KATHMANDU: Nepal's former king Gyanendra Shah (pic) has expressed concern over the state of the country four months after a youth-led uprising toppled the previous government.
At least 76 people were killed during the demonstrations last September, which saw four-time prime minister KP Sharma Oli ousted and replaced by former chief justice Sushila Karki in an interim capacity until elections scheduled later this year.
Shah, who was deposed in 2008 at the end of a decade-long civil war, has largely refrained from commenting on Nepal's fractious politics.
But in a 12-minute video address on Saturday for national unity day, he warned Nepal "itself might not survive anymore".
"Nearly two decades since we left the palace, the crisis the country continues to face has us worried," Shah said, with a picture of the late king Prithvi Narayan Shah, the first to rule a united Nepal, visible in the background.
"Yesterday, there was a concern that there was no development in the country, but today there is a bigger worry that the country itself might not survive any more."
He criticised leaders who had failed to heed the needs of young people and this had "bred dissatisfaction among the youths".
"Seeking solutions without national consensus is merely wasting time. Let us all unite and move forward in the journey of prosperity."
Shah was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother king Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were killed in a palace massacre.
Shah suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic uprising in which a Maoist insurgency sided with Nepal's political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests.
That eventually precipitated the end of the conflict, with parliament voting in 2008 to abolish Nepal's 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.
Public support for restoration of the monarchy has grown in tandem with dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and slow economic development.
Last May, thousands of royalists marched in the capital Kathmandu demanding the restoration of the monarchy, but leaders of major political parties said it was "just a daydream".
On Sunday, royalists marked the anniversary of the birth of Prithvi Narayan Shah in front of Kathmandu's main administrative hub.
"We will have no country if there is no king," said Dhurba Raj Giri, 70, a farmer.
"Without a king as our guardian, the country is in this trouble." - AFP
