Nepe, Well, it's another day, and here I am back on Sajha. Re-reading my postings above this morning, I -- upon reflection and after discussing things over with a friend whose inputs I value -- say that I am sorry if I went a bit overboard there, giving you no choice but to be on the defensive in stark personal terms. Sorry. That said, I respect your right to fully espouse republicanism, and that aspect hasn't bothered me at all. It's just that I wish you'd ease up on giving space to views that do NOT jive with yours WITHOUT unfairly and relentlessly painting others as royal stooges, when they are not and when all they are trying to do is find their own voice by taking conflicting and contradictory information into account to make up their mind re: what's what. I am sure you will agree that republicanism, in practice, is not as straightforward and uncontroversial as one would like it to be. **** Paramendra, It's fair to say that most people in Nepal, at this time, just want to be able to: a) go and live and work in their villages or towns without fear b) run their businesses without fear, and c) prosper doing what they love with minimum hassles. d) have a government who can enforce the laws, and maintain security. Political parties surely have their differences with the King, and that's good. But, in the scheme of things, those differences are comparatively minor. Their GREATER differences are with the Maoists, whose aim, among others, is to ultimately finish off the political parties altogether. One reason why the Ratna Park ko Andolan has not taken off is that the parties' resources to launch a vigorous andolan have been shrinking for a long time, ever since they got out of power. Last time, for a while, they got all those people from all over Nepal to chant slogans in Ratna Park, but could not provide -- either from the party coffers or through donations --food and lodgings to those karyakartas for long, and those people eventually went back to their villages, taking the steam off the andolan. [When the Maoists run out of food and lodging facilities for their karya-kartas, they simply plunder and loot villages! Political parties cannot do that.] Given this sort of state of affairs, it's too much to expect the political parties to launch a definitive republican andolan now. Either they need a lot of resources now or they need time. I am on the side of giving them time. And so, as a matter of strategy, the parties can better marshal their resources now by shaking hands with the king AGAINST the Maoists -- thereby providing, with the help of civil society institutions, a legitimate check against the Army's illegal excesses in this -- let's not mince words -- war to defang the Maoists. Else, all that their their constant bickering, continuous fights and jhagada achieves is just dissipation of energy, goodwill and money, making them further vulnerable to BOTH Maoists' and the King's "pee-tai" -- taking the country to either extremes, closer to a 'failed state' paradigm. Psychologically too, the joining of the two forces (king and the political parties) for a time being for the elections and for the formation of new government will provide a FRESH beginning to Nepal and Nepalis. oohi ashu