As the countdown for declaring Nepal a republic begins with only weeks left for the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly to take place, Nepali King Gyanendra has reportedly said that he just wishes for a "respectable status" even though that means according him cultural and religious rights only.
This was conveyed by Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Nepal) Chairman Kamal Thapa to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M) Chairman Prachanda during their meeting at the latter's Nayabazaar residence in Kathmandu on Monday, reported a leading website, nepalnews.com.
During the nearly hour-long meeting, Thapa tried to learn about the CPN-Maoist leadership's proposal of affording "honorable exit" to the monarch, the report said.
Thapa also told the CPN-Maoist leadership that King Gyanendra wanted the Maoist leadership to uphold the April 11, 2006 agreement between the royal palace and the political parties, which effectively ended King Gyanendra's royal regime and led to the formation of the seven-party government and started the peace process.
Thapa told Prachanda that the king wants the CPN-Maoist leadership to abide by this understanding and also conveyed to Prachanda that the king intends to remain as the "symbolic" king having "cultural and religious rights".
In the earlier meeting with Thapa, Prachanda had proposed that if the king voluntarily abdicated, he would be accorded a respectful place and could even be allowed to be active in politics.
According to the report, top CPN-Maoist leaders have stepped up their rhetoric against the king in recent days, saying that if he doesn't voluntarily leave his throne, they might even consider overthrowing him out of the palace by using force.
Source:Xinhua
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