Carrying posters bearing slogans like “We want our King back,” “Abolish federal republican system and reinstate the monarchy,” and “The King and the country are dearer than our life,” Nepal’s monarchists on Sunday turned out big for a visit by former King Gyanendra Shah to Kathmandu, the Hindustan Times reports on what one might describe as a bit of regression in the Himalayan nation.
Now this wasn’t a defiant return from exile as, while it’s unclear from the article where Gyanedra currently resides, he’s not an enemy of the state like Napoleon or Idi Amin and has been free to move about Nepal since he was dethroned and the monarchy abolished by parliament in 2008. It’s also unclear how much momentum he’s got, as this was hundreds, not thousands of subjects turning out for their king, but that he can say publicly that the “time has come for us to assume responsibility to protect the country and bring about national unity,” without any major pro-democracy protestors coming at him might be at least an indication of where this could be going.