Mailadai, You are welcome to believe whatever you want to believe. That's fine by me. When it comes to understanding politics, I do not have the luxury to theorise from some safe pedestal. That's because I take Nepali political events as they REALLY are in a fluid state -- fully knowing that next steps could go in ANY direction. Unlike some delusionally self-confident Sajha stalwarts, I have no crystal-ball to predict what is really going to happen next for sure. I can, at best, only think in terms of rough probablities of certain things happening, and even then I am often not right. Thankfully, I have seen that other people -- despite their self-confidence and compelling pro-this and against-that logic -- too have NO better batting average when it comes to accurately forecasting our short-term political future. Remember, some time ago, intellectuals and journalists were all over Mohammed Mohsin for daring to suggest that Nepal might become an autocratic state soon. At the time, it was fashionably knee-jerk thing to gang up on Mohsin ad infinitum and ad nauseum for making that remark. A few months later, look, where Nepal is now. Could any one of those intellectuals and journalists even have dreamt the state we are in today in Nepal? No. Why? Because they were so busy DENYING even the possibility through their so-called 'compelling logic against autocracy' argument, that it's quite ironic to find ourselves now without the basic bundle of freedoms that those pundits then simply took for granted. Moral? One-sided compelling logic alone rarely gets one far in PRACTICAL politics (though it may get you an A in a political science paper). In practical politics, such one-sided logic only preaches to the converted and hardens their belief -- a strategy that was used to solid results by George W. Bush to win in last November's elections. That is why, I accept the REALITY that Tulsi Giri is at the helm now. Accepting the reality here does NOT mean I support Tulsi Giri. Still, the larger point is: Whether I support Tulsi Giri or whether Paramendra hates Tulsi Giri DOES NOT REALLY matter. Nepali politics is moving ahead REGARDLESS of what you and I think and regardless of whatever the IDEAL situation might have been. The fact is: Tulsi Giri is at the helm. Now you can dig up his past and give me 100 reasons why he is a khattam character, and you may be 100 per cent right. But that does NOT change the fact he is actually at the helm of the government. When you can't change the sobering fact, the only question that becomes relevant is: What's he gonna do next to defang the Maoists? ***** Talking about democratic republicanism at this stage is basically a RELUCTANCE and even intellectual cowardice to face the harsh reality in Nepal. The Nepalis could have thrown out the King in 1990 or in 1995 or we could do that in 2010 or 2015 or 2025 or 2050 or whenever. This issue is -- at the moment --RELATIVELY time-unspecific and even open-ended But throwing out the Maoists is urgent, compelling and time-specific. There is hardly any time to lose. It's BECAUSE of the Maoists that the country is in a standstill mode. And meantime, thinking that Maoists would make good bedfellows with the political parties to throw out the King is like thinking that having a pet cobra would not bite the owner someday. The Maoists would use the political parties for their own ends and then DISCARD them. oohi ashu