However bleak things may look, every crisis throws up opportunities for dramatic change. February First has presented Nepal's political parties with the chance to moult.

It is no great secret that the political leadership had stagnated, they lacked internal democracy, exhibited a shameless inability to work together not just among parties but also within their own hierarchies. Too preoccupied with power struggles, they didn't see how far astray they had gone. This allowed outsiders, especially after October 2002, to play politicos off against each other and manipulate them.

Their fecklessness undermined democracy, took the country to the brink and made February First desirable in the eyes of many. One just needs to remember the headlines from the past 10 years to realise how deeply the rot had set in: horse-trading and floor-crossing, boycotts of parliament, politicisation of the police and bureaucracy, the cynical undermining of the democratic process for short-term partisan gain. And all along, in the offing, was the ominous thunder of an approaching insurgency.

Everytime this country's politics has come to a crossroad, the party leadership had the chance to look beyond petty concerns to the larger and enduring national interest. Sadly, they repeatedly mistook the cause for deeds, the process for outcome. It was as if, once elected, the mandate was everything and they didn't have to show accountability. Adolescent democracies everywhere are rambunctious and noisy. The difference in
Nepal was that politicians were not even fighting for seats at the dinner table, they were scrambling on the floor for crumbs. There was just no way this could go on.

We're not playing the devil's advocate here. Our political class may not like to admit it but they handed it to the palace on a platter. But what now? February First actually throws the ball back in the parties' court. In the public's eye, the parties are not held in very high esteem but the people still believe in democracy and reject extremism of both the left and right.

What we have seen this week doesn't give us much hope. A rump broke off the RPP, the ex-PM is frothing against the media instead of forging reunification and a multi-partisan consensus to face the king. They better get on with shedding their old skin otherwise the people may start looking for more radical solutions.