Exit The King - The Times of India Editorial

Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Exit_The_King/articleshow/2656535.cms

Strife-ridden Nepal is readying itself to implement a new deal worked out between the current interim government and the Maoist rebels. One of the conditions for reaching an understanding, to abolish Nepal’s more than 200-year-old monarchy, has now become a certainty and it is expected that the Himalayan state will cease to be a kingdom in 2008 following the election of a new constituent assembly in April next.

The Maoists had walked out of the government earlier this year, demanding abolition of the monarchy. While observers say that most people in Nepal would be happy to see King Gyanendra go, the decision to do away with the monarchy was taken by the government as a reaction to Maoists’ demands and not as a response to a democratic vote-count on this specific issue among the electorate. Be that as it may, the fact is that Nepal’s woes are not going to end dramatically with the end of royalty.

Maoists and other political parties and groups need to guard against going back to a centralised structure of governance - the very system they have rebelled against for so long. Any future political and administrative set-up in Nepal should strive to be a fully democratic institutional structure, formulated in consultation with all concerned, including the Maoists.

This is a great opportunity for Maoists to demonstrate their democratic credentials, since their past actions - of violence and rebellion, some of which have had repercussions across the border in India - have infused fear in many rather than hope and confidence. In this, Nepal’s Maoists could take a leaf out of the experience of India’s Left parties that are endeavouring to balance ideology with the democratic requirements of a multiparty political system and an aware and vocal public.

India’s role in Nepal’s political churning has been constructive, and in no small measure contributed to Kathmandu veering towards multiparty democracy. India has had to revise its stand on the monarchy in Nepal from one of advocacy to studied neutrality. That China has preferred to stay neutral and the US and UK are supportive of India’s attempts to hasten the peace process has helped ferment Nepal’s political process and coming of age after long years of turmoil following the tragic royal massacre in 2001. It is in Nepal’s interests to shore up support from countries like India to avert being branded as a 'failed state’ and prove that even without a constitutional monarchy, a democratic political process can bring the people of Nepal together.