The palace is so fixated on the past it can't see a future with a political party that has consistently stood for reconciliation with the monarchy. The Nepali Congress is still regarded by royal hardliners as the most resistant roadblock to a powerful kingship.

But Nepal's ship of state has post-February First swung sharply in the direction of republicanism. The king's takeover had an equal and opposite reaction in the NC, which this week jettisoned 'constitutional monarchy' from the operating paragraph of its statute ahead of the party convention.

The NC's legacy was built on the work ethic and commitment of thousands of party workers not always reflected at the top by shady power brokers like Khum Bahadur Khadka, Govinda Raj Joshi and Bijaya Kumar Gachhedar, all of them it has to be said, groomed by Girija Prasad Koirala himself.

The NC is defined by its revolutionary uprising against the Rana shoguns and was steered by the likes of Subarna Shumshere and BP. The People's Movement was brought to its successful conclusion by Ganesh Man Singh, whose absence so rankles today. The fast footwork required to get the country a new constitution was possible because of the wily Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Even the much-maligned Girija Prasad has at least been consistent in standing up against autocracy.

The palace needs all the friends it can get. But one by one it has alienated its closest allies: even sympathetic Americans have turned scathing, the army needlessly needled friendly Indian brass over the INSAS rifles and at home it has radicalised parties that used to swear by the constitutional monarchy.

The NC may still work with a king, but only one who is apolitical. There are many within it, however, who consider the very term 'constitutional monarchy' an oxymoron in present day Nepal.

The king has never concealed his allergy for Girija Prasad but the NC will inevitably have a leadership after him that will give the monarchy even less leeway. Pushed too far, the NC's 'moderate centre' has shifted and it would be a mistake to think this is just a movement lead by lawyers and journalists.

When the king took over he promised peace and democracy. We have neither. To fix things, all he needs to do is sit down jointly with party leaders and sort it out over tea. Otherwise the current changes will be truly irreversible.