The Royal Palace press secretariat has made public a number of directives issued by King Gyanendra to the government concerning development and other problems of the mid-western development region. The directives come soon after the completion of the King’s more than two weeks of recent tour of that region, which included his address at Nepalgunj that has led the agitating five political parties to conclude that he has made a decisive move towards active monarchy. The current directives are stated to have been given according to the suggestions of the people of that region so that the work that concerns the people directly is expedited. The directives include the adoption of additional steps to ensure public security and to speed up the completion of specific developmen works such as road construction. The King’s directives are not new but are already included in the government’s policies and programmes. It is another matter that they may not have been implemented.

The directives remind one of the days of Panchayat when the King used to tour various development regions and issue directives. But that did not bring development. During that period, however, the King was the “supreme leader”. But today he is a constitutional monarch. The 1990 Constitution permits him only to appreciate, admonish or recommend to the government on matters of national interest without a binding force. It vests the responsibility of issuing general directives, controlling and regulating the administration of the country in the council of ministers. But now, nobody has the people’s mandate. When the King handpicked Surya Bahadur Thapa as Prime Minister nine months ago, a Royal Palace notification had said that the Thapa government would enjoy the executive powers under Article 35 of the Constitution. But the present directives conflict with the Royal Palace notification itself, let alone with the provisions of the Constitution.

In the absence of an elected government, those in power do not enjoy more than a caretaker status. Therefore, they are not supposed to take decisions of far-reaching importance, simply because they are not accountable to the people. Therefore, activities like issuing directives have made the talk of transferring power to elected representatives as soon as possible suspect in the eyes of major political parties and many others. The reluctance to form an all-party government in consultation with them has further strengthened this perception. Major decisions, including the adoption of development models for the country and tackling of such problems as absolute poverty, political and social exclusion and women’s empowerment, should be left to a democratically elected government.