Victorious Prachanda today reportedly requested Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to agree to become the first President of the Republic of Nepal, information that hasn’t been independently verified.
It is believed that when Seto Machhindranath chariot collapses (see inside the box), something disastrous will happen. Disaster usually depends on perspective. This time it seems the disaster will be only for the family of Gyanendra Shah. As Maoists are winning and set to lead the government that is to be formed by the constituent assembly whose first task will be to formally do away with the monarchy, the fall of Seto Machhindranath chariot couldn’t have come at right time.
Of course the rumor is that Maoists had reached a secret agreement with the king to continue with monarchy hoping that they would get third place in the election. The blame, in that case, would have gone to the Congress or UML for keeping the monarchy. Now that it is clear they will be leading the government, it will be almost impossible for them to continue with monarchy at any form.
Meanwhile victorious Prachanda met the Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today and reportedly requested Koirala to agree to become the President of the Republic of Nepal. This hasn’t been independently verified but isn’t surprising. Prachanda wants international recognition of his government and the best way could be to have Koirala, who led the historic April Revolution of 2006, as the ceremonial Head of State. That would provide legitimacy to the Prachanda-led government than anything else.
We have learned that Koirala didn’t say anything on Prachanda’s proposal though he seemed to be positive about the offer that would help him create history as the first President of Nepal. But some Nepali Congress cadres who became aware of the Maoist plan were already worried because they think are trying to use Nepali Congress as a shield to push their radical agendas.
It remains to be seen how Congress brass, already humiliated by the disastrous defeats, responds to this proposal but if we are to go by what UML has done, things will be different. The CPN UML, whose pre-election arrogance was crushed like sand by the stunning defeats, decided today to pull out of the government. The UML’s challenges are even graver compared to that of NCs. The UML faces possible complete disappearance from the political radar. The must prove that they are different from NC and Maoist.
Anyway, coming back to the fall of chariot, I am eagerly waiting for the first session of the CA and see the monarchy officially abolished. Then there is a long way to go…the restricting of Nepal as a Federal state, writing of the constitution and what not. Interesting days are ahead. By D Wagle
For the record:
Eight injured as Seto Machhindranath chariot collapses
At least 8 persons were injured when Seto Machhindranath chariot collapsed while being pulled to Lagan from Teen Dhara Paathsala in Kathmandu amidst a huge crowd of devotees and ordinary people watching the procession Sunday. Among the injured are three children and the main priest. All of the injured are receiving treatment at the Bir Hospital and are said to be out of danger.
The chariot with 4 huge wooden wheels, about 20 meter high mast and pulled by dozens of men by a rope collapsed after it lost its balance completely while making a difficult turn at the busy Ratnapark area, thundering down at a passing passenger bus. The impact was so powerful that the bus got completely damaged.
The deity of Seto Machhendranath is placed on a chariot and paraded around the city during the Seto Machhendranath festival in March/April month every year. The parade ends at Machhindranath Temple in the south section of the city where the parents of the Seto Machhindranth are believed to be lodged at. (source)
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Comments
30 responses to “Chariot Collapses Signaling The Imminent Fall of Nepal Monarchy”
gyanenedra shahs epitaph was written a while back. the chariot falling means disaster for the nation.
wa_gle you are what is termed in complete denial. The maoists will remain what they are – eventually you will like the smart people come to the acceptance stage. too late for you.
why should we even care what US has to say about Maoist! why should it matter at all ? Let them call whatever they want to ,did t make any difference in the poll ..?
I think Koirala should accept the Maoists offer and set the record. Dinesh! I was thinking Koirala could resign after being the first president if he finds difficulties in working with the Maoist government. He will have his name as the first president in anyway and everyone in the elementary school would have his picture and would ask a question in the quiz contest, “who is the first president of republic Nepal?” “Prachanda” “Wrong” “It’s GP Koirala”. Your statue will replace King Mahendra’s statue at Durbarmarg, which will soon be called as the Rastrapti Marga. Even the unruly Maoist YCL cadres cannot reach to the top of your tall and slim body to topple it down. Girijababu, please please accept it, you might not even get a chance to see the Maoist government because of your deteroriating health. See, Girijababu, you are very lucky, you became the PM for 5 times, even the PM of coalition govt including the Maoists, you were elected first PM after 1990 movement, you could be the first president. See, Madhav Kumar Nepal, is facing a “Jharla ra khaula bhaneko sukerai gayo” situation. Compare with Nepal comrade, you are very lucky Girijababu, very lucky.
If you reject their offer, republic is being established in anyway, there will be one president. Are you still thinking of restructuring Nepali Congress party? You have failed in doing that in the past. You should have mobilized Nepal army in the elections to guarantee a fearless environment. TVs began showing candidates being beaten up, what could have the peoople thought abt their situation if they do not cast vote for the Maoists? Girijababu, another important thing is this elections showed that people want a change. You had all old figures contesting for elections, why did you hide Gagan in your PR system and showed Chiranjibi to the people? You made a big mistake. I would suggest you one thing, show it to the people and party, resign from the party president and accept the country’s president. Do it immediately Girijababu, do it, they might bring some other guys. Anyway, girija babu thanks to your contribution, you had that quality of uniting all communist force unlike your bro BP Koirala. All credits go to you, even the Maoists’ victory, monarchy’s abolition, and NC’s loss is all because of you. Jaya Nepal!
The election is over now ,so you guys think that did not make any difference in the poll…
Let’s see ..the new assembly’s first task will be to deliberate on abolishing monarchy and turning Nepal into a REPUBLIC,right!?
But a waite a minute, waite a ~minute,why is that, so far no (any)political party seems to be in favor of prosecuting the crimes of war?
Untill then, US has darn rights to say(do) whatever US believes,I think.
whether you are in a house or a hut, lightning still flashes as brightly and thunder rumbles as loudly as it would.
Why would a chariot tumble solely for a monarchy whose fate was supposed to have been sealed a generation ago?
Analyze it from a faith point of view:
no faith: no difference
faith present: evil omen: meant for nation, not for royal family only
is it not?
This is not fair my response has been deleted!
Wow! this is a news…. Prachanda wants Girija babu to become the president of Nepal… if this news is true then i wonder what all Nepalese would…. after choosing maoist to remove girija babu from the government of Nepal….. wow, this is what i call politics!!!
Whether Nepal becomes a republic or continues to have the monarchy as a ceremonial figure will be known in the weeks ahead.
As for Nepal becoming a Federal State; if the majority of the population will want that, aren’t you going to respect that Mr.Wagle? You can’t put restrictions on certain things (Federation, as you have mentioned above) and not others. Denying a majority’s wish when it doesn’t suit yours puts you in the same quarters as Gyanendra’s or Saddam’s for that matter. You sound like a MANDALE.
Chariot collapse is a mere technical mistake, lets not make assumptions here people lets hope for the best.
The King is now history. The fall of the Chariot will have no effect on him. It could however have a serious effect on the Maoists, and the Peoples of the new Union of Nepalese Republic. Ask Prachanda, his is thought to be a Tantric expert.
Deva
The King is history but the Maoists aren’t politically stupid. They will leave non-political space for Gyanendra in Nepal to commandeer the nationalist platform.
Then useful idoits like Girja, Makune and the likes can go jump off a cliff together.
Realpolitik always triumps in the end. It’s sad times for Nepal’s liberal democrats because the Maoists will do exactly what they have promised – establish a one-party, communist republic in Nepal. This is the platform they came to power on and the platform they will execute on.
Fall of Chariot or not, from Hindu kingdom to Maoist Republic seems all a bit too much too soon. When Nepalese begin to realize that their new Maoist Republic has failed to resolve their economic problems, and corruption continues, Mr. Koirala may find himself resigning from the Presidency and asking Ex-king Gyanendra to come back. Gyanendra messed up big time, but one wonders if King Birendra were still alive and reigning , whether the new Republic would even be on the table. The Nepalese have pinned their hopes on the Maoists-if they don’t deliver, you might see civil war in Nepal- God help the Nepalese.
this time fall of chariot doesn’t signals the fall of monarchy but it signals the possible fall of nepal from the hand of maoist..
GOD SAVE NEPAL from the hand of those killers named MAOIST
After getting full majority with people’s mandate, why on earth Prachanda has to offer president position to Girija. If they cannot take the responsibility then why they went for election. You have people’s support, mandate and the election is widely accepted by US and other international observers, then you don’t have to worry about anything. Just take a coordinator role to build new Nepal, we all Nepali are with you and will contribute someway and other to make this country prosperous and developed.
Just start we are with you……
Whenever we have some drastic shift of power we become happy and think that now something good will happen! We moslty were happy when king did Coup few years ago.But ultimately the situation became worse.
Now we see another change which is different from any other changes that Nepal has witnessed so far.
There are few things that Prachanda et al should be careful about :
1)Maoist did not win because of thier own right or popularity,they won because of Incompetence and corruption of Main stream parties.It was out of frustation that Neplese opted unknown faces inplace of faces that they had seen of TV and papers who could do nothing good.Same thing could repeat to Maoist themselves in general election if they are unable to demonstrate their difference from other parties.
2) Prachanda!! Get grip on YCL ,This is the utmost important thing to do.You cant afford to have any one beaten by YCL from Now on ,It will do much harm.
3)Take Staunch action against any kind of corruption any where. dont hesitate to punish anyone, even Maoist. Now You will be leader of the Nation not a Party so stop justifying every action of Maoist by saying ‘ Kehi Kami Kamjori’.
4)Trust good guys from Congress and UML and work with them.
5) It is good that you have shown commitment to Multiparty democracy ,stick to it .
Hello UWB Team,
You have given a direct statement in your heading. As far as my memory goes, i have to inform you that the falling of the chariot does not signal the Imminent fall of monarchy.
The above statement does not mean I am a monarchy supporter. It is believed that if the chariot collapses it signals some bad happenings in the country in the year ahead and yes bad things also may happen in the royal palace.
Btw, this is the belief, what was believed. Now let’s talk about reality.
1) The chariot was itself not anywhere standing even near to 80 degrees. It was leaning somewhere near to 60-70 degrees from the time it was being pulled from tindhara pathshala.
2) there was news that the chariot had struck a pillar. but the damages done to it is not known.
3) the people construction the overhead bridge has not thought about the pulling of the chariot festival to make a smooth path. (this is past)
4) talking about the present, the guthi sansthan has to observe the path in which the chariot has to move. it has to make a preliminary inspection as to how the chariot has to be moved to its destination. what are the obstacles it will be going through. the road conditions.
5) since the chariot had to be pulled around 6 inches or more in the corners of ratnapark and down 6 inches again, maybe if some kind of inclined planes was put there it may have been more useful instead of pulling it by sheer strength.
6) the road in which the chariot was moving, everyone could see that the traffic was not stopped. but as a matter of fact, if the chariot had fallen in the ground rather than hitting the bus, may be the consiquences might have been worse than what it is currently.
7) there should be some control over how fast or how the chariot is being pulled. people pulling the chariot does not seem responsible as to where the chariot is going or taking into consideration other facts.
May, the guthi sansthan, who is responsible for taking out the chariot be more responsible.
Cheers.
GP Koirala should immediately resign from the president of Nepali congress party on the moral ground as Congress under his presidenty has been defeteately too badly.
Secondly, Koirala should not do next blunder to be the President as offered by Maoist. But I am afraid power hungry Koirala may accept !
I was watching yubraj ghimire last night, and he said its not as easy to remove the monarchy as ppl seem to believe, he even went further to say ..”SAAT JAMINDAAR le J BHANYO TYAHI HUNEY HO BHANEY SAMBHIDHAN SHAVA KO CHUNAB NAI CHAINDAINA THIYO”.
Cheers! We are now well on our way towards the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of South Asia (USSRSA).
The Nepalese Maoists have now unfurled the Red Banner of the RIM. Great!
Deva
freedom writer,
You are totally right, people have chosed the maoist candidates instead of Girija families to remove him from the power. People are punishing him for being puppet of India and heavy corruption.
I don’t think Girja will accept the offer.But who knows??…fickle as everything is..the man hasn’t retired hitherto and there r no signs of resigning..I wonder what his next move is..hmmm
After looking at the results so far and stone pelted to ram sharan mahat on his victory rally, maoist get this far by the terror tactics to some extent but there is no doubt people want the change as well which they shows by their ballot, where most of the giants loose in their constituencies, but can we beleive Nepal can cope up the changes from the old political system to completely new one and from the monarchy to the republic in couple of weeks time?
Nepal is accepting changes very fast .
people have blindly trusted maoists , It would be a greate blunder if proper non moist representation is not made in the CA.
A Strong dectatorial regeme is going to replace the Monrchy .
Then even if you feel to replace Maoists you cont .
so ensure balence of power by supporting all old monsters (Girijababu+Monarchy+India etc)
Thanks for all Nepalis…
God will bless you all ..
You are all relived from the Hindu gods
Now you can all convert to Christianity openly.
all yours sins will be washed once if become a Christian so friends come and join jesus’s faith
discard Hinduism once as you have discarded term Hindu Kingdom by Secular Nepal
christina /// you mean Nepal to become christian country…
we dont have problem with hindu faith .we have had problem with monrchy
you can practice christianity but be careful you cont force us christianity
christina,
…the problem is not with religion…no religion can save this world of inequality,poverty n injustice..not a single GOD!!so please keep ur christianity with urself n stop this age old propaganda of religion that has given mankind nothing but harm??
i agree with this guy achhut. n christina if u can plz see a mental doctor neither father nor any priest can cure u.i syampathesize upon u.i m sorry………..
Maoists have already transformed nepal into a full fleged comminist state and babu Ram bhattaria has declared that he will distribute certificate to those who supported the Maoists withoit even going to college. What a mockery of education?? So why study hard? So why waste time and moneya nd talent when you can freely get a degree without any effort
What a shame? Nepali people are cowards and idiots and fools of being so blind followers of the stupid maists.
The Maoists are now autorotarian communists and they will ruthlessly crush all the resistents. Baburam has imposed a ban and distributes certificates to those that supported and fought for their ideology whata mockery fo education.
nepal is now under a ruthless communist ruling in the name of people . They are not willing to budge and they are not willing to honor their committments they made to the people.
They not only betrayed the people but made amockery of the people