Seven years is not a long time in a country´s political history. But during this period Nepal has seen unfettered political promiscuity.
It is, to some, a horrific reflection of the state of Nepali politics that Lokendra Bahadur Chand is back in the prime minister´s chair. Mr Chand´s earlier appointment as prime minister towards the culmination of the 1990 "People´s Movement" saw the largest-ever mass protest in Nepal´s history. Granted, the non-menacing Mr Chand´s appointment then was meant to be seen as a conciliatory move by King Birendra. But that day, 6 April 1990, saw the massacre of unarmed demonstrators by security forces in front of the royal palace. Mr. Chand, as leader of the "royalists" went on to establish the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP). He represented the palace in negotiations with leaders of the popular movement and the smashing of his limousine by agitated cadres of the Nepali Congress and the communists during the talks indicated the depth to which the Panchayat pols had fallen in public esteem.
The 6 April massacre ushered the end of the King´s legitimacy to rule absolutely, and two days later he lifted the ban on political parties, effectively ending the Panchayat system.
The period when the new Nepali Constitution was being drafted was under the rule of an interim government, which included two royalist members, but was essentially a Congress-Leftist alliance. This government, headed by the then president of the Congress, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, failed to carry out a cathartic cleansing of the system by punishing wrongdoers of the old regime; however, it did bring in a Constitution and in June 1991 delivered the first free democratic elections in more than three decades. A majority Congress government took office, but it fell to internal squabbles barely three years into its rule. The directionlessness of subsequent years up to today began with the inability of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to conduct political management. He took dissidence within the party as attacks on his person and over-reacted, to the extent that a sizeable chunk of the Congress party voted against him in Parliament. Mr Koirala was forced to call elections, which resulted in a hung house with the Left romping home with more numbers.