Gyanendra's India visit effort to restore monarchy: Bhattarai

Kathmandu, Feb 28 (PTI) The visit to India by Nepal's
deposed King Gyanendra has sparked a row in the Himalayan
nation, with a top Maoist leader accusing the former ruler of
visiting New Delhi in an attempt to restore the monarchy,
which was abolished in the country last year.

Nepal's Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai claimed
that Gyanendra was in India to make efforts to restore the
monarchy in the Himalayan nation.

Gyanendra is on a week-long trip to India. He arrived
in India on Wednesday to attend the wedding of his relatives
in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The former monarch, who was deposed
last May, is likely to meet India's top leaders including
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi
as well as BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani during his visit.

"Gyanendra is currently in India to get the Indian
support to revive the monarchy in Nepal," Bhattarai was quoted
as saying by the Telegraph Nepal online today.

"The King, who was defeated by the people is
conspiring to bounce back to power," alleged Bhattarai, who is
also the second in command of the CPN-Maoist leading the
coalition government.

Addressing a gathering at Kharanitar in Nuwakot
district Friday, the tip Maoist leader said Gyanendra "is
trying every thing possible to declare his grand son
(Hridayendra) the new king of Nepal".

Bhattarai blamed the former king for making efforts to
come back and restore monarchy though he was defeated by the
people.

Gyanendra was at the centre of many conspiracy
theories linking him to the 2001 Palace massacre in which his
popular older brother Birendra was slaughtered. That massacre
-- most of the royal family was slain by the then crown prince
Dipendra, who was allegedly fuelled by a of drugs and
alcohol -- was what led Gyanendra to ascend the throne.

Accusing Gyanendra of 'destroying the proofs' of the
royal massacre, Prime Minister Prachanda has pledged to probe
the entire episode to unearth the 'inside story'.

The monarchy's end on May 28 last year was the
culmination of a two-year peace process that saw Nepal's
communist rebels transformed from feared insurgents into the
country's dominant political force.

Many ordinary Nepalese are delighted to see the back
of the dour, unpopular king as well as his son Paras --
notorious for his playboy lifestyle.

Nepal swore in its first post-royal government on
August 22 following the Himalayan country's abolition of its
unpopular 240-year-old monarchy after the CPN-Maoist emerged
as the single largest party in the April 10 constitutional
assembly polls last year. PTI SBP
SAK
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