Enigma of Prithvi Narayan Shah

The uncertainty that the political interpretations have created about the king carries a burden of ambivalence.

The present coalition government led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, president of the CPN (Maoist Centre), decided to give a public holiday on the occasion of Prithvi Jayanti, which is observed on January 11. The pro-monarchist Rastriya Prajatantra Party that carries the value, if not the political structuration of the erstwhile Panchayat political ideology, led by a young politician named Rajendra Lingden from my region Limbuwan, had set this as a condition for giving a vote of confidence in favour of the Prachanda-led government. As the algorithm of the hung Parliament would have it, even the largest party in the House, the Nepali Congress, has voted in favour of the present coalition of parties despite the opposite views held by its general secretaries Gagan Thapa and Bishwa Prakash Sharma and young intellectuals like Shankar Tiwari.