Word: gyanendra
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...natural rebel. He has a good job as a technician in a Kathmandu medical laboratory and is the son of a bureaucrat and mid-level leader for Nepal's pro-monarchy Rashtriya Prajatantra Party. And yet Bhandari, 26, found himself in a mob of thousands last Thursday shouting, "King Gyanendra, leave the country or we will kill you," part of a tide of violent protests ripping across the mountain kingdom. Bhandari isn't sure why he's risking his life, beyond an unformed belief in "freedom" and a burning sense that Gyanendra, Nepal's absolute monarch, is keeping his kingdom...
...next evening, the King seemed to partly agree. In a brief televised address to the nation, Gyanendra offered to return "executive power of the kingdom of Nepal ... to the people," and asked the seven main political parties to nominate a Prime Minister, a position that he had suspended. But the King's statement was short on specifics. There was no mention of restoring Parliament, suspended for four years, of making changes to the constitution to prevent him seizing power again, or of surrendering command of the powerful army-demands that his political opponents had been making for months. The response...
...centers of power: the King, the political parties, and a rebel Maoist army holed up in the mountains. Now there's a fourth: an angry population fed up with the other three and determined to strip all power from a monarchy that has reigned for more than two centuries. Gyanendra is supposed to be only a constitutional ruler. He inherited the throne when his nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, shot dead King Birendra and eight other members of the royal family in a June 2001 massacre at the palace before killing himself. Dipendra was thought to be depressed that his girlfriend...
...move. Since Nepal became a parliamentary democracy in 1990, the politicians have done little but fill their pockets and fight over power-the country had 14 Prime Ministers in 14 years-while the Maoists built a mini-state in the mountains based on torture, execution and extortion. But Gyanendra did not live up to his pledges. Instead, he locked up thousands of politicians, human-rights activists, journalists and students, while doing little to stop the Maoists. He almost reveled in his disdain for public opinion-H.M. KING GYANENDRA DOES NOT SEEK CHEAP POPULARITY, reads a propaganda billboard in central...
...King's associates seem to believe his days may be numbered. "He felt he had to take over, or we would all be Maoists by now," says a friend of the royal family. "But he miscalculated. He made mistakes. He has no support now." British Ambassador Bloomfield reckons Gyanendra could even decide to abdicate: "He may say, 'I don't want to be a constitutional monarch,' and go into exile...