NEWS

If people want, I will come back: Ex-Nepal King

Source:PTI
August 06, 2009 18:14 IST

Nepal's dethroned king Gyanendra remains concerned over the instability in the country, and is ready to obey the people "if they choose to restore the monarchy".

Nepal has struggled to firm up its post-royal democratic experiment. Gyanendra was worried over the instability in the country as the Maoists threatened to launch a "decisive fight" to form a government under its leadership.

In an interview to a Nepali weekly, the former king expressed his uneasiness at the political situation and his duties towards the nation and the people.

"We should come out of this transitional period as soon as possible," Gyanendra said.

Asked about his role in the current political scenario, he put the onus on the people, who were "supreme".

"I quit the Royal Palace as per the wishes of the people. It is the choice of the Nepali people whether to reinstate the monarchy or not," Gyanendra said when asked whether he was hopeful of the revival of the 240-year-old institution that was abolished last May.

"The people will themselves decide over the fate of the monarchy and will also chart out the role and the form in which they want to see the monarchy," he said in an interview to the Nepali Janbhawana Weekly.

"If the people so wish, nothing is impossible," the former king was quoted as saying by the Telegraph Nepal online in a report based on the interview to the Nepali Weekly. "Who had thought that the monarchy would be sidelined in such an easy manner as it was done?"

As for his love for poems and songs, the former Nepal monarch said it was difficult to write in the situation the country was passing through.

"The situation through which the country was undergoing now, how I can write," the former king stressed.

However, he said, "In the current situation, I feel that songs or poems should be written on nationalist themes."

Mass protests against Gyanendra, which began in April 2006, finally culminated in the abolition of the monarchy after the CPN-Maoist emerged as the largest party in the constitutional assembly polls last year.

The UCPN-Maoists, who seek the dissolution of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government after they were pushed out of power by the mainstream parties, have unveiled a month-long protest programme amid fears that the political crisis may deepen and the crucial peace process derailed.

Source: PTI
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