Two days of shutdowns on 20 and 23 April were called by student unions and both were 'successful' in bringing the country to a standstill. The student wing allied with the Deuba Congress acted independently of the other seven unions who enforced the 20 April closure simply because their parent party is waging an independent movement. The Big Seven are now planning to grind the country to a halt again on 28 and 29 April.

Kishor Singh Rathor of the Deuba-backed student union says their movement is against the king's "regressive move" of October Fourth and they want the prime minister reinstated. The Girija faction of the Congress and the UML-backed students are all demanding student elections. The newly-surfaced Maoist union wants their colleagues released and a postponement of polls.

"The student demonstrations have now gone beyond educational demands, they have become mouthpieces of their political sponsors," says educationist Man Prasad Wagle. The trouble worsened when an anti-oil price rise demo was fired upon by police in Butwal, killing a student leader. The postponement of student union elections added fuel to the fire. Angry students set ablaze Tribhuban University's press and the Mahatma Gandhi
Memorial Hall.

Vice chancellor Govinda Sharma had assured students that union elections would take place on the scheduled date of 23 April, but a compromise could not be reached on the issue of detained students. Now the students are concentrating on ensuring the next bandh is a 'successful' curtain raiser for their Peoples Movement II to begin on 4 May with a big rally in Kathmandu organised by the big four parties: Nepali Congress, UML, Jana Morcha Nepal and Nepal Workers Peasants Party.

It is clear the parties are now committed to a make or break struggle. The question is, how soon can the palace forge a deal with them on an interim government acceptable to everyone?