to strip the King of all powers and privileges. The parliamentary resolution moved by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on behalf of the seven-party alliance that now rules Nepal, and unanimously adopted by the 205-member Pratinidhi Sabha, is astounding in its scope. Apart from removing King Gyanendra as the commander-in-chief of Nepal's Army and placing it under the control of the Cabinet, the resolution says the monarch shall no longer have the right to take a final view on major issues, that he will lose immunity from prosecution and taxes, that Parliament will now decide the royal family's benefits, and, that nothing in Nepal will any longer come attached with the 'Royal' tag.
As if all this were not bad enough, the resolution also declares that Nepal shall no longer be known as a 'Hindu Kingdom' but as a 'secular state'. What the Maoist terrorists could not achieve in more than a decade of bloody insurgency, Mr Koirala and his colleagues have succeeded in doing in less than a fortnight: They have destroyed the basic identity of Nepal by reducing it to a perversion of its past and erasing its civilisational history. It is another matter that the sanctity of resolution is suspect because the present Pratinidhi Sabha is an interim arrangement and does not have the mandate or the legitimacy to bring about such sweeping changes in the Constitution. What is, however, significant is that despite denuding the symbol of Nepal's sovereignty and its unique cultural identity in so grotesque a manner, Mr Koirala has failed to satisfy the Maoists.
This is evident from the Maoists' response to the resolution. While Mr Koirala has claimed that his parliamentary coup against Narayanhity Palace, which has just stopped short of dethroning King Gyanendra, "represents the feelings of the people", Maoist leaders have spurned it as "insufficient", saying they want the monarchy to go. It is as good as declaring that the Maoist onslaught shall not cease till such time Nepal becomes a Communist state ruled by Comrade Prachanda's thugs. Given the stranglehold of the Maoists over vast areas of Nepal, established through terror, murder and extortion, and a political class robbed of all credibility, it is more than likely that the proposed Constituent Assembly, as and when it is "elected", will be packed by Prachanda's men who will then opt for the final putsch, the contours of whose terrifying consequences defy imagination.
If Mr Koirala and his colleagues believe that they can buy popularity with the masses by weakening the monarchy, they are sadly mistaken. On the contrary, they have only whetted the appetite of the Maoists and made it that much easier for them to achieve their goal. It's Nepal's tragedy that rather than stop Mr Koirala from destroying the unifying symbol of that country, the world has refused to lift a finger. Perhaps realisation shall sink in when the arms the US has now promised to supply will become the armoury of Prachanda's People's Liberation Army. We have seen this happen elsewhere, most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->