Making A Difference

The Truant Prince

Wine, women and recklessness: Paras isn't exactly a man all love

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The Truant Prince
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When Gyanendra was crowned king on June 4, he issued a royal proclamation declaring his wife Komal the queen of his kingdom. But what was surprising was his decision to break away from the tradition of naming his eldest son heir. Sources say King Gyanendra refrained from naming Paras the crown prince because of the fear of incurring the wrath of his subjects.

For far too long has Nepal gasped in horror at Prince Paras' love for wine and women alongside his penchant for flouting laws. Invoking royal privileges to claim legal immunity, the prince might have saved himself from prison—but not from the silent contempt Nepalis hold him in.

Notorious for his reckless driving, Paras had in August last year knocked down and killed a motorcyclist in Kathmandu. The victim was budding musician Praveen Gurung. Instead of rushing Gurung to the hospital, Paras had fled the scene of the accident, only to return and intimidate the police personnel on duty.

The episode provoked spontaneous street protests in Kathmandu. Over 5 lakh people signed a petition to King Birendra, hoping he would at least strip Paras of his royal title and enable police to take action against him. But the palace forwarded the signatures to Prime Minister G.P. Koirala and asked him to ascertain the veracity of the claim made in the petition. Forgotten, obviously, was the fact that this was the third fatal accident Paras had been linked to in four years.

Known for not being able to hold his drink, Paras is considered quite a nuisance at X Jones, an upmarket nightclub the rich patronise. The prince has been involved in several drunken brawls here, often for his advances towards women. Says a Kathmandu socialite: "When Paras isn't drinking, he is an angel. Drunk, he's a monster."

Sources in Nirmal Niwas, the residence Gyanendra occupied as a prince, say that Paras was a problem child. He was withdrawn from the British-run exclusive school, Budhanilakantha, when his grades and behaviour didn't quite behove a prince. He was then sent to a school in Connecticut, US, the distance enough for keeping up royal pretensions. From there he went to college in London, only to return to Nepal and dismay its citizens.

In 1999, the errant prince was married to Himani Singh, daughter of the royal family of Sikar, India. Marriage, it was hoped, would help Paras mend his ways. But seven months later the Gurung incident provoked The Kathmandu Post to write: "The alleged involvement of Prince Paras brings to the fore the need for members of the royal family to behave in public with a sense of responsibility and in a manner befitting their status."

His father did try to instil the virtue of responsibility in his truant son. As head of Nepal's major nature conservation project, Gyanendra appointed Paras as head of the committee overseeing the kingdom's only zoo; he is also on the board of directors of Soaltee, a luxury hotel the royal family owns. The gestures might be as much a manifestation of royal prerogative as of a father's inulgence of his son, but all the Nepalis hope for is that the changed circumstances might change the impetuous 28-year-old who could still become their king one day.

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