Among the non-Left parties, it was the Nepali Congress that first ended, at the last party general convention, its six-decade-long love affair with “constitutional monarchy”, by striking any mention of monarchy off its statute. Since then, much has changed. Now, even the former diehards of the authoritarian Panchayat dispensation have started following suit. The recent decision of the Rashtriya Janashakti Party of former prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa and ex-minister Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani to drop its allegiance to “monarchy” has now been emulated by Pashupati Shumsher Rana’s truncated parent Rastriya Prajatantra Party. Other pro-palace parties do not even have a following and cadre base like these two parties. Thapa, Lohani and Rana had all virtually backed the royal takeover, and only later on, when they saw the tide turning against the active royal regime did they get increasingly critical of it, but still falling short of the clarity and resolution shown by the seven party alliance (SPA) on the issue. As a result, they could not bring themselves, as was their wont, to join the decisive people’s movement of last April.

In real terms, these parties of former Panchas may be termed marginal, but their latest decisions speak volumes for the direction national politics has taken. This U-turn reflects an admission of lifetime monarchists — first of the active variety, later of the constitutional one — that if they did not abandon “the core of their politics”, they would stand no chance of surviving in politics, as they are highly unlikely to be able to face the people with a royalist agenda in the upcoming constituent assembly (CA) polls. It would be naive to believe that they would have reversed their fundamental tenet, had they seen that they could carry on as before without inviting any serious threat to their political existence. Though they have cut off their umbilical cords with the monarchy, they have not jumped on the republican bandwagon yet. They, like the NC, are now sitting on the fence, probably still not fully confident of the ultimate direction the country will take and therefore looking for the opportune moment to throw the dice.

While many in the Congress have urged the leadership to come clear on the party’s stance on the monarchy, some favour taking a position only after the CA polls, something that hardly behoves any party, much less a major one. A question also arises, why should the people vote for any party when they do not know where it stands on such vital debates as monarchy v republic and federal v unitary structure? At this moment, it is uncertain whether the CA polls will take place on June 20. But unless the postponement is announced, one should still assume that thi-ngs would go according to plan. By this time, all parties should have already come up with their stands on the most important issues. In the event that the CA polls are delayed, the pressure is likely to increase for the interim parliament to decide on the monarchy v republic debate and serious questions may be raised about the one-year-long SPA government.