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Why Nepal is talking about a return of the king
An upsurge in pro-monarchy sentiments comes amid geopolitical manoeuvres in a country likened to “a yam between the two boulders” of China and India.
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Nepal’s former king Gyanendra Bikram Shah waving as he arrives at an international airport in Kathmandu in March.
PHOTO: AFP
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How times change! A quarter century ago, then Prince Gyanendra Bikram Shah was the reviled younger brother of the popular monarch of Nepal, 10th king Birendra Bikram Shah Dev. His vast wealth and alleged greed were the subject of drawing room chatter in Kathmandu, as was his son Paras’ proneness to violence.
Then, things moved swiftly. King Birendra and his entire family were wiped out in a palace massacre in 2001 perpetrated by his love-sick son and heir, who then either turned the gun on himself or was killed by the king’s bodyguards.
