'Responsibility to people not given up'

Kathmandu, Jan 10: Nepal’s deposed king Gyanendra Shah on Sunday affirmed that he may have left the throne of his erstwhile kingdom but he had not given up his responsibility to Nepal and the Nepali people.

“I had left the palace not the country. I handed over the possessions of the people and left the palace for tiol interest and happiness, prosperity and satisfaction of the people,” Shah said in a statement issued here ahead of tiol Unity Day on January 11. “But, what all should remember is that I have not left my Nepali home and have not yet given up the responsibility for Nepal and Nepalis.” tiol Unity Day was earlier celebrated as Prithvi Jayanti, the birth anniversary of modern Nepal’s unifier King Prithvi rayan Shah.

Gyanendra, with his wife Komal, vacated the rayan Hiti royal palace in Kathmandu on June 11, 2008 following a parliamentary decision to abolish the morchy as part of negotiations with former Maoist rebels to underpin a peace accord.

Successive governments in Nepal have begun tiolising the properties of Gyanendra, and his elder brother king Birendra who was killed in a royal massacre in 2001. A trust is handling and maging the properties of the former royals.

“It is a need of the hour that what kind of responsibility, role and support the Nepali people want, and from whom, be revealed,” Gyanendra said.

On the hardships the people were facing, including inflation, scarcity and foreign dependence, the former ruler said: “Nepali people are struggling hard to mage two square meals a day and live a normal life. It is a matter of serious concern.” “Whatever wrangles have surfaced in the tion currently regarding rules, geography, governce and administration... it is not good,” he said.

In an oblique reference to the ongoing agitation in the southern plains by the Madhesi community, he urged all citizens to maintain the centuries-old commul harmony. (IANS)