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KATHMANDU, Oct 5: Ousted Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said on Saturday his surprise dismissal by the king was unconstitutional as the insurgency-racked Himalayan country faced fresh turmoil.
King Gyanendra stunned the impoverished nation late on Friday, saying he was firing Deuba, postponing elections and assuming executive power for the first time since absolute rule by the monarchy was abolished in 1990.
“I cannot be removed constitutionally,” Deuba, whose government was the 11th in as many years, told supporters outside his house.
“I wanted elections. I decided to postpone elections because everybody requested (it)...all political parties,” he said.
The streets of the capital, Kathmandu, were calm with no signs of extra security after the announcement by the king, considered an incarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu god of protection.
The king’s move followed a recommendation by Deuba’s cabinet to delay elections by a year in the kingdom, which is battling a growing Maoist revolt and still reeling from last year’s massacre of the royal family by a drug-enraged crown prince.
The king said he had assumed control of the poverty-stricken country “for the time being only” because of a “deteriorating law and order situation” but set no time frame for new elections.
“This puts Nepalese politics in a mess,” said S.D. Muni, political scientist at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. “It doesn’t look like a power grab, but at the moment, the king is all-powerful.”
STRATEGY MEETINGS: Deuba was due to meet his newly formed Nepalese Congress (Democratic) party to discuss strategy. Other parties were also expected to hold meetings.
There was no immediate reaction from the Maoist rebels whose six-year battle to overthrow the constitutional monarchy and install a communist republic has claimed at least 5,000 lives.
“How political forces see his action will determine Nepal’s future political development. It may lead to a polarisation of political forces against the king,” said political science professor Lok Raj Baral at Tribuvan University in Kathmandu.
India urged its neighbour on Saturday to resolve the crisis and said it supported the kingdom’s multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy.
“We hope the present crisis will be resolved within the framework of constitutional processes for the peace, stability and development of Nepal,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao told Reuters.
Nepalese woke up to newspaper headlines reporting the king’s address to the world’s only Hindu kingdom.
“King takes over, Deuba gets boot,” the independent Himalayan Times said.
The Himalayan Times hailed the king’s move in an editorial. “Thankfully the monarch...has done what he was expected to do — defend the constitution in the best interests of the people.”
“I’m happy about the move,” farmer Ananta Bikram Malla, 57, said. “We can finally expect peace,” student Bhim Bahadur Shrestha, 20, said.
Kunda Dixit, editor of the weekly Nepali Times, also ruled out the possibility of a power grab by the king.
“The palace seems to have decided there’s no way forward without resolving the Maoist problem,” he said. “He can’t have elections with Maoists running rampage.”
Gyanendra pledged to uphold the parliamentary democratic system and called on parties to suggest within five days people who were not contesting the elections to form an interim government.
He did not say when the government would be formed but said he would oversee Nepal until it was set up. He said the interim administration would be responsible for maintaining order and holding elections. “Everything will be sorted out,” he pledged.
Deuba triggered the latest crisis when he sought to delay elections because of the mounting rebel violence.—Reuters
