Nepal crown prince's birthday bash raises eyebrows
Saturday, January 06, 2007

The 36th birthday bash of Nepal's controversial Crown Prince Paras has raised media eyebrows - for a different reason this time.

'Incredible!', wrote a Nepali weekly, commenting on the party that was one of the most low-key celebrations the palace has seen in its 238-year-old history. 'The crown prince parties in a five-star hotel and yet there are no untoward incidents.'

The Ghatana R Bichar weekly was obliquely referring to the brawls Paras and his companions had kicked up in the past in nightclubs of five-star hotels.

Hugely overshadowed by the hanging of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the birthday of the crown prince, once a newsmaker because of his quick temper, went virtually unnoticed last Saturday.

When the Nepali weekly reported the bash, which was held at the capital's five-star Soaltee Hotel, it expressed surprise at the prince's conduct.

The party, a discreet family gathering attended by his royal cousins and their spouses and few select guests, saw Paras staying away from liquor.

Accompanied by his wife, Crown Princess Himani, Paras was the model of propriety and courtesy, greeting his guests with folded hands, the weekly said.

He went around offering drinks to the guests and was urged by them to have one himself but all through, politely declined, the weekly said.

Since the fall of King Gyanendra's government in April, the royals have been reportedly advised by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to sit tight and do or say nothing that might incur fresh public displeasure.

After one brush since then, when the crown prince was reported to have hit a bus carrying a wedding party and did not stop to see the damage done, Paras is said to have been behaving with restraint, playing golf and throwing an occasional party for family members.

Besides the ouster of the royal government and a series of state measures axing the powers of the king, the crown prince faces a big question mark regarding his succession to the throne.

With the government gearing up to hold an election by June, when the institution of monarchy will be put to vote, the prince faces the prospect of becoming reduced to a commoner.

The year 2006 brought the peril closer when he was asked by officers at the airport to pay duty on a parcel sent to him from Vienna, the first time ever that any royal was asked to do so.

- By Sudeshna Sarkar
http://www.indiaenews.com/nepal/20070106/34798.htm