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Nepal to scrap king-above-law acts
The Times India - November 14, 2008
Kathmandu – In 1960, when Nepal's then all-powerful king Mahendra staged a coup and banned the political parties, the elected prime minister B.P. Koirala and his trade union leader brother Girija Prasad Koirala, who would lead two anti-monarchy movements later, were sent to prison under the State Offence Act (SOA).
Almost four decades later, when the Maoist guerrillas began their People's War to overthrow Mahendra's son, the then king Birendra, the government began arresting suspected Maoists and their sympathisers in Midwestern Rolpa district, the cradle of the insurgency, under the same act.
Now finally, both the Maoists, who are leading the government, and Koirala, the leader of the opposition, can hope to see an end to the draconian law and its misuse with Nepal's Supreme Court asking the government to abolish or amend the law along with two more that proclaimed the king and the royal family to be above criticism.
Under the SOA, a person could be sent to prison or be fined for writing, saying or even thinking something that directly or indirectly inflamed hatred, envy or contempt of the royals or trying to do so. It was supported by two more laws, the Printing Press and Publishing Act and the Broadcasting regulations that effectively gagged the media.
The criticism of the royals was prohibited as late as 2005 when king Gyanendra, following in the footsteps of his father, jailed the prime minister and began ruling the country himself with the help of the army.
However, the 2005 coup triggered widespread public protests that finally forced the king to step down in April 2006. Two years later, Nepal went to the hustings to decide if it should keep the king or not and overwhelmingly voted to become a republic.
But even though the newly elected constituent assembly on May 28 decided that the king should become a commoner and asked him to vacate the royal palace, the new government, plagued with infighting among its coalition partner and steady attacks by the opposition, failed to scrap the laws that provide impunity to the royals.
The glaring omission was pointed out in Supreme Court by an NGO, Freedom Forum, which was ironically formed in the draconian year of the royal coup. Reacting to the writ, the apex court on Thursday asked the Maoist government to axe or amend the laws.
Soon after the historic election, Gyanendra lost his crown and palace and was asked to pay his bills and taxes. Now, with his legal immunity also going, the former royal family could be hauled up in court like any other commoner for misdemeanour.
The Maoists have threatened to start a fresh investigation into the palace massacre in 2001 that killed 10 royals and enabled Gyanendra, a younger brother, to ascend the throne. If they put their threat into action, the erstwhile royals may find themselves inside a court room for the first time in the 239-year history of the crown.
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