The Death Of Vishnu

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For now, the murderer of Vishnu ascends Vishnu's throne. This legally valid though morally repellent succession--along with widespread disbelief of the official version of events that has the Crown Prince acting alone--has precipitated a constitutional and societal crisis in an already fragile democracy. "If the King himself has been deprived of justice," asks rickshaw puller Buta Misir, "then what can we poor people expect?" In Kathmandu over the weekend, agitated crowds gathered around the palace, and there were reports of panic buying of staple foods and gasoline. During the royal funeral procession, grieving citizens stoned the Prime Minister and other government officials, blaming them for not doing enough to protect the King.

Birendra had made the transition from absolutism gracefully, staying above factional politics and striving through literacy programs and public works efforts to project an image of the royal family as a discreet, benevolent force. Ambassador Keshav Raj Jha, a former Chief of Protocol, recalls that when the King visited Italy in 1994, he traveled by unmarked bus and stopped at McDonald's for coffee and snacks. "He refused to allow his security detachment to tell people who he was," says Raj Jha. "He waited in line just like the other motorists."

Now Nepalese are left with a comatose King who killed his father and a regent with a high-handed disdain for the democratic process. The Shah dynasty, proprietors of a 250-year lineage, has been virtually eradicated in a few bursts of gunfire. Nepalese are still pondering the gruesome narrative of the massacre. But their longer-term question is: Into what kind of society is our mountain kingdom evolving?