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| Nepal's Ex-King Leaves Palace to Live as Commoner |
| Citizen reporter Umesh Shrestha reports from the first and last press conference by Gyanendra |
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Umesh Shrestha (salokya)  |
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Published 2008-06-12 12:23 (KST) |
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Montage of former King Gyanendra and his press conference at Narayanhity Palace in Kathmandu, June 11.
Unlike histories of monarchies around world, where kings were either killed or forced to flee, Nepal's transition to a republic is very peaceful and unique. Former King Gyanendra accepts the people's verdict and left the palace peacefully on Wednesday night, starting a new life as a commoner.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| As per the 15-day deadline set by the first meeting of the recently elected Constituent Assembly, Gyanendra was directed by the government to leave the palace premises by Wednesday.
He left with his wife in a black colored private car from the southern gate of palace, where scores of journalists and both well and ill-wishers were surrounded.
The government of Nepal has given Gyanendra the use Nagarjun Palace located on the outskirts of Kathmandu until another arrangement has been made for his stay.
A few hours before leaving the palace, the former king held a press conference inside palace where he welcomed the decision of ending the 240 year-old Shah Dynasty by the Constituent Assembly (CA) meeting.
"I have played a supportive role to facilitate the decision taken by the CA meeting," he said.
Even though I was preparing for my annual exam, I couldn't resist going there and witnessing this historical press conference. It was the first time that any press conference was held inside the palace premises. And it was Gyanedra's first press conference, too.
Journalists waiting to go inside the palace.
Like most Nepalis, I had never been inside Narayanhity Palace, located in the heart of Kathmandu. Hundreds of journalists and people were gathering at the main entrance of palace. Actually, palace officials were planning to call just a few selected journalists. But they failed to manage the crowd of domestic and international journalists. So they allowed entrance to all journalists who have valid press cards.
The press conference was covered live by all private TV channels but government-owned television station NTV broadcast only highlights of his speech.
The author (second from left) waiting to enter the main hall.
It was rather a speech reading than a press conference because we were told by palace officials that he would not take any questions. Crowds of journalists, from local news channels to CNN and BBC, from domestic photographers to international photographers were inside the Kashi Hall of palace where the press conference was held.
Security guard inside palace premises, which will be converted into a national museum soon.
Armed with a still camera and handy cam, I was there for the first time and amazed by the decoration of palace. I begin my job by capturing all these shots. All the furniture -- and even the dust bins -- bear the image of a scepter. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room and seating for the large number of journalists, and it was really a messy press conference. The government has already decided that the palace will be turned into a national museum.
And then there he was -- the former king with his famous smile and a "Namaste," a typical Nepali greeting. He was dressed simply and I did not see any traces of anxiety in his face. After he took a seat, hundreds of cameras began to flash. As he never faced any press conference in his life, he seemed a little bit confused at first, upon seeing the huge crowd of journalists.
He took out a set of plain glasses from his pocket and start reading his speech. The language was not royal. He called his ex-Royal Highness Queen "my wife" and called journalists "journalist friends."
He said he did not think about leaving the country, stating that he desired to contribute to the country’s greater interest and peace by remaining here and expressed his expectation for support in this regard from all sectors.
He explained about the handover of the Crown and Scepter that were conventionally used by the Kings of the Shah Dynasty and had remained as their inheritance to the Government of Nepal for their protection in perpetuity.
The crowd of journalists
He claimed that he had not acted in the way to violate anybody’s rights while he was head of state. Though he said this, it must be remembered that during his direct rule, Nepalis' civil rights were scrapped, Internet and mobile phone connections were cut. Not only that, he sent the army to media offices to censor the news content.
It was then when I start my career as a blogger on mysansar.com and begin writing for OhmyNews International. Several of my stories that appeared on OMNI were based on news of his autocratic rule. I was feeling great when I heard him urging understanding for any perceived pain and suffering caused by his actions or those of members of his family.
In those days we were on the streets defying his curfew orders to protest against his autocratic rule. Now we were inside the palace and he was reading his farewell speech.
Now a commoner: Gyanendra of Nepal
In the press conference, former King Gyanendra admitted that efforts to establish peace during his tenure of the past seven years were not successful. He gave several reasons.
He said he had not moved his assets to foreign countries and all his properties are inside Nepal. He refuted allegations that he had something to do with the 2001 palace massacre, in which 10 died and five were wounded.
"I could not express through word my internal pain when I was compelled and tied up by the chains of tradition and duty without being even able to shed tears over the mortal remains of those respected and beloved family members and lighten the burden of pain at the gruesome destruction of my close relatives. Even at that time some people blamed and accused me and my family with great indiscretion and cruelty but we had no alternative but to tolerate that too, nor were there people who spoke on our behalf," he told us during his emotional speech.
Several royal family members including then king, queen and crown prince died. The official report of investigation committee blamed drunken crown prince shooting his family but lots of Nepalis still did not believed in all this.
Banned Items: According to Nepal law, no one is allowed to keep these kind of tiger skins. But kings were above the law.
After his speech, I, along with my friend, began our live Webcast from inside palace for mysansar.com, a popular Nepali blog. It was easy to begin a simple Webcast as you need simple camera and laptop with free streaming service like ustream.tv. The Webcast is the first of its kind and made history in Nepal's online media and citizen journalism. The only problem we faced was the access speed to the Internet. We have to rely on a low speed CDMA Internet service. We interviewed several journalists and Webcasted live pictures of Kaski Hall of the royal palace. The video link of recorded Webcast can be found here.
It was ironic that we were Webcasting live from the same palace from where then King Gyanendra ordered the cutting of the Internet for several days and thus invited a boom in citizen journalism amidst tight censorship in mainstream media.
Another banned item: Rhino's head
Decoration of the palace
Decoration
Portraits of past kings
Let's see how it feels to be king. Some journalists dare to sit in the same seat from where the former king delivered his speech. But some journalists, including us, did not like their behaviour.
Some furniture was broken by the crowd
Narayan Wagle, Editor of the widely circulated Nepali daily Kantipur, taking pictures
Decorations
Royal dust bin
Gyanendra, last monarch of Nepal
Decoration outside the building
Narayanhity Palace, also dubbed the "pink palace"
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©2008 OhmyNews
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