editThe furor created in power circles over former king Gyanendra’s scathing attack on the current state of the polity is understandable. Among other things, his analysis is as close to the truth as possible and there is none other than the current political masters who are aware the king was reflecting the current popular mood. It is perhaps this popular awareness that makes them react in the manner they have threatening the king. The threat has rebounded and this is what scares them more. The most widely pointed out anomaly in the king’s statement is the fact that it has been issued in no official context as is the practice of our royals and this is what propels the flurry of reactions. The king has drawn criticisms, no doubt and that was expected. But why has he chosen to draw the wrath of our all powerful keepers at this particular juncture of time. One reason of course is that the system that they have chosen to tout as one is falling apart at the core. The legislature is stalemated. The constitution that remains incomplete over a year after its promulgation is finding implementation remote. The streets have resumed its volatility on grounds the constitution claimed to have solved. The agitation months approach with the Tarai remaining as disgruntled, the ethnics threatening to reemerge in oppositions, the elections promised remaining as distant as ever. Indeed, even the constitution is approaching irrelevancy given the increasing possibility that the elections may now be held underlined demarcated in the previous constitution and not under the new constitution that our overlords so proudly insist that they have drafted. Indeed, it is increasingly likely that any compromise of the sort will be done conceding the ‘special’ circumstances of the implementation stage that is contradiction on its own. Yet another reason for the flurry in government and ‘system’ could quite possibly be, as very hesitantly pointed out, the king’s visits abroad. Having for so long claimed the monopoly of external well wishers, there is this lurking threat that the king could have turned the tables on them. If this assessment holds, then one might well expect that a new phase will have begun where our monopolists gang up on the monarchy again. As much as the people and media have been seen more tolerant behind the former monarch this round, realistic assessment of the monopoly of the organized sector that our politicians retain, one would wish that there is similar publicly visible organized and effective support from the people on the streets. It is this that tempers expectations raised by the former king prompting reactions. Looks like much sequels are to follow and this is for starters.