KATHMANDU: Nepal's former king Gyanendra Shah was welcomed back to Kathmandu on Sunday (March 9) by thousands of supporters who have been staging pro-monarchy demonstrations in the Himalayan republic.
The Hindu-majority nation became a secular republic in 2008 after parliament abolished the monarchy as part of a peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war in which more than 16,000 people were killed.
However, support for the restoration of the monarchy and a Hindu state has grown amid dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and slow economic development.
Shah's supporters cheered and waved Nepal's flag, chanting "Come king, save the nation" as he greeted them at the Kathmandu airport gate.
The former king had been touring the country in recent weeks and returned to the capital from Pokhara in central Nepal.
"The country faces instability, prices are high, people are jobless, and there is a lack of education and healthcare facilities," said Rajindra Kunwar, 43, a teacher who had joined the crowd.
"The poor are dying of hunger. The law applies to the public, but not to politicians. That's why we need the king back," he said.
Gyanendra, 77, has largely refrained from commenting on Nepal's fractious politics and calls for the monarchy's restoration, although he has made several recent public appearances with supporters.
"It is now time. If we wish to save our nation and maintain national unity, I call on all countrymen to support us for Nepal's prosperity and progress," the former king said in a statement on the eve of national Democracy Day commemorations last month.
Political analyst Lok Raj Baral told AFP that he did not see any possibility of the monarchy being restored because the institution had been "a source of instability".
"For some disgruntled groups, it has become a retreat due to incompetence of politicians who have grown increasingly self-centred. This frustration has manifested in such gatherings and demonstrations," he said.
Shah was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother king Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were killed in a palace massacre that wiped out most of the royal family.
His coronation took place as a Maoist insurgency was raging in far-flung corners of Nepal.
Shah suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic movement in which the Maoists sided with Nepal's political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests.
Parliament voted in 2008 to abolish Nepal's 240-year-old Hindu monarchy. - AFP
