Letter From Kathmandu: It's Bad to Be the King

Rohit Bhandari isn't a natural rebel. He has a good job as a technician in a Kathmandu medical laboratory and is the son of a bureaucrat and mid-level leader for Nepal's pro-monarchy Rashtriya Prajatantra Party. And yet Bhandari, 26, found himself in a mob of thousands last week demanding "King Gyanendra, leave the country, or we will kill you," part of a tide of violent protests ripping across the mountain kingdom. Bhandari isn't sure why he is risking his life, beyond an unformed belief in "freedom" and a burning sense that Gyanendra, Nepal's absolute monarch, is keeping his country in the dark ages. "Everybody feels Nepal is being left behind," he says, as a Royal Nepalese Army helicopter buzzes overhead. "This is the 21st century. We can't have a God King. It's impossible to resist this."

Nepal, a country of 25 million, used to have three centers of power--the King, the political parties and a rebel Maoist army holed up in the Himalayas. Now there's a fourth: an angry population that's fed up with the other three and determined to strip all power from a monarchy that has reigned for more than two centuries. For about two weeks, young Nepalese have clashed with police and soldiers along a ring road surrounding the city, hurling bricks, burning tires and dodging tear gas, baton charges and the occasional live round. After the country's political parties rejected the King's proposal to resolve the crisis, mobs marched within blocks of the King's palace and were fired on by police. At least a dozen people have died nationwide.

The target of the rage is King Gyanendra, who took on dictatorial power 15 months ago in a coup backed by the army. He vowed to crush the rebels and weed out corruption. Instead, he locked up thousands of politicians, human-rights activists and students, while doing little to stop the Maoists. Opposition parties, in a loose alliance with the rebels, called for national protests this month, and Nepalese of all persuasions responded. "We don't want a constitutional King or a ceremonial King," says Suwas Bhetal, 24, as he moved toward the palace on Sunday. "We want him to leave the country."

They may get their wish. Gyanendra's indifferent attitude toward the threats to his rule--H.M. KING GYANENDRA DOES NOT SEEK CHEAP POPULARITY, proclaims a billboard near the U.S. embassy--has fueled public anger even more. The King finally tried to mollify the masses last Friday, when he pledged to return power to the people and asked the political parties to nominate a Prime Minister. But the parties dismissed the King's offer and intensified their demand that he go. Even the King's associates believe his days are numbered. "He felt he had to take over, or we would all be Maoists by now," says a friend of the royal family. "But he miscalculated. He has no support."