NEPAL: Prachanda in favour of reinstating monarchy?


Kathmandu: Maoist chief Prachanda, who led the decade-long armed struggle to bring down the 240-year-old monarchy in Nepal, wants to reinstate the royalty to save the country from “foreign intervention”, a pro-royalist leader claimed on Friday.

Kamal Thapa, president of royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, said that UCPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda is positive about reinstating monarchy.

“Prachanda told me during a meeting that foreign intervention has intensified in the country after the abolition of monarchy,” Thapa told reporters in Kathmandu.

“He told me that he realised the need to restore monarchy to save the country from foreign intervention,” Thapa said without naming any country.

In the past, Prachanda has been critical of India for “inferring” in Nepal and some of the key bilateral pacts. He has demanded the revision of the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty on the basis of “changed scenario” and resolving the border row over Kalapani and Susta.

Thapa’s statement comes at a time when former crown prince Paras said that monarchy could be revived if the Nepalese people wants it to play a certain role.

source: Barun Roy