I would like to think of myself as a realist/pragmatist who believes in fairness and I wouldn’t really shed a tear (might just sulk a bit) if monarchy were to be abolished which I think is pretty inevitable given the circumstances we are in; but what I quite can’t get my head around to for the life of me is the notion that a lot of folks on here seem to harbour that the docile and benevolent king is more dangerous to peace and progress of Nepal than the Maoists. Is it any wonder then Nepal is another Afganistan in the making? How can the benign king be juxtaposed with the Maoists who put even the talibans to shame? Maoists created the culture of violence, murder and impunity. They are culpable of having killed 15000 innocent people. To say that the country today has turned into killing fields is an understatement. The whole country is caught in a vortex of violence, terror and ethnic cleansing and more depressing is the fact that it is getting worse by the day. Numerous terrorist groups have sprung up in different parts of the country emboldened and encouraged by success that violence can bring. There is not a single day you don’t hear of a carnage and communal violence. We also have unbelievely high tolerance towards Maoists bullying but its an unpardonable sin if the king so much as visits a temple which all of us do all the time. The maoists have publicly vowed to disrupt the CA polls and threatened to take stern actions against the people who defy them, yet there is a deafening silence from the government and public alike with regards to this threat. Imagine if the king had said this. All hell would break loose. They actually have a provision in the iterim constitution to remove the king if he is found to be conspiring against CA polls, why is there nothing of the sorts for other culprits? This is sheer hypocrisy. The king was even not allowed to visit Krishna Mandir in Patan recently. Maoists cultivated and fostered the division of country based on ethnicity in order to make small gains but this has fractured the social fabric of the whole nation. Some terai groups have said that they will settle for nothing less than a complete cessation from Nepal. The country is on the verge of total disintegration and I will not be surprised if the country cease to exist a few years from now as you can already see the pattern developing. Nothing is right in the country today. You find nothing in Nepal that gives you solace. No petrol, no water, 11 hour load shedding, stikes, julus, chakkajams, vandalism, arson, armed robberies, shabby roads that have never been repaired since Ranas buit them. The last 17 years of “democratic” rule led by political parties has been an absolute nightmare to say the least. The peace and harmony that once prevailed in the country is just a hazy memory now. I have even heard some people say “but that was forced peace”, which implies that the “real” peace is when people kill each other. We had a multi-party democracy in Nepal when the Maoists decided to unleash their wave of violence and terror. These radicals believe that power really comes from the barrel of gun and unfortunately for us they have been proven right. Where does the king fit in this picture? Why is the king blamed for the incompetence of the parties? I don’t get it. He was just a ceremonial head. The king has become a perfect whipping boy for the corrupt netas. The politicians have always used the king to hide their own failures and purge their sins. More regrettably, the gullible people actually believe what the corrupt politicians tell them. This is precisely the reason why I support the monarchy in a constitutional form and not in a ceremonial form. I would rather support the abolition of the monarchy altogether than keep it in a ceremonial form. What’s the use of a ceremonial monarchy that is nothing but just symbolic ? The only purpose that a ceremonial monarchy is going to serve is for the politicians to blame the monarchy again for all the problems in the country which will of course conveniently save them from the ire of the people. This is what happens when we cannot discern the right from the wrong. The events in my own country have made me a very cynical man. I don’t easily trust what comes out of media these days whether the matter pertains to domestic or international. I have realized that the media can never be fair and objective. They are always biased and have their own agendas. If we are to completely go by what Nepali media feed us - Maoists are the “good guys” and our king is the biggest tyrant. It wasn’t the king who killed 15000 innocent people; abducted, tortured and brutalized millions; extorted businessmen and common man alike; destroyed infrastructure worth billions; yet he is a tyrant and not the Maoists. A lie told thousand times eventually becomes a truth apparently! The biggest tyrants and killers I know are Stalin, Hitler, Mao tse tung, Idi Amin, Kim jong Ill, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Pol pot etc - the maoist leader of Cambodia who killed a third of his country’s population. Incidentally, none of them are monarchs but “common men”. To claim that monarchy is feudalistic, anti-peace and regressive is just a manifestation of communist mentality. Infact, the most peaceful and thriving countries have been monarchies like Denmark, Norway, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Australia, Canada, UK, Japan, New Zealand etc. Infact, the monarch of Australia, Canada and New Zealand is not even one of their own national. Indeed a referendum was held in 1999 in Australia (a highly multi-cultural country) to decide whether or not to sever ties with the monarch who lives thousands of miles away, yet they decided keep to it. Most people assume (brainwashed by the media of couse) that removing the king and declaring the country republic will solve all the problems of Nepal. I find that highly ludicrous. It will only open a can of worms. Nepal will plunge into a disaster of calamitous proportions. As morning shows the day, look at how things are with the king being virtually incapacitated. Do you truly believe that the political parties and Maoists will save Nepal? They will just tear the country into pieces as a pack of savage hyenas tear a carcass. Mark my words. The biggest genocides in the history of mankind have occurred in Republics not in monarchies. Congo, Sudan, Rwanda, Liberia etc are all republics. These countries have been mired in ethnic violence and civil war for years and millions of innocent people have been killed and rendered homeless. Look at what happened to Afganistan, Iran and of course who can forget Sikkim when monarchy was removed. The people in those countries say that the biggest mistake they ever made was to abolish monarchy. Look at mayhem and chaos in Pakistan and Bangladesh which are also Republics. Thousands of innocent people are being murdered in those countries every day and now they have the military running the country to try and control the situation.