Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, who is also the president of Nepali Congress party, has been over the past several months showing signals that his party might leave the king behind the history and go for the constituent assembly election because of the increasing public pressure. A few weeks ago in his hometown Biratnagar, Koirala had suggested the king to abdicate. Here comes the latest from the leader of the interim government
By Gopal Khanal in New Delhi, India
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today said that he will begin talks to resolve the Terai issues as soon as he returns to Kathmandu. Talking to Nepali reporters in New Delhi – where he went to attend the 14th SAARC Summit- PM Koirala said that he was ready to hold talks with concerned groups to resolve the Terai problems. When asked “What will you do if king Gyanendra tries to disrupt the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections?”, Koirala replied with a question of his own, “Do you mean ‘king Gyanendra’ or ‘Gyanendra’? Forget the king, let’s talk about Gyanendra.”
Koirala, in a roundabout way, denied that king Gyanendra would be active during the CA elections. Furthermore, Koirala also said that his party Nepali Congress (NC) would come to a decision regarding the king before the CA elections. “I can not talk about the issues of CA right now; we need some “spice” to create an environment for the CA and NC will provide the “spice”.”
When asked about NC unification, Koirala said that in the present condition, unification was necessary, not only of the two Congress parties but among all the eight parties. He also revealed that talks were being held with NC-D President Sher Bahadur Deuba. “When I managed to get united even with the Maoists, of course unification with NC-D will happen,” said Koirala. The Prime Minister also said that Nepal’s prestige among the international community had increased as the peace process was moving ahead positively. Stating that the peace process was yet to reach a conclusion, Koirala expressed his commitment that he would make it (peace process) reach a final destination within his tenure.
PM Koirala, who is scheduled to return to Nepal tomorrow, met Bangladesh’s provisional government’s Chief Advisor Fakrudhdhin Ahmed this morning. Koirala is also scheduled to meet Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee later today.
Related Blogs:
1. Koirala: King’s Actions Leading Nepal to Republic
2. Nepal in Transition: Gyanendra Barks From Palace, Tries to Justify 2005 Coup
United We Blog 
Comments
114 responses to “Prime Minister Koirala: Forget the King, Talk About Gyanendra”
In Dharan people do not drink, maobadi says it is not good.
Long live sobriety.
People should meditate not intoxicate.
Most of the bloggers are for the king because they don’t trust Girija & Co. and Maoists. This is the least of the problems. Biggest problem in Nepal is King and Royalists. Once we send Gyanendra and his family to exile most of our problems will be vanished. Then we will be able to deal with other problems very easily. Looking back we made a big mistake by transfering the power from black elephant (Ranas) to white elephant (Shahs). Remember the fact that King Tribhuwan never gave us the constitution and He kept changing the government at His will. King Mahendra gave us the constitution but took it away in few months. As history suggests the king in Nepal is not for the people. In retrospect Ranas made more progress in Nepal than the Shahs. Shahs misused the foreign aids and loans given to the people of Nepal by the foreign countries. They enriched themselves while Nepalese people are left with debts. It’s time to kick the king and his family out of our lives.
If the King has done so much for the People of Nepal, then why should he be afraid of the CA Elections. If the people beleive the King is good and sees the welfare of the people the people will vote for his candidates.
If the people is bad, then bye bye king.
The various people who support the King should go to the people and convince them that the King is required.
Let the people decide, in a free and fair manner.
Nepal would not have had any problems with the Monarcy, if it was strictly constitutional.
Looking at the various comments here, most of the bloggers who support the king, beleive in absolute monarchy, which is not possible in the present Nepal.
NC (both) is the only party that supports the constitutional monarchy. But the King (Tribhuvan, Mahendra, Birendra, Gynandra) never trusted the NC and they beleived NC was their enemy no. 1, still Bp Koirala, GaneshMan, Krishna Prasad and GP were and always stood for Constitutional Monarcy.
If the NC heads for Republic, then the king is finished for good. Best solution for the King now is to keep his mouth and activities shut and work with Girja, who will make the son of paras the ceremonial.
also it is in the best interest of the King that Girja does not die, because without girja, king will not survive.
Mr. Pundit, I really do beg to differ, the monarchs were hardly benevolant at the time of the change over, infact the change to a constitutional monarchy took a lot of power struggles. The monarchs may be benevolant today, but don’t have any illusions that they were at their time in history when all of these changes were happening – it was just the way of the world for that nation at that time. Change takes the efforts of all concerned. It also takes time. Every nation has had good monarchs and bad monarchs but nonetheless they were monarchs. Punishing the historical establishment is a mistake we will regret, instead of using the wisdom of history from nations that have successfully converted. There are always ways to save this identity of our nation, like you said the individual is expendable, but the institution is, whether you like it at present or not very much our history – it is infact at the heart and core of our history. People should reflect on this deeply before making rash and emotional dicisions.
Well B the argument doesn’t just end there. For you and I the Monarch might be an integral part of our history and culture. But there are many many communities out there (maybe even the majority of the people) who do not care for the monarchy. For them the institution represents a dark era. For them the institution represents fedualism, opression etc. why would they still elect to keep the monarchy? For what?
You must also consider that the institution of monarchy also brings with it alot of suspicion and scorn. From Mahendra’s time it has become all too clear that the Nepalese Monarchy has always been meddlesome. Why should the people trust the monarchy for future stability?
Nepal is getting is first taste of “inclusive competitive democracy” when the Information Minister Mahara yesterday said that he is personally and principally against the notion of holding beauty pagentry and he will make every effort to stop the Miss Nepal contest from happening on Saturday. That is very democratic of him. The Maoist definition fo democracy has always been to impose your ideologies on others so here, they seem quite consistent– and evry sadless, the hapless organizers of the contest have no choice but to wait holding their breath if the terrorists will allow them to go on with the show.
Check the schooling of all the top leaders in Nepal- high school pass or a drop outs. Apply it to Maoist as well- what you get is Nepal as of now- on verge of losing its national identity, enslaved, and fractious citizenry that does not believe in itself, a nation or its future.
The end game is on- but blazing guns will decide- be it a right wing or from the left or up or down. Its all unraveling now.
Well done everyone. We now can kick the king out and let in the maoists. This will certainly solve all the problems. After all, what had the king done for Nepal. Specially if you compare him to the likes of SPA and M. Look at all the contributions from SPAM and look at the worthless king who has infact made to effort towards the development of Nepal. All the develpment we see in Nepal were done by the SPAM with their hard work and honesty. Don’t worry if you dont like GPK, we can kick him out in the next five years and elect eiither, prachanda, makune or ram chandra poudel as the new primeminister and with their great records, we will be competing with the US in the next 20 years. Long live Nepal and Long Live the great leaders of Nepal. Instead of hindus drinking cows urine during puja’s now they can drink GPK’s or Prachanda’s urine to purify themselves.
Mr. Acrokiller,
I agree with you when you say peace and love does not feed empty stomach. However, neither does democracy and certainly not the SPAmers. Who is a completely aloof leaders going to feed their people? So, stop this nonsence about, everyone will be now be fed by GPK and Prachanda. The problem of poverty will presist regardless of whethre G rules or GPK,
Acro Killer,
“All the liberalization in Nepal occurred post 1990. Economic and otherwise. Even in the face of our error prone democracy we were able to maintain growth rates of about 5% from 1990 to 1999. Yes, had our leaders been competent, we would have achieved much more development. But no way if the King was to brought back in charge”
What exactly do you mean by all the liberalization in Nepal occurred post 1990? Do you even know anything about Nepal? The only thing that got liberated after 1990 was the quality less mushrooming of educational institutes and substandard private hospitals. Please explain how pre1990 era was unliberal. I am not supporting the pre 1990 era but just want to get the facts right. The monarchy was supported by india and the us pre 1990 simply because they kept the market open.
Joke;
After abolishing the king according to instruction and threatened by Prachanda, Girija asked to Prachanda in the boat of terror,”How far is the peace-land?”
Prachanda told, “Just to KMs”
Girija jumped into the sea immediately to get rid of terror, thinking that he can swim 2kms easily, as he was eager to rule the peace-land with the name and fame.
Girija again asked to Prachanda,”Now which direction?”
Prachanda rode the boat fast and said, “Downwards”
The single most biggest problem with block heard SPAMmers is that they think Monarchy is the problem of Nepal whereas the reality lies in the fact that SPAM is the problem. Poverty exists everywhere in the world. In Nepal it exists to a great extent because of SPAM.
In the meantime SPAM warlords have 20 Marwaris in last 2 weeks and have extored 500 million from them. Way to go SPAM. You are making Naya Nepal! This is the contribution of SPAM.
And also yes, Asian paints (Nepal) has closed it’s factory.
I used to regard Mr. Shree shrestha as an intelligent guy even though he is a maoist supporter. However, his comments like “all our problems will vanish once we get rid of the king”, has really exposed him. He is a very small man without any vision. Can he explain how?
I dont know about the king but what these 8 parties have done in a short time after taking power from king is to divide country in the name of religion, place, colours, cast and so on.
AFter almost one year of competion of SPA;
-corruption is still there
-security and threat worsen day by day
-government system of work is the same
-country is heading toward division interms of ethnic and religion crisis
-no improvement in the economic growth
Giddhey Girija shouldn’t worry about whether Gyaney should be called King or not, his bigger worry should be the folowing-
his shameless gang of corrupt thugs and terrorists have done NOTHING to lay the foundation for Constituent Assembly elections– they have already violated the consitution (very democratic again) by pushing the date of the CA by aout 2 weeks, they have not YET passed the two bills that are pre-requisite for EC to work at “war fotting”, they have done NOTHING to tell people what it means to be “proportionately” representative, they have also done NOTHING to solve the problem of Terai, they are closing their eyes towards the rural reprisal against the Maoist atrocities, they have not yet completed the voter’s list, they have NOT yet told the Nepalese people who they stand for, there is a clear air of confusion about whether the CA will replace the current parliament and the list goes go.”
Gidhey Koirala lied to the Nepali people when he teamed up with teacher Pushpa kamal and ceremonial Baburam to say that the ONLY job of this government is to conduct the CA on time. Now, for any reason whatsoever, the CA doesn’t happen in two months time (which comes across as the most likely scenario at the moment), will Giddhey and gang declare themselves as “Asaksham” and step down.. given that they have gotten themselves a pariament deliberately WITHOUT an opposition, that is really asking for the impossible. So, Giddhey Koirala should really look into the mirror and start asking some hard question if he wants to be the statesman that he is starting to think he already is.
Mr. Pundit,
I have already given you the reasons. Further, the dissection of people like Mahendra is really fed to us by politicians, just as Mahendra fed the public the low down on the Ranas. If we look at eras in Nepali history keeping in context the time, world affairs and trends we could see a much more objective scenario, instead we just eat up what the state propoganda machinery feeds us. Not too long ago the same Congress and UML and all were telling us the maoists were terrorists (a stigma which is still sticking in some ways to them), and now they have all of a sudden become their friends. Take a moment to reflect on that.
P.S. B I changed to b on your request
Mr. Pundit,
And yes monarchy does bring with it some suspicion and scorn, but don’t all people in higher places? Hell, even a new neighbour can send up suspicion signals and a new boss scorn. This is human nature. It does not mean that it is correct in the long run. Well, atleast I feel the decision to do away with monarchy will be rash and unbeneficial for us in the long run. Even you seem to think so, so why the fickleness? Remember you have to take the moment to separate historical instances (and individual mistakes in those instances) and the institution in the long term historical concept and it’s future implications.
Mr B,
I am not definitely Royalist and I am certainly not Maoist supporter. I am for democracy. I believe that Democracy will come in Nepal in very near future. All my writings are about proper representation in the House (1 Representative per 100,000 people), and National Assembly (1 per district). To end the dictatorship of whatever kind my proposal is to elect the president for one term of six years.
At the present context, I think we should get rid of the king first. This will free the Royalists to join the political parties or disappear altogether. I dont’ think we should put the king in trial either. Just let him go. As for the Maoists, they will be weaken by the other opposing groups. They will find out that it is easy to chant slogans than to govern. In the end democracy wins and we will win.
b – you should understand this. Gyanendra and Paras are not really letting the people of Nepal have a healthy debate on Monarchy as an institution. Wht I mean is – had he been ready to abdicate and bypass Paras to make his grandson the heir (for constitutional monarchy), people would actually think on a long term and probably even vote for keeping const monarchy. But people wont accept another 20 yrs of Gyane rule, followed by another 40 of Paras – total 60 yrs rule of two of most unacceptable of monarchists in the history of Nepal. Tell me would you?
So you see, this father-son duo’s arraogance and stupidity is what is really screwing the prospect of monarchy in any form.
Patriot,
Hold on a second. When Gyanendra made one statement a few months back, everybody jumped on him, and now you are saying that he can just abdicate. I think you forget that abdication and hence the succession can only be passed by parliament, the King cannot just abdicate and place the crown on his grandson – now reflect for a moment and consider if the people who decide on this matter (the parliament) would support this and pass it unanimously in the house. The maoists have already opposed this idea publically since they would rather have an unpopular individual on the throne during CA elections as opposed to an innocent kid. So yes, that is the option to take (i.e. abdication by Gyanendra and Paras) but will it be allowed by the all powerful parliament?
I still feel that Maoists should be destryoed at any cost, they are not a political force just becasue they joined politics, they are an Army of thugs and they need to be shot one by one until all are dead.
MJF should do what they are doing, becasue they have the balls, this peace is horseshit. It is a fallacy a play by the terrorists.
b – agreed to most of what you said. But why cant G take a stand on? does he have to take everything that this SPAM dishes out on him? Why cant he talk to the people directly, of course thru his seasoned PR that he & paras would be ready to abdicate and make way for the granson. if G can effectively communicate this to the people, SPAM will be forced to make a provision of this sort in the CA. G may be sidelined for now, but he is still a monarch and if he can make a statement defending his stupid actions, I think he shouldnt be afraid to communicate something of this nature.
So you see you are talking as if G’s hand is so tied by SPAM that he cant do anything except accept whatevet SPAM dishes out to him.
again as far as allowing or not by the parliament is concerned, i dont think that’d be much of a challenge. G still has a lot of underground power and resources to create a lot of havoc. If he chanelizes that to sensitize his case for const monarchy for his grandson before the people of Nepal, believe me this hollow SPAM can’t do shit.
but no – G & Paras are so damn arrogant and stupid, morons without vision that they will take their entire Shah dynasty and the inst of moanrchy down with them.
Again Patriot,
Remember what happened when he said a few words on democracy day? There was actually talk that the PM approved that speech otherwise how did it end up on govt. news channels? But, yes the King has been told to shut up by one and all, and he seems to be listening. If he speaks SPAM will go beserk and maybe even try something like announcing a republic through their all powerful parliament, I mean they have been doing whatever they want. This seemed to have worked along the lines of what people required until ofcourse the Terai issue came up and lo and behold the response was to say the least very undemocratic. Why one wonders, does a government make such vast changes especially when it comes to the monarchy and does not go the distance when half of our nation is on fire? Is’nt it time to think?
On hindsight patriot,
Remember the last time Gyanendra took a stand againsts a failing state – that was February 2005! We know the results.
b – you are asking everyone to reflect but perhaps you should also be doing some of the reflection. I totally agree with Patriot. Gyanendra doesn’t have to take everything parliment gives him. Defiently if he came out publicly and said he was abdicating and passing the succession to his grandson there would be little spaM would be able to do about that.
Also your comparison about the suspicious neighbour is somewhat idiotic sorry to say. A constitutional monarchy is different from any political leader or your annoying neighbour. I don’t see the similarity in that comparison.
For a constitutional monarchy to be an effective institution of stability it must command a non-partisan respect from the people. Unfortunetly Gyanendra and Paras are never going to get this. So the only viable way I see to save this institution is by passing the succession on the grandson.
Furthermore, Mahendra dissolving parliment and taking over in an autocratic fashion is not state sponsored propoganda. What are you talking about? b – you seem like an intelligent enough person but sometimes I have to wonder.
Finally:
b/B: would it really kill you guys to come up with a name that’s more then one letter? It would make everyone’s life easier.
b – you are right, these bloody SPAM are out on a vengeance to finish monarchy once and for all. But like you said the Terai issue has exposed much of the SPAM who till then seemed to be going along pretty much what the people wanted.
If I was G – I would think like this – SPAM is not as sexy as they were a year back, they have been exposed to a large extent and people are just as suspicious of them as they are of monarchy. How can I take advantage of this ?
I seem to have 3 choices – 1. risk everything by arrogantly trying to save my throne, either in absolute or constitutionl form, 2. let my fate and that of my dynasty be dictated by a group (SPAM) that has as less credibility as me/my paras, 3. use whatever resources I have in a last ditch attempt to save my dynasty by making a sincere appeal to the people to allow a const monarchy.
I’d certainly choose option 3, but I am not G and I fail to play my cards right.
3. use whatever resources I have in a last ditch attempt to save my dynasty by making a sincere appeal to the people to allow a const monarchy with the crown passed directly to grandson … missed that out
Yeah right…3 SPAMmers here and a few of their warlords there want King Gyanendra and Prince Paras to abdicate and pass on the throng to Prince Hridyendra (who is a kid)….so that for another 20 odd years SPAM cab continue SPAMming unabatedly. Been there and seen all this propaganda.
noname – you pathetic fool. shut the fcuk up. actually ur blind support for G without any sensible reasoning makes me doubt if you are one of those SPAM chamcha trying to provoke bloggers against monarchy. else u wudnt sound so pathetically stupid if you were really a monarchy supporter. you’d be offering sensible and logical reasoning instead.
Lets forget Gyanendra please. I’m tired of that old has been. All he likes to do these days is drink and gamble.
Forget him. Let’s not talk about him anymore. Let’s just kick him out when the time comes. For the time being, lets leave him alone to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
Again…SPAMmers like Manan just talk senseless like Pushpa Dahal…Dangerous for civilization…propagandists and rumourists are very dangerous
And now, how do people expect me to justify things? And how many times should I? I did it yesterday and now I should repeat it all over again? And now, why should I justify to you? I mean why should I justify to people who do not have simple brains (like educated people do) to decipher the right from the wrong?
LOL. Someone, somewhere said…3 steps of talking with fools and terrorists like you all: Talk, Talk and then Kill. No other option.
Patriot: please just ignore naname. I don’t think he is really even out to support the King. He just wants to draw attention to himself. If you respond to him then it only pertetuates his attention seeking urges.
If he really does hold the views that he expresses then I pity the fool. Either way its a lose lose situation for people like noname.
Minimun qualifications to be a Minister in Nepal:
1. Must have killed (directly or indrectly) as many as possible.
2. Must have sold morality, in one form or another (bribes, allowing your wife to sleep with someone else, sell your country or part of National property such as Airlines/land/hydroelectric power supply)
3. Minimum Grade 2 education (so you can count the money).
4. Should have no shame nor embarassment.
5. Lack of dignity or sefl-rescept
6. Lack Nationalism
7. Age greater than 55, preferably over 75 for prime-ministership.
In other words, Must Be a Bahun.
(Refer to matribhumi’s comments above.)
NepalBlood: Why do you even bother to call yourself NepalBlood?
Why don’t you put your caste then then finish off with blood. For example if you are a newar: NewarBlood. Why NepalBlood?
No NEpalblood, not just Bahuns, people of your caste are there too…I am sure they also fit into all of the above categories. I don’t think they will go to heaven when they die.
Bhudai you got me there.
But the name is from the old days when I thought of myself as a Nepali first. The days when every Nepali could live anywhere in Nepal without fear regardless of caste, origin, religion or ideology. (though any criticism of the royal family was not looked upon fondly. A small price to pay, if you ask me.)
Anyway Mr. Pundit, Welcome to New Nepal.
Matribhumi: My Mistake! I thought that’s what you were trying to say.
And then you deny My People heaven. That was not called for.
Nepalblood, in fact none of these politicians will, bahun or not..not just your people who are ministers.
There was an article in “The Hindu” last year suggesting that plans were being put into action to put Late Kind Birendra’s grand daughter on the throne. So why King G’s grandson instead of Late King B’s granddaughter. This will also usher in a “social revolution” in the country since instead of a male desendent a female will be given the hereditary title.
Patriot,
I really understand what you’re saying and personally the option TheWho mentioned above seems even better, as not only are we talking about King Birendra’s direct line but it would also offset the suspicions of total control over his (Gyanendra’s) own grandson.
But, I still think the SPAM will take the nation to it’s brink if this were to be done without their endorsement. I think the way to do it is atleast for the SPA (atleast the Congress and UML) to endorse it.
b:
don’t be foolish. If Gyanendra comes out and says he is abdicating and passing the line to succession spaM will be left there scratching their heads. You know how stupid and wothless the spaM is. The problem is the King is even more stupid – otherwise he should have been able to play them and make them look like a fool. Our King just has no political insight or savy. If only he surrounded himself with smarter people and not lunatics. His advisors are like ‘noname’ who still thinks the king owns the country so he can do what he wants etc. of course he is bound to make foolish mistakes.
Patriot,
There are no ‘sensible’ royalists. If Birendra was around, we’d have a lot of people making sensible arguments for keeping the
monarchy. But most people don’t like Gyanendra, so the only ones who will speak in his defense are totally deluded supporters like noname.
As I said, lets forget that old fart anyway. When the time comes, we’ll just send him off packing.
Mr. Pundit,
All you have to say to me is don’t be foolish, but your appraoch is childish to say the least. Gyanendra coming out and abdicating and appealing to the public directly – that would really give the maoists enough ammunition to declare Nepal a republic soon after and the SPA to endorse it. Then what do you think the people would do – rise up against the SPAM? I’m afraid the people would just keep silent and accept it just like they have been accepting everything dished out by SPAm and you call them worthless – maybe so but tell me one case where their worthless decisions have been opposed except by the madhesi forum (a forum the likes of Mr. Wagle call a suspect and shady group)? And on top of that you expect people to oppose en masse the ousting of the king who came out!?!?!?!!? And you tell me I am being foolish. I suspect that it would be a great gameplean for people who really want to see the end of monarchy abdruptly and without the people having to decide.
By the way if King G was devious and keen on channeling his force create rakus, he could have but till date he has not yet done so. Just place yourself in his shoes for a minute. He has been lambasted and accused of all the misdeeds from Terai to Massacre – they have made him devil incarnate but in the better interest of the country he has kept quite mum. Would you have done that?? He has demonstrated sagacity and magnanimity is such a duress. I do commend him for that. Lets not forget to tell the truth in these times where propaganda and lie are held in high regards.
It bedevils me to see comments that heaps a blame on one by ignoring the bigger picture and other more nefarious actors involved. To tell you the truth, we are culpable to bring this kind of situation. Can anyone deny the fact that 8 party rule is not Authoritarian? If in democracy, how can a party get seats in the assembly without fighting an election ( so gun power is enough to secure coveted seats), and how can 8 party decree and make law that only suits them? Its a height of parody and by the look of it we are buying it blind.
We are more fractious than ever, we no more believe in Nepal but in caste, communities and creed. Who can say this will bring the ever lasting peace in Nepal. India has done what British taught them- divide and rule and like monkeys we are fighting amongst ourselves by building a culture of inward looking society whose existence depends on my people, my community and my regional autonomy, not NEPAL.
This wonton trend to burn ourselves out of existence is getting more and more aggressive and oxygen comes from people like YCL, Terai tigers, and JTM. In the end we will be fighting for nothing, really. Wake up dudes and dudettes before it slams in your face.
I absolutely agree with Deadonarrival(DOA) (14:22:53) .
Dead, you can’t make a difference here. There are blind followers of SPAM warlords here. You can spend some of your energy here but we must channel this energy in a better way so that we can make a difference.