Nepal defers push for republic

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s new government Monday resisted the thrust by its Left ally to announce instant radical changes, putting on hold an announcement that would have overnight reduced the powers and privileges enjoyed by King Gyanendra.

 

The Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), the second largest party in the coalition government, has been pressing for sweeping changes while the other alliance partners favour a more cautious approach.

 

A day after he was appointed speaker of the reinstated House of Representatives, the decision-making lower house of parliament, UML MP Subhas Nemwang said on Sunday the government would table a momentous resolution in parliament on Monday, making the radical changes. PM Girija Prasad Koirala, who has not been attending the regular sessions of reinstated parliament due to ill health, was himself expected to propose the vast changes that would shrink the king’s power and put parliament above him.

 

However, the government decided not to take the plunge Monday as the other two major parties in the alliance, Koirala’s Nepali Congress with the largest number of MPs, and Nepali Congress-Democratic of former premier Sher Bahadur Deuba, didn’t want to be hasty.

 

Some of the UML demands are very close to those made by the Maoist insurgents and the Koirala government also doesn’t want to be rushed into implementing the Maoist agenda till it is certain about the rebels’ intentions.

 

The top leaders of the seven-party alliance discussed the proposal Monday morning, eventually agreeing to put it before the council of ministers first.

 

The radical changes include re-christening the government “Nepal government” instead of the present “His Majesty’s government”, the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) “Nepal Army” and scrapping the king’s “supreme commander in chief” title that makes all army appointments and awards done in his name. Besides these symbolic but socially significant changes, the king’s immunity from legal proceedings would have been revoked, the expenditure of the royal family decided by parliament instead of the palace, and taxes imposed for the first time on their income and properties. In a step intended to rein in controversial Crown Prince Paras, parliament was to be given the right to make, amend or annul laws regulating the appointment of the king’s heir.

 

The RNA chief would be appointed by a parliamentary body on the recommendation of the prime minister.

 

The resolution would have also abolished the Raj Parishad, a council of royal advisers that was earlier a ceremonial body like Britain’s Privy Council but became powerful and political since 2002, when King Gyanendra started controlling the government. The Royal Household Service, an independent body governing palace employees, would also have been dismantled with bureaucrats overseeing the staff.

 

The expansion of the seven-member mini cabinet, also expected to be announced Monday, has been postponed to Wednesday. There is already infighting in the coalition government over ministerial portfolios and the cabinet expansion may open a Pandora’s box for the Koirala government. Monday’s faux pas shows the traditional rivalry between the UML and Nepali Congress, a feud that had resulted in the fall of earlier governments, still runs large.