Word: birendra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...That decision has put some of the chief remaining royals on the defensive. Though investigations in the immediate aftermath of the attack closed the case, pinning the blame on an emotional Prince Dipendra, most Nepalis never quite accepted the accession of Birendra's businessman brother, Gyanendra, to the throne, and balked at his son Paras becoming crown prince. Paras is known chiefly for his penchant for fast cars and liquor, often in combination. But last week he titillated the nation by leaking to a tabloid in Singapore - where he now lives in a luxury home - alleged proof...
...with a woman from a rival clan of nobles. It was supposedly a crime of passion and intoxication - but Paras told Singapore's New Paper: "There was no smell of alcohol on [Dipendra]." According to Paras, the crown prince had intended to take down his popular father ever since Birendra relinquished absolute power after pro-democracy protests in 1990. The loss of that political mandate was made worse for Dipendra after his father scuttled an arms deal with a German riflemaker that could have yielded the prince a windfall of over $1 million. "That was the real trigger," claimed Paras...
...Nepal's palace massacre in 2001 - when crown prince Dipendra allegedly gunned down 10 members of his own family, including his father, King Birendra Shah, before shooting himself - has for the most part receded into memory in this impoverished Himalayan nation. Since then, a Maoist rebellion found its way into power, transformed the kingdom into a republican democracy and abolished the monarchy altogether last year. Yet the current government, headed by the former rebels, still indulges in periodic bouts of royal-bashing, often to paper over the increasingly apparent shortcomings of its own rule. As fuel lines in Kathmandu stretch...
...Nepal's monarchy hammered the nail in its own coffin in spectacular fashion in 2001, when Crown Prince Dipendra gunned down 10 members of the royal family, including the much beloved King Birendra, and then allegedly shot himself. The attack, clouded by conflicting reports and conspiracy theories, sent shock waves around the world and plunged Nepal into existential crisis. With a centuries-old dynasty virtually eliminated overnight, in stepped the reigning King's brother, Gyanendra. As the Maoist insurgency raged, Gyanendra declared a state of emergency in 2005, arresting mainstream political leaders and assuming absolute power. But he could...
...Nepal for over a decade.“The 12 years of democracy that followed were unfortunately marked by corruption, nepotism, and mismanagement of government, and the civil war broke out,” Basnyat said. Pro-democratic protests in 1990 similar to the current ones led King Birendra, who came to Harvard for a year in 1967 and was a resident of Quincy House, to give up his executive powers and turn the country into a constitutional monarchy modeled after England and Japan.On June 1, 2001, King Birendra and seven other members of the royal family were shot...