Gyanendra Shah warns against attempts to foil harmony
KATHMANDU: Former King Gyanendra Shah has warned that serious attempts are underway to foil social harmony among people of Nepal.
Issuing a strongly worded press statement, the former monarch said the feeling of unity among plains, hills and mountains was under attack.
"Misusing sentiments of words like revolutionary, change-making and sacrificing," he said, "The ongoing attempts to weaken the nation and erase national pride are not only unceremonious, but also intolerable."
"The foundations of the nation plagued by the politics of boycott and revenge can be strong in no way," he further said, "The works carried out to fulfill specific vested interests by soiling the history cannot be appreciable."
The former King has avoided mentioning any political force in his statement, but his words apparently refer to the recently surfaced political differences over implementation of the new Constitution among major political forces.
Meanwhile, Shah reminded that the permanent sources of power are the nation and its people.
Therefore, he said, languages, religious, cultures, histories and faiths they have should be protected.
"This is the primary foundation of sovereignty," he added.
"But unfortunately," the monarch dethroned from the first Constituent Assembly in 2008 lamented, "Temporary power centres are in dominance and the permanent power and people-based power are gradually shattered."
"(But) the feeling of patriotism in Nepali hearts and minds have not fallen down," he concluded, calling one and all to "bear the serious responsibility assigned by the history to protect the nation and hand over its integrated existence to their children."