Assessing King Gyanendra's Move
Paramendra Bhagat
October 4, 2002
I just got online, 3:30 PM US central time, logged into Sajha, and noticed there is a new thread at the top: Deuba Sacked. No thread before has grown this fast to my knowledge. This is big news. I proceeded to various news destinations on the web to check up on the matter. Then I came back to read all postings at the Sajha discussion forum thread on the topic.
The King has sacked the prime minister and usurped executive powers.
My observations:
- This is not 2017 B.S. And if the King were to now head in that direction, the monarchy will end up in the dustbins of history. He knows that.
- The parliament had been dissolved six months back at the Prime Minister's recommendation, not at the King's insistence.
- All major political parties recommended a postponement of the polls. Where Deuba stretched it is in wanting to postpone it by a year, rather than another six months.
- It would have been ridiculous to let Deuba and his gang remain in power for another 14 months. And the option to revive the parliament perhaps was not there.
- The anti-corruption drive, and the property rights for women - two of the major positive developments of the recent months - were both works of the parliament. The parliament was a good thing.
- The step the king has taken is unfortunate for democracy, but this is not the last straw. What were the other options? Could he have revived the parliament on his own, especially after the Supreme Court approved the move on Deuba's part to dismantle it?
- The elephant in the room - the Maoists - remains. Will the next government make yet another attempt at a military defeat of the Maoists? How will they succeed when the others before them have failed using the same police, the same army?
- Our best hope for now: the king forms a "clean" cabinet of people who will not contest elections, as he has promised. And that government works to hold elections. In the mean time, the anti-corruption drive goes full steam. Unimpeded. If we can have free and fair elections in six months, it might not be all that bad.
- But such a timetable has to be announced within a week at the latest. Or the country might go down the path of Musharraf democracy, and then the king will be a supreme suspect, giving grounds for the abolition of the monarchy.
- One wonders how the caretaker government will handle the Maoist question. What if the Maoists remain entrenched and active also six months from now?
- One wonders who the next Prime Minister will be.
- What do the major political parties have to say about the King's move?
- Conclusion: Was Deuba's decision six months back to dissolve the parliament wacky? Something that he should not have done?
- What would be a political solution to the Maoist problem?
� 2002 Paramendra Bhagat