1 February

Twenty years ago, on 1 February 2005, King Gyanendra staged an army-backed coup. A few days before that, we had written in an editorial that Nepal was running out of options: even moderates were being pushed to be radically republican or radically royalist. There were also signs of infighting within the Maoists, including desertions and resistance.

The coup did not protect Gyanendra. Within 14 months he was sidelined and a peace accord to end the Maoist insurgency was put forward. In another 3 years, the monarchy would be abolished by the Constituent Assembly.   

An excerpt of the editorial published in issue #232 28 January – 3 February 2005:

King Gyanendra…is now down to just two options: consolidate his takeover and scrap the constitution once and for all, or roll back October Fourth and restore a semblance of democracy. The international community has reportedly sent unambiguous signals that he desist from the temptation to go it alone. By now, it must be clear even to him that the musical chairs game of Article 127 can’t go on. The king therefore needs a face-saving way out, and the only one we see is for him to join hands with a rejuvenated political process. 

Out of Nepal’s 25 million people, there are probably only some 150 (arms merchants, hawks on both sides, toy boys) who benefit from this conflict. The rest don’t want to have anything to do with it. But his peace constituency is not organised and represented to articulate its wish. The people have been let down by the people they elected, by a palace that is supposed to care, and by revolutionaries who have brought nothing but ruin.

Of the three, the only way to give the people back their voice is to allow them to speak through their representatives. The parliamentary parties may have squandered democracy, but it is they who have lost the most, physically and psychologically, in the past nine years. Whether it is to restore parliament, reform the constitution, have elections, engage the Maoists in negotiations, bringing the parties back in the picture is the least-cost option. Despite their sins only parties in a genuine democracy offer the self-correcting mechanism needed to get us out of this mess. 

For archived material of Nepali Times of the past 20 years, site search: nepalitimes.com