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PM hits back at ex-king Shah on royal comeback

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KATHMANDU, July 9: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said on Monday there would never be a comeback of monarchy in Nepal and warned that any move resisting the country’s adoption of republic would not be tolerated.



“The wheel of Nepal’s history won’t reverse. And so the monarchy will never return, at any cost,” the PM said sharply reacting to former king Gyanendra Shah’s remarks that he made during a TV interview aired Sunday evening.



 He said this while addressing a program held in the capital on the Global Bank’s merger with IME Financial Institution and Lord Buddha Finance. [break]



In an interview with the News24 Channel, Shah had said he was willing to see monarchy coming back in the country and that he was ready to assume a ´guardian’s role´. He, however, had said an active monarchy was not tenable in the country, with so much and so many developments already happened on the political front.



Likewise, Shah had said he had taken calls for his return to power positively, including the one by Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal Chairman Kamal Thapa, who during his party´s mass meet in the capital earlier had proclaimed that, if need be, they would restore monarchy by ´bringing the former king from Nagarjun Palace to the Narayanhiti´.



During the interview, Shah had also expressed his frustration over the leaders always harping on ever-evasive political consensus, an idea he had said was beyond ordinary people’s understanding, delivering little on the people’s needs and throwing the country into all kinds of mess, including the trend of inflation and lack of proper policies to guide the country´s foreign relations and education system, among other thing.



Taking a serious  exception to Shah´s remarks, the PM also threatened to scrap facilities the former king has been receiving from the state. Bhattarai conceded there are differences prevailing among political parties on a number of issues, but emphatically said the differences are for preserving democracy, not ending it.



“Positive dialogue (among political parties) is ongoing. We are seriously discussing a way out,” the PM said implying that the current political imbroglio does not require any intervention that brings about change in system itself.



Stating that a new Constituent Assembly (CA) is the alternative to the dissolved CA and that democracy can never be replaced with any other mode of system, the PM said, “Feudalists are raising their ugly head, taking advantage of the persisting political vacuum.”


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