Word: birendra
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Koirala, popularly known as GP Koirala, was at the forefront of mass protests in 1990 that eventually forced Nepal's King Birendra to introduce multiparty democracy into the Himalayan kingdom. Elections then catapulted Koirala and his Nepali Congress Party into power in 1991. But the subsequent years would be tumultuous ones, as a Maoist rebellion ravaged Nepal, leading to thousands of deaths. Power struggles and factional demagoguery came to define Kathmandu politics...
...murky 2001 massacre of Birendra and much of the royal family could have plunged the country into anarchy had it not been for Koirala's steady stewardship. He was instrumental in reaching out to the Maoists, bringing them into a peace process that abolished the monarchy in 2008 and transformed the country into a republic. But festering divisions remain, and there is no elder statesman of Koirala's stature to lead Nepal forward...
...That decision has put some of the chief remaining royals on the defensive. Though investigations in the immediate aftermath of the attack closed the case, pinning the blame on an emotional Prince Dipendra, most Nepalis never quite accepted the accession of Birendra's businessman brother, Gyanendra, to the throne, and balked at his son Paras becoming crown prince. Paras is known chiefly for his penchant for fast cars and liquor, often in combination. But last week he titillated the nation by leaking to a tabloid in Singapore - where he now lives in a luxury home - alleged proof...
...with a woman from a rival clan of nobles. It was supposedly a crime of passion and intoxication - but Paras told Singapore's New Paper: "There was no smell of alcohol on [Dipendra]." According to Paras, the crown prince had intended to take down his popular father ever since Birendra relinquished absolute power after pro-democracy protests in 1990. The loss of that political mandate was made worse for Dipendra after his father scuttled an arms deal with a German riflemaker that could have yielded the prince a windfall of over $1 million. "That was the real trigger," claimed Paras...
...Nepal's palace massacre in 2001 - when crown prince Dipendra allegedly gunned down 10 members of his own family, including his father, King Birendra Shah, before shooting himself - has for the most part receded into memory in this impoverished Himalayan nation. Since then, a Maoist rebellion found its way into power, transformed the kingdom into a republican democracy and abolished the monarchy altogether last year. Yet the current government, headed by the former rebels, still indulges in periodic bouts of royal-bashing, often to paper over the increasingly apparent shortcomings of its own rule. As fuel lines in Kathmandu stretch...