Still a royal mess

There is an old adage that Nepal8217;s monarch appears to not have heeded: after the game, the king and the pawns must go back into the same box. This is reflected in both his obfuscatory offer to the political parties and the sharp rebuff he8217;s received from the seven-party alliance, a response he showed no signs of anticipating. The unprecedented outpouring of the last week on the streets of Kathmandu in support of the return of democracy to their land most clearly forced Gyanendra8217;s hand. In his bid to abdicate responsibility for his misadventures 8212; especially after he assumed direct power 14 months ago 8212; the king actually appears to believe that a televised overture to the notion of multi-party democracy would be enough. The rage on the streets of Kathmandu demands a lot more, and it leaves little space in the box for his authoritarian self-righteousness.

The political parties, for now, retain clarity on what it is that they seek. They know they stand discredited too for the failure of the democratic experiment in Nepal. If there is a role for them today, it is because the people of the country have sustained a movement to reclaim power from the palace. Make no mistake, the pawns are driving forward the agenda. And as much as it falls upon the king to heed it, so it does for the seven-party alliance 8212; as an exercise both in survival and in stabilising the situation before it slides to chaos.

The seven-party alliance continues to affirm commitment to a constituent assembly. The political parties are insistent that the king8217;s current offer to surrender executive power will not do, that as long as Article 127 of Nepal8217;s constitution is valid another dictatorial usurpation by the monarch cannot be firmly ruled out. Theirs is a difficult balancing act. They have arrived at the heart of all possible solutions to the crisis because of popular sentiment and the tactical support of the Maoists. They must determine at what point returns from isolation of the palace start to diminish.

International opinion must also begin to weigh in on this fast unfolding endgame in Nepal.