The King’s latest gambit –a reluctant offer to allow the agitating Seven Party Alliance (SPA) to nominatetheir Prime Minister and join a ‘national government’ – has predictablyand rightly provoked contempt and fury in the Nepali street. The King offerednothing that could have been acceptable to the SPA and, more importantly, to thepeople who have now clearly gone beyond party campaigns and affiliations todirectly challenge and reject the monarchy in what is increasingly taking theshape of a people’s revolt. Indeed, it should have been clear that, since May22, 2002, when he dissolved Parliament, and acutely since the February 1, 2005,‘King’s coup’, in which he seized direct power, the King has been part ofthe problem, and has systematically destroyed the very possibility of being partof any permanent solution in Nepal.