Down with despotism!

Following two weeks of public protest calling for an end to Nepal king Gyanendra’s absolute rule, the monarch, in a televised statement on Friday, April 21, announced he was restoring executive power back to the people. The public threw his offer for truce back at his face, refusing to believe that their absolute monarch could have a sudden change of heart. And the people were right – the king’s willingness to play along was, at best, a façade.

Looking back at the events that have taken place since then, this obviously seems to be the king’s idea of handing executive powers back to the people:

# Curfew imposed on Saturday April 22, a day after the king made the offer.
# More than 100 pro-democracy activists injured in clashes with police on Saturday.
# The ban on cell phones begins Saturday afternoon, a move said to be aimed at restricting text messages sent to organise protest rallies.
# An editorial in the state-run newspaper - Rising Nepal - warns of a ‘historic blunder’ if the opposition parties failed to accept the king’s offer!
# As per APF and CNN reports, police lob tear gas at pro-democracy protesters on Sunday, April 23, on the edge of Kathmandu, whose residents are under a new curfew and a cell phone ban. In another part of the city, the police charge protestors with batons to disperse the crowd.
# As per an APF report, a protestor dies in India on Sunday from bullet wounds received in clashes four days earlier in Nepal; he had been rushed to Lucknow for treatment.

Is anyone still buying the story of a despot’s change of heart?