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Nepal: Treading cautiously on democratic grounds

Categories: South Asia, Nepal, Human Rights, Politics, Protest

After almost three weeks of protest, King Gyanendra of Nepal has agreed to restore parliament. The King had dissolved the lower house of the Parliament in 2002 because the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's government had apparently failed in the peacetalks with the Maoists . Events unfold in Nepal with great pace. In the middle of protest and the King's stand, Legal News From Nepal says [1]

The Nepal Bar Association on Tuesday called on the parliament, which is scheduled to convene on Friday, to scrap all the ordinances brought during the King's direct rule.NBA urged the parliament to scrap the ordinances that had been introduced to curb the rights of the people.

Nepal News, which provides information for tourists visiting Nepal is cautious [2]

While this means that the situation can improve in somewhat in Nepal (especially around Kathmandu), the Maoists have remained cautious to the announcement. They have vowed to continue bloackades of roads across the country and a wave of protests by their cadres until their goal of constituent assembly elections is achieved.

Amardeep collates posts as he tries to understand what the end of Monarchy looks like [3]. An interesting discussion is on at Pickled Politics [4] on the same issue. Blogdai [5] warns that mob rule could take over as one hears cries of “too little too late”. There's a great discussion thread on that post.

Having your demands met is too little? It's now too late for your street protests to have any positive outcome? Are you saying that you will now only settle for the complete destruction of Nepal? I thought this whole thing was about “restoring democracy.” Well, now it's being restored and you don't want it?

Bahas expresses cautious optimism and highlights that options for the future will largely determine the success of the revolution [6]. United We Blog! raises similar questions on the future of Monarchy and its relevance in Nepal. Samudaya has some brilliant photographs of the victory celebrations [7]. Some other interesting photostreams can be found at Flickr like this one [8] or by searching for those tagged Nepal [9]. International Nepal Solidary Network [10] has a roundup on media sources from India.