Editorial
King Gyanendra’s Prithwi Jayanti message this year was nothing but a stern critique to his opposition on affairs of state national and international. Not lost in the process, significantly, was the fact that the royal message came from His Majesty King Gyanendra (Shri Pancha Mahahrajdhiraj) in the official communiqué. Leaves one thinking, no doubt. Especially when the message should be followed late evening with the announcement that the King was to attend the Prithwi Jayanti obeisance at the Singha Durbar statue the next day, Nirmal Niwas signals are coming out strong. Gyanendra’s personal retinue in course of his attendance at Singha Durbar Gate the next day is to be marked. The crowds allowed him leeway; he garlanded the statue and, after a half-wave to the onlookers at the Prithwi Jayanti celebrations, embarked his vehicle and returned with little fuss. It was as if routine. It was not. His antagonists, our current political masters, have chosen to make no issue of the incident. The mainstream media chose to highlight the army’s and the president’s function at the statue. The event was in popular participation demanding a national holiday on the occasion. But the news surely was in the king’s participation. The message cannot be lost.
As message-laden as these royal actions may be, the establishment’s dismissal of the developments is equally worth pondering over. Of course, there is a spurt of anti-Gyanendra media coverage, deliberate or not. But even the mainstream media is drenched with corruption scandals and Indian pressures in the far west and news is gradually shifting towards elections and so. All seems as it should be for our political bosses. The question of corruption is but routine these days. As, too, is the issue of authority abuse. The public, too, takes the cursory anti-corruption dig-ins, at least whatever government wants to be leaked about it in the media, as routine. Even the occasional ministerial star who provoked the current media furor over a contract in the royal palace museum cannot but be taken with a pinch of salt. What is the corruption behind the scandal is very surreptitiously questioned. The fact is that the system has exhausted its credibility. One sincerely hopes that the alternative has not.
Of course, the system cannot but play with its own alternative. The scene, as predicted, shifts towards elections. The current government combine would rather that the polls at all stages of the system take place no doubt, but Deuba’s partners voice the sagacity and thrift in conducting elections all at one time. The election commission would rather have talks on holding the local levels first as scheduled by spring this year. The opposition UML cannot but pontificate over the wisdom of their leader K.P. Oli’s move to dissolve house for the polls last year. Whatever, given precedents in Nepali national elections, it concurred that the polls can only take place after a measure of congeniality takes place between Deuba and Oli. A possible scenario for the polls is likely to distribute seats among government and opposition parties to make the polls possible. One scene has already been set in this manner for the upper house polls. The same design can be set for the national polls as well. This round, though, with the MCC issue still prevailing, the choice of Deuba poll partners may be submerged under the guise of the Congress calls to run elections alone. Elections or not, though, there are indications that we are poised for change one way or the other. At least this is what all powers would have us believe. We the people, though, have close to exhausted our belief systems thoroughly.
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