Nepe- To weaken the king would be to strengthen the Maoists, whose victory could usher in a reign of even worse terror. Political parties have failed to control the Maoist problem. You just review the initiation of Maoist problem and asess the role of political parities and so called Nagarik Samaj (I mean only handful of them like Debendra raj, Mathura, Krishna Pahadi, etc). All they did was either instigating the Maoist or in many occasion directly or indirectly supporting them morally. Girija's shuttle from China to New Delhi just to make the Deuba Government's dialouge with Maoists failure is more than sufficient to justify it. What I never understand is what led you to believe that Maoist will easily agree to term and condition laid down by the political parties? They are not that honest and Buddhu as you think from here. They very much know that by defeating Monarchy and RNA means achieving their ultimate goal. Maoist can easily take on political parties who are alreday in defeat mentality. I am not advocating for active monarchy. Just because the Maoist does not want monarchy, we can not go blindly. Constututional monarchy is the need of the day. What I have not got answer so far is that what could have been the best alternate in October 2002 for King? You can not just jump in to conclusion by commenting post-2 Feb event. It has to be rather assessed and analyzed ever since the Maoist movement started, then you can get most of the answer easily. But to do such analysis you have to see from neutral perspective - you can not borrow a "Chasma" from Gagan, Narahari, Baburam or anyother clowns to see the sequence of events. Monarchy is an institution, and in constitutional monarchy, King barely have any power. All the power is vested with parliament and executive power remain with the PM and hsi cabinet. Preserving monarchy is also the continuation of our golden history. Why should we try to copy or change something which was never tested, never experienced and which will have tremendous risks to have many adverse effects (cultural, religious, geo-political, ethinic and what not) with no solid advantages. Do you want to keep on experimenting for another decades? Enjoy your weekend.