Posted on 02/02/2005 2:44:08 PM PST by LibWhacker
Shooting survivor: Unlike brother who preceded him, King wants absolute rule
Nepal's King Gyanendra seized power yesterday by dismissing and arresting government leaders, declaring a state of emergency and suspending civil liberties including freedom of assembly and press freedoms.
From the moment he succeeded to the bloodstained throne of Nepal, King Gyanendra served notice on his people that he would be tougher than his brother, King Birendra, the man who had traded absolute rule in favour of a workaday constitutional monarchy.
The new king thought his brother was mistaken in handing over power to the government. He also wanted to handle negotiations himself with the Maoist rebels who have made much of the countryside a no-go area for government forces.
"He has asserted himself much more strongly than his predecessor," said Salman Haider, a former Indian foreign secretary.
"This is a process that has been going on for some time."
The second son of King Mahendra, Gyanendra became king quite by chance.
He was away from the capital Kathmandu on the fateful Friday evening in June, 2001, when his nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, walked into a dinner party at the royal palace and opened fire.
In a drunken and drug-fueled rage, the Prince gunned down his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, and eight other relatives before turning the gun on himself.
At the age of 53, the largely unknown Gyanendra suddenly found himself king.
Unlike his popular brother, who was widely seen as a symbol of unity in the country, he had kept a low profile.
If he was known at all, it was for the bad behaviour of his son, now Crown Prince Paras, who was present at the massacre but escaped. Among other antics, the Prince was reported to have killed a popular musician in a car crash while drunk.
At Gyanendra's coronation, hecklers interrupted the proceedings by shouting slogans directed against both him and his son. Leaders of the Maoist revolt, who model themselves on Peru's Shining Path guerrillas, also suggested the new king had stage-managed the massacre.
He was vindicated by a commission of inquiry, but his heir remains a problem.
Last summer, the Crown Prince stormed out of his father's birthday party and in November he was involved in a public punch-up at a nightclub in Kathmandu.
Demonstrations by students clamouring for Nepal to become a republic -- unheard of during Birendra's time -- have now become commonplace in the Hindu kingdom, where the monarch was traditionally revered as an incarnation of the god Vishnu.
Some observers have compared Gyanendra's style to that of his autocratic father, King Mahendra, who staged a coup in 1960. He then imposed a party-less system of government that remained in place until 1990.
Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was born on July 7, 1947, in Kathmandu, the second of three sons of Mahendra, then heir to the throne.
At the age of three, he became king briefly when his grandfather, King Tribhuvan, decamped to India during a time of political upheaval, leaving him behind as "insurance."
The crown reverted to his grandfather when the family returned two months later.
The young prince was educated in the Jesuit-run St. Joseph's College in Darjeeling, India, and studied at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University, where he graduated in 1969.
The following year, he married Princess Komal, sister of Queen Aishwarya. They have two children.
Gyanendra is well known in Nepal for his conservation work -- he is a leading figure in the King Mahendra Trust and has worked closely with the World Wildlife Fund.
He is also a poetry lover and writes songs in Nepali under the pseudonym of G. Shah.
The King is thought to be the wealthiest of his family, having amassed a fortune when he had no thought of ascending the throne.
He has varied business interests inside and outside Nepal. They include a tea estate in eastern Nepal and a cigarette factory.
He is also interested in developing tourism in the kingdom and owns the Soaltee Crowne Plaza hotel in Kathmandu. This is considered the country's top hotel and is an occasional target of Maoist bombs because of its royal connections.
Nepal hasn't been right since that one prince killed most of the royal family, and that's not even counting the Maoists that kill dozens of policemen at a time.
I have to say that the Maoists have been relatively good to Westerners in the country. They have not resorted to kidnappings at all. They have always asked the westerners to help them build schools and hospitals and rely their woes to the world.
If the King wants to start to solve this situation with the rebels then he should use silver instead of lead.
The police and Army are just as bad. They attack a village and destory everything there. schools, pharmacys etc
My son's girlfriend, who was working in Nepal for USAID, had a serious accident on a motor scooter outside Katmandu. My son, who lives in LA, went to Singapore and leased a Lear jet, went to Katmandu and brought his lady back to the hospital in Singapore. He had to bribe ($200.00) the customs officials at the Katmandu airport before they would let the plane leave. I told my sister about this and she said that was the most romantic story she had ever heard.
His girlfriend got better and then broke up with him.
Blimey!
If I can find someone that would lease a Lear Jet to save me I would be pretty impressed.
$200 is a lot though! That is 6 months pay to them!
That's the official version.Most people in Nepal believe that the current king had some definite hand in the palace massacre of 2001.
You have it backwards. This is Bush's chance to turn vision into reality. Fortunately, he gets to do it in a fairly out of the way place.
Off er a third way between the monarchy and the Maoists. The article mentions protesters pushing for a republic. Get behind these people and give them whatever they need to make it happen.
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