It all seems like a bad dream now, but Nepalis have woken up and decided to move on.

A tragedy on such a scale will leave scars on the national psyche that will never completely heal. All we can do is try to deal with the legacy, learn its lessons. The single most significant consequence of June First was that King Gyanendra became king. Thrust onto the throne after the death of his brother and nephew, he has tried to come to terms with a deep personal tragedy while simultaneously having to learn the essence of statecraft at the most turbulent time in the kingdom\'s history.

Last year, in a candid television interview, the king told Durga Nath Sharma: "I am not like my brother, I can\'t sit idly by while the country sinks deeper into crisis." What he meant by that was vividly demonstrated by the dramatic sacking of Prime Minister Deuba on 4 October, 2001. He appointed a cabinet of trusted political figures and technocrats, then got Col Narayan Singh Pun to forge a ceasefire with the Maoists. But he was less successful with trying to convince the political parties to join his government.

The five parliamentary parties first went into a deep sulk, but managed to launch a united street agitation. In reality, they felt left out of the peace process, and had dark misgivings about the country being dragged back to pre-1990 days.

It is a measure of how low the stock of the political parties has fallen that there hasn\'t been a groundswell of public support for the anti-royal agitation. The public generally seems to regard this as a power play, and also don\'t want to jeopardise the peace process. The street unrest has also reminded them of the corruption, infighting and instability that were the hallmarks of the past 12 years of feckless pluralism. But surveys (Nepali Times, #140) have shown that the people overwhelming reject a return to absolute monarchy as well. Also, public opinion may shift if this stalemate drags on.

Girija Prasad Koirala was prime minister during the royal massacre. He is now leading the charge against the king, still threatening to disclose some mysterious "grand design". The UML supremo Madhab Kumar Nepal refused to join the royal commission constituted by King Gyanendra to probe the massacre, and he is now hand-in-hand with ex-rival Koirala on the streets.

Speaker Tartanath Ranabhat was a member of the commission and released the report that became the only official inquiry into the palace killings (whose nickname became "Bhatatata" for the way he re-enacted the murder scene at a press conference by holding up one of the murder weapons). This week Ranabhat refused to join kangresi colleagues at the convening of the virtual parliament at the Academy Hall.

The Maoists tried to capitalise on the uncertainty and anarchy in the weeks after 1 June, 2001. But despite government bungling Baburam Bhattarai\'s conspiracy theories did not carry much weight with the public. The Nepali people, it seems, make a mental distinction between the institution of monarchy and the persona of the king.

This week the Maoists are all gathered in the cradle of their revolution for an extended politburo meeting in Rolpa. The comrades are evaluating the last four months of ceasefire and plotting the next course of action. It doesn\'t look like the peace process is in mortal danger, but it doesn\'t show signs that it is in the pink of health either.

So, two years on, the Nepali people have decided to move on and they have placed heir hopes on a successful conclusion to the peace process. Friday\'s resignation of Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand brings King Gyanendra back to 4 October 2002: the day he sacked Sher Bahadur Deuba. The thankless job of trying to find a constitutionally-acceptable, consensual candidate for the top executive job is not going to be easy.

The five party alliance says it has agreed on Madhab Nepal\'s candidature, but what is the pound of flesh that Koirala has exacted for agreeing? After all, the UML wanted a national government a la Article 128 and the Nepali Congress had wanted a reinstatement of parliament. The Maoists have already said that any government that the parties set up will have as little legitimacy as the Chand government.

This time there is a lot more than just the academic question of who becomes prime minister. What impact will a new line-up of ministers have on the peace process? The leadership and composition of the next cabinet must reflect the vision and capacity of seeing the peace process through, getting the Maoists to agree to lay down their arms and prepare the ground for local and general elections.

CNN's Satinder Bindra, in town to cover the Everest jubilee celebrations, interviews Rajendra Pandey of the UML (Left) during Wednesday's march down Singha Darbar. Pandey was later among those who suffered head injuries in scuffles with riot police (Right).