Another news;
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1537738.cms
KATHMANDU: The crown clung gingerly on beleaguered monarch Gyanendra's head on Thursday as Nepal's Parliament asserted itself as the supreme voice by adopting a resolution ending privileges of the two-century-old monarchy and stripping him of the title of commander of the 90,000-strong Royal Nepalese Army.
The House of Representatives that convened after four years — after Gyanendra was forced by street protests to give up some of his absolute powers on April 24 — unanimously passed a resolution transferring the king’s inherent rights to choose an heir to the throne to Parliament, making his assets and income taxable. The royal extravagance costs Nepalese taxpayers an estimated $5 million each year.
Significantly, Thursday's proclamation erased the world's only Hindu kingdom from the map. Nepal would now be a secular state, it declared. It also effectively ended the king being worshipped as an avatar of Vishnu.
"This proclamation written with martyrs’ blood has made the people fully sovereign now," Prime Minister GP Koirala said. "People have been declared sovereign and the source of entire state power."
The proclamation said the king’s actions were subject to parliamentary and judicial scrutiny.
The move finally settles the biggest demand of the pro-democracy protesters — that the monarchy be made powerless and titular. Even as Parliament debated the move this week, angry protesters shouted slogans across Kathmandu demanding that Koirala must not be allowed to waste the long struggle. It should also help end the violent campaign by the Maoists, whose primary demand was an end to the oppressive monarchy.
Koirala’s administration moved towards punishing the monarchy earlier this week when it threw several top pro-royalist officials and ministers into jail, holding them responsible for police and military excesses against pro-democracy protesters.