Himalayan tyranny

King Gyanendra8217;s crackdown on political leaders in Kathmandu is entirely consistent with the ruthless streak he has demonstrated ever since the coup he staged against his own people on February 1, 2005. In these 12 months, the Himalayan kingdom has been held down by the royal jackboot. Not only has the king shredded the 1990 constitution and ruled by ordinance, he has systematically and brutally targetted the Opposition, hounded the media, and turned the Royal Nepal Army into a praetorian guard of the palace. He has done this with an arrant disregard of, or any pretence to, democracy. He has done this in blatant opposition to international opinion, whether represented in the counsel of the US president, the UN secretary general, or indeed the Indian prime minister.

Today, he is battling not just Maoists and the leaders of various parties, but ordinary citizens. They, who had lived thus far under the tenuous hope that the king would see reason and step back, are now increasingly seized by a mood of hopelessness and frustration. The authority of the Narayanhiti Palace has never been at such a discount. A few days ago, 100,000 people demonstrated against the king in the small southeastern town of Janakpur. Kathmandu would have seen a sea of angry demonstrators on Friday, if Gyanendra had not chosen to order the crackdown. The king, even as he takes increasing recourse to strong-arm tactics, has lost even the ability to read the reality staring him in the face with any degree of accuracy.

The world cannot expect a rational response from such a man. The moment has come for the international community to act in a coherent and cohesive manner so that the long-suffering citizens of Nepal can emerge from under the shadow of the tyrant. China and Pakistan have long tried to extract foreign policy mileage from the dangerously fraught situation in Nepal. They too must come on board, or risk being isolated. Upon India falls a special responsibility to intervene politically and diplomatically by deploying the various instruments in its command in order to isolate the king, and weaken his egregious grip on his people. There is already in Nepal a broad political consensus in favour of multi-party democracy and a violence-free polity. It is this process that awaits revival. The world must not fail Nepal yet again.