cont...... Middle-class people feel the king should have instead used his position to bring the bickering political parties together to forge a common front against the Maoists, who now control large chunks of rural areas. The new home minister appointed by the king, Dhan Bahadur Shahi, has declared that the Maoists will be approached soon for peace talks. If the king succeeds in either defeating the Maoists or getting them to lay down arms, the monarchy as an institution will get a tremendous boost, say analysts. But this remains to be seen. As of now, people are not fully convinced that the 78,000-strong Royal Nepal Army can effectively take on the Maoists who are increasingly turning brutal. The Maoists themselves have planned ?centralised action' in March-April by their three ?operational commands' in western, central and eastern Nepal. Though their hardcore cadre is limited to 8,000, they can bank on another 18,000 militia, as per an estimate. In the end, it seems that only a bloody fight between Gyanendra and Prachanda or peace talks will decide the future course the troubled Himalayan Kingdom will eventually take.