Jeez! Talk about delusions. "unifying Nepal for 250 yrs without etnic violence or any civil wars before maoist problems" Are you serious??????? What do you call cutting of lips and nose of all the Kirtipures? What do you call the massacre of Pradhans and Bhaktapures? What do you call the takeover of lands in Terai from the indigenous. No, you probably don't know about those because your royals did not allow those facts in the history book. Quite conveniently covered by so called shree paanch ko mahanbadi. You want to talk about violence? I am sure you have heard of rapes and murders committed by the kings and princes in our history? Rajendra and Surendra were renowned for the atrocities, though too weak to stand up for themselves, they allowed the Ranas to take over who committed more repression under kings' authority. You probably have heard of the phrase, " buck stops here." Guess what? Buck stops with the king. When the company is bankrupt, CEO gets fired. When the country goes bankrupt, king should get fired. And Gyanendra was self-declared CEO of his government. Another person mentioned the monarchies of Japan and UK. How can you even compare our royals with theirs? When McArthur took over Japan after it surrendered, Hirohito was summoned for a meeting. As his motorcade exited the palace ground and entered the Tokyo street, the traffic light turned red. You know what happened then and there? His car stopped until the light turned green. It was a subtle, yet powerful, point that he was making to his countrymen, that the god-emperor also is under the law. Imagine that happening in Nepal. Just the other day, already congested traffic in Kathmandu was brought to stand still for hours because the royal family had to attend a relative's wedding. Not for 15 minutes or even 30 minutes, but for hours. You probably saw in the news that Prince William finished his officer training at Sandhurst today. But did you see him working his ass off as a cadet to get that honor. Only few years back he was in South America cleaning toilets of an orphanage. Yes, someone who is second in line to the British throne cleaning toilets. Can you imagine Paras doing any form of social service? He is too busy getting drunk, harassing girls, beating up their spouses, terrorizing common people, vandalizing other people's properties and cars, threatening to shoot policemen, and yes, murdering and raping people. Yet, knowing all this, Gyanendra named him Crown Prince, that too during Dashain in such a sneaky way. And here you are comparing Shahs to Japanese and English royalties. Give me a break! At least, there will be a modicum of self rule in a republic. We the people will hold the rein of our country, for good or bad. Therefore, I support Nepal to be a republic. I do NOT support Maoists. I do not agree with their modus operandi nor their philosophy. But neither am I in favor of status quo. I strongly believe that we have hit the rock bottom with monarchy and only way out is up from here on as a republic.