Sunday’s popular reception of former king Gyanendra Shah as he returned to Kathmandu following his months-long tour of the country was a major topic of discussion in Parliament on Tuesday.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, chairman of the main opposition CPN (Maoist Centre), alleged that the misgovernance of the past seven months under the KP Sharma Oli-led coalition had resulted in royalists taking to the streets.

Speaking in the House of Representatives, Dahal said that the government’s incompetence had pushed people from all sectors and communities towards agitation.

The Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, the first and second biggest parties in Parliament, inked a seven-point agreement on July 1 last year to form a coalition government. Before that, the Maoist Centre, the third largest party in the House, led the government with the support of one of the two largest parties.

Ever since the Dahal government was toppled, the Maoist Centre has been accusing the Congress and the UML of incompetence and bad governance.

Addressing the winter session of Parliament for the second time after it convened on January 31, Dahal also claimed that foreign forces were involved in the pro-monarchy rally of March 9 in Kathmandu.

“There is an organised force behind the increasing activities of the royalists,” Dahal said. “It is driven by internal elements with foreign forces manoeuvring to provoke the royalists.”

Dahal, however, did not name any such outside force.

Dahal recalled that in many countries, monarchy was abolished through violence. In Nepal, it was done respectfully, giving the former royals the status of ordinary citizens even after the revolutionary political change. Dahal argued that democracy had given royalists the right to speak and warned the political parties.

Dahal also acknowledged that the present system was achieved not only due to the revolution launched by the Maoist party but also the participation of scores of people who joined the movement to establish full-fledged democracy.

“I urge the royalists to search for your space under this system,” Dahal said.

While Dahal blamed the ruling coalition for growing public disenchantment with the system, Gagan Thapa, general secretary of the Nepali Congress, countered him. Thapa argued that the monarchists had become proactive not merely due to the incumbent government’s failure.

At the House meeting, Thapa advised Dahal, the Maoist chief, not to make statements implying that everything was right when he was in power, but everything went wrong when he left.

The opposition has the right to question, but let’s not exaggerate the situation, Thapa replied to Dahal.

Arguing that all the political parties were to blame for the current situation, Thapa urged all national forces to reflect on this.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), a staunch supporter of monarchy, warned the leaders supporting republicanism to soon start looking for hiding places. Roshan Karki, an RPP lawmaker, speaking during the zero hour of the House on Tuesday, stressed that citizens have the right to express their views.

Karki took a jab at the communist parties, accusing them of carrying the ghosts of Lenin and Mao in Nepal while defending Sunday’s rally in favour of Gyanendra Shah.

She mentioned that only people from Kathmandu had come out on March 9, and if those from across the country joined the protest, the leaders defending the republic could be chased away.

“The longer the leaders of this system remain in power, the bigger the crowds will get,” Karki warned. “Be careful.”

While the political parties in Parliament struggle to respond to the growing support for reviving the monarchy, which was abolished in 2008, across the country, the royalists are competing to take the credit for the rally from the Airport gate to Shah’s residence in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu.

At a press meet on Tuesday, Durga Prasai, the controversial medical college owner campaigning to reinstate the deposed monarch in Narayanhiti Palace, claimed that the rally in Kathmandu was a culmination of his efforts over the past three years of sensitising the people against corruption thriving in the republican set-up. He slammed the RPP and Rastriya Prajantra Party-Nepal (RPP-Nepal) led by Kamal Thapa for vying to take credit for the sizeable public support for the ex-king.

“If the people in Kathmandu had marched at the call of the RPP and the RPP-Nepal, why don’t they come out when these parties organise their own rallies?” Prasai questioned. He accused both the RPP and RPP-Nepal leadership of hobnobbing with republican forces and becoming their ministers. They lack the moral ground to stand up for monarchy, Prasai said.

RPP General Secretary Dhawal Shumsher Rana dismissed Prasai’s claims, saying that they have teamed up to spearhead a movement to reinstate monarchy in Nepal.