The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: With Nepal witnessing pro-monarchy protests, a group of concerned citizens have issued a statement, condemning what they termed as former king of the country Gyanendra Shah’s efforts to bring back monarchy in Nepal with the backing of religious fundamentalists in India.
“Gyanendra Shah’s descent into political activism subverts the nation-building efforts of his own ancestors and carries the danger of weakening the country before its neighbours and the world. The royalist flank is willing to endanger the country politically and geopolitically at a time when Nepal’s foreign affairs and neighbourly relations are at their most vulnerable,” says the statement released on Monday (March 24).
The statement, signed by Mohna Ansari, Kanak Mani Dixit, Rajan Kuikel, Reeta Pariyar, Charan Prasai, Sushil Pyakurel, Dinesh Tripathi and Hira Vishwakarma said that the three foundational pillars of the Constitution are democratic republic, federalism and secularism.
Undermining any one of these pillars will destroy the delicate balance that the document represents, leading to confusion, political instability and a faltering economy, said the statement.
“The public knows well that Gyanendra Shah has been lobbying India’s political establishment to get back to the throne in Nepal. This is the same political class of New Delhi which seeks constantly to intervene in the affairs of India’s smaller neighbours, and which outdid itself by blockading Nepal for nearly half a year in 2015,” said the citizens in the statement.
The statement added that it is common knowledge that the political leadership in New Delhi is unhappy with the Constitution of Nepal (2015), and seeks to benefit electorally in India by trying to engineer an abandonment of secularism in Nepal and the establishment of a “Hindu state.”
‘Efforts to bring back monarchy with support of Hindutva fundamentalists’
“Meanwhile, BJP Chief Minister Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh, host to many visits by Gyanendra to Lucknow, has publicly expressed his desire for Nepal to revert to monarchy. Any move to return to monarchy with the support of Hindutva fundamentalists of India weakens Nepal’s sovereignty and independence,” said the statement.
“To recall, it is the same Gyanendra Shah who, in 2005, using the army, derailed democracy and assumed direct autocratic rule. Seeking to emulate his father Mahendra’s coup d’état of 1960, he abolished Parliament, jailed hundreds of political leaders and civil society dissenters, and became chairman of the royal regime that lasted a little over a year until it was brought down by the People’s Movement,” it added.
The statement added that the ex-king needs to understand that, over the course of the past decade, Nepal has firmly established itself as a federal, secular republic, and the remaining challenge is to provide good governance and prosperity under the Constitution.
“The ex-king is one, who once before, grabbed power under the excuse of poor performance of political parties and carried out unsuccessful direct rule. All must understand the designs of Gyanendra Shah and his promoters to misuse the freedom provided by our democratic system to try and spread conflict and anarchy,” said the statement.
Earlier this month, a pro-monarchy protest that took place in Nepal’s capital on March 9 stirred domestic politics as well as drew considerable attention from the international media. Former King Gyanendra was welcomed by thousands of supporters upon his return from Pokhara, a tourist city in western Nepal where he had spent a week. His supporters escorted him from the airport to his private residence in central Kathmandu.