Nepe, As I have often said in the past, I have NO problem with your republican views. Hold on to them. Fine. You have your views, which, I find, a bit too extreme (and, at any rate, so far as I can see, ground conditions in Nepal do NOT support your views at this time. My ONLY problem is when you seem to think that ONLY you alone (along with those who agree with you) are right, and then when you go on to label these other different viewspoints as those of monarchists, nuanced monarchists and so on and so forth. I also suspect that because I happen to a real-named COMPARATIVELY (and the key word here is: comparatively) high-profile Sajha poster, you feel entitled to take malicious potshots at me for no sensible reason. Maybe that is how you play the game,, but in the process, you do disservice to the cause of democracy, which when stripped to its core, is about allowing ALL views to come to the fore. I mean, that you are so desperate to turn me into a monarchist will come as news to those who know me well -- personally and professionally. FYI, I had had a chance to explain what democracy was/is to Gagan Thapa himself when he interviewed me for an hour on a radio program on KATH FM in 2001. My response to Gagan (with whom I have exchanged thoughts in public in Nepal) at the time was the same as it would be today: We have to have faith in democracy's self-correcting mechanisms. I suggest that you start by admitting that your views (the success of which is based on a future NO ONE can predict at this time) add up to only ONE SLICE of all the available views out there, and then you live with that fact. I mean, there are you guys, the "clear-eyed" republicans; and there are hard-core monarchists; and there are others whose views fall on various other shades of the political spectrum. You don't have to agree with others' views. But why the hell can' t you even ACCEPT that other views (right or wrong) DO exist as well? Or is that diversity of thoughts too hard for you to even grasp? When you label the other sides in FALSE and communist-like propaganda-esque manner (simply because they are NOT in your camp), you ultimately raise questions about your own so-confessed democratic mindset. In other words -- like the King, political parties and the Maoists, you too can chant about democratic ideals -- but when one sees how you treat differing opinions, then, that does NOT inspire much confidence in your own democratic mind-set. So, yes; hold on to your republican views. But be aware that it's LEGITIMATE for others to hold on to VARIOUS other views too -- views that won't jive with yours, and that's fine. Who's right? Only time can tell. Let's at least agree on that. After all, just like democracy, a human mind too has a great capacity for self-corrections based on new experiences. oohi ashu