Exclusive | "Will Nepal Remain A Democracy?": In Conversation With S D Muni
Lately, Nepal has been burning, and its power corridors were swarmed by the Nepali youth under the Gen Z-led protest, resulting in the resignation of Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, followed by the appointment of the first female interim Prime Minister of Nepal, Sushila Karki. However, speculations were high about the political future of Nepal, whether it would follow a democratic setup or would fall back to the Monarchy.
To discuss the political future of Nepal, Timeline reached out to the South Asian Expert, Prof. S D Muni, who, while briefing about the political history of Nepal, gave out the prospects of Nepal’s future.
While answering the question, how he sees the future of Nepal’s politics, Prof Muni said, “I think Nepal will remain democratic. I have absolutely no doubt about that. There are interests and there are forces that want to bring back monarchy, which are in favor of royalty, and they say the present crisis would be solved by royalty.”
Emphasising his argument about his views on Nepal’s democracy, S D Muni said, “To my mind, this doesn’t seem practically possible for one or two reasons, because Nepal was ruled by a monarchy for 250 years. If a monarchy can deliver to the people, then the rewards would not have taken place. Even the Maoist revolution or Maoist insurgency, which rose up, was largely because people felt very, very unsatisfied and frustrated. That’s why they joined the Maoist revolution, and that’s why monarchy was thrown away”.
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“If monarchy can deliver, and look at the character of the monarchy, they had a palace massacre in which the entire king and his family was eliminated, and nobody knows how it has happened. There has been no investigation, no inquiry as to how actually this happened. What is being said as a accident by one prince is not very convincing. There is a problem with monarchy, and you cannot have… All over the world, the monarchies are being pushed away. Even in Thailand, they are pushed away unless it’s like British monarchy which does not interfere in politics at all”, he added.
“I don’t think it has a prospect. Therefore, it will remain democratic. It will remain Republic, to my mind. Whether it will be federal, how it would be, what rights would be there, how development will take place, much depends upon the new leadership which will come up. I think old leadership has been discredited completely. Let us see how it really emerges. But there are strong political parties. After the interim arrangement, as and when the elections take place, we will see what really people want”, Prof Muni said on the future democractic aspects in Nepal.
