PSC, As long as the Maoists are armed, do not trust them. This is my mantra. And I believe this should be the mantra of those who have to deal with the Maoists. So the first and foremost thing for us to do is to disarm the Maoists. Anything that ignores or put aside this part is not really a solution to Nepal's problem. As a matter of fact, public has never shown any enthusiasm to political agenda that ignores the issue of laying arms of the Maoists ("bringing peace"). Political parties had been calling upon the public for supporting their hundreds of Nirnayak aandolan for "restoring democracy" for past three years and "restoring civil liberty" too since Feb 1 till recently, only to get cold shoulder from the public. (So here I disagree with Anil-ji's prioritization ) Only when the political parties started to talk about 'Constitutional Assembly' and 'Democratic republic', public showed a great enthusiasm by attending the political parties rally by unprecedented number (15,000-30,000). See the picture below from the mass meeting of seven political parties on May 27, 2005. This enthusiasm is open for interpretation. But one can hardly deny that it was also for a REALISTIC political way out (disarmament) for the Maoists. *** *** *** Forget about disarming the Maoists militarily. Forget about disarming the Maoists by the King or any coalition with the King. The existence of the Kingship is itself is what gives the Maoists their raison d'etre and legitimacy (of a freedom-fighter) and thus empowerment. Our pro-king posters are in denial of this fact. *** *** *** There is no GUARANTEE that the Maoists will lay their arm until their ultimate goal of 'people's republic' is achieved. So we can only think in terms of LIKELYHOOD. Now, the question is this- Which is more likely to make the Maoists agree to lay their arms for, Monarchical democracy or republic democracy ? This is the question of the day. And our pro-king posters are giving absolutely wrong answer. *** *** *** Acceptance to the Maoists in any case and reason should be made contingent upon their agreement to lay the arms and give up the goal of 'people's republic'. I am surprised to see that many pro-king posters are confused on this. I am against political parties initiative to talk to the Maoists at this point. The Maoists should be kept untouchable until they give up communist ideology. *** *** *** At this time, only power enjoying popular faith is "Nagarik Samaj". Ironically it is not a political institution per se. Politcal parties's old mandate has eroded. Nagarik Samaj (that includes political leaders and workers with agenda for change) has three wars at three separate fronts to fight simultaneously- with Maoists against communism and violence, with King against his political ambition and with the old leadership of the parties against their conservativeness and incompetence. Each war complements the other. So your strength is not diluted, it is rather further strenghtened. You get more strength to fight a brutal ideological war with the Maoists if you are fighting at the same time with the King to get rid of him or his ambition, and vice versa. You get more strength to fight the King if you are fighting without waiting with the inept and corrupt political leaders. In fact, if you can not say NO to Girija et al, there is no point to say NO to the King. You can make a theoretical point, but that does not matter to most of the people whose help you need to fight the King. *** *** *** Eventually it will turn out that we wasted our years by hoping and trying the approach of ARBITRARY compromise between the King, the conservative leaders and the Maoist. We should have talked about pure democracy and given them 'come to it or die' option to all political protagonists. Because that's what is going to happen eventually. Nepe