.basantapur. your answers are in embedded in what you wrote. >>after living in autocratic rule for hundreds of years, the ordinary citizen do not know what democracy is. They have heard about it, of course. Because it is everywhere, like in India or US or in the West. But when they got it they did not know what it was and how to use this new "tool". << perhaps the politicians couldn't be role models but that is not as important as the point you make above. we needed more time - and freedom from right-wing interventions. queen elizabeth cannot do what gyan did because of the difference in institutions. they have a long hisory of having controlled the kings in england. events from the magna carta to the british civil war slowly but surely established the power of the people over the power of the people. do you know how long it took though - well the magna carta is about 700 years old. gyane could do what he did because the institution of the army was under his control and/or influence - plain and simple. he hardly scored a moral victory on Feb 1, although his propaganda made it sound like one. that is not true. and well post-Feb 1, whatever benefit of doubt and/or irrational/unexplained respect he may have commanded (not earned) from the people has pretty much dissipated. you talk about the nepali people not being versed enough in democratic norms. i beg to differ. and the current protests are a testament to that.