Bangladesh News

Nepal’s deposed monarch is willing to leave his palace quietly to begin life as a commoner but wants help finding new accommodation for himself and his elderly relatives, an official said yesterday.

The palace received a letter on Friday asking the unpopular ex-king to leave within two weeks, in line with the newly-elected assembly’s vote to abolish the monarchy earlier in the week.

“The palace secretary has told the home minister that (ousted king) Gyanendra Shah and his family are leaving the palace,” Bimalendra Nidhi, a official of the Nepali Congress party, told AFP.

“The former king respects the decision of the constituent assembly and is willing to leave the palace soon.”

Nidhi also said the government had decided to withdraw army soldiers guarding Gyanendra and to throw a party in the pink-hued palace after he leaves.

The royal palace is still guarded by some 1,500 soldiers but Nepal’s army — previously seen as a bastion of royalists — has said it would comply with any government orders to withdraw security cover.

The Maoist-dominated new assembly, which will rewrite the Himalayan nation’s constitution, abolished the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy and transformed Nepal into a republic — capping a peace process that ended a decade-long civil war.

Some 13,000 people were killed in the insurgency launched by the Maoists in 1996 to install a communist republic in the world’s only Hindu kingdom.

All eyes have been on the king since then, who is still holed up in his heavily-guarded sprawling palace in the heart of Kathmandu and has issued no statement.

The government has asked the king to coordinate his departure with them so they can take “appropriate measures” for his security, a report in the state-run daily the Rising Nepal said Saturday.

But the king is apparently being hampered in his move by worry over what to do with his mother Ratna and 94-year-old great-grandmother Sarala, party official Nidhi said.

“There is still a confusion on where the queen mother and queen grandmother are going to live,” said Nidhi.

Gyanendra, who as king was revered by devout Hindus as the incarnation of a god, has suggested it would be easier for him to leave if authorities can provide housing and security for them, the Rising Nepal added.

The ousted king may also have to look for housing for himself, with his private residence occupied by former crown Prince Paras, who is said to be on poor terms with his father.

“He is said to have been in discussions with his family regarding where he wants to settle after leaving the palace,” said Nidhi.

The king may be stalling for time after his astrologer said it would be “more auspicious” for him if he could hang on in the palace for another month, a report in Nepali-language daily Naya Patrika said.

Many ordinary Nepalese say they are delighted to see the back of the dour king as well as his son Paras and would-be heir, widely loathed for his reported playboy lifestyle in one of the world’s poorest countries.

Nepal on Friday began auditing property in the now nationalised palace, where the royal banner has been replaced by Nepal’s flag.

“All the property will be transferred to national property,” Information Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara told AFP.

The building will later be open to the public as a museum.

Gyanendra ascended the throne in 2001 after most of the royal family were slain by a drugged and drunk prince, but he failed to win the love of the public, many of whom believed rumours linking him to the killings.

His unpopularity deepened when he dismissed the government in a royal coup in early 2005. Mass protests led to a landmark peace agreement in 2006 that saw the king increasingly sidelined.