One month after the student unions affiliated to the political parties launched their agitation, the protests have taken a dramatic and radical republican tone.

The students appear to have the green light from their mentors in the parties to step up the rhetoric in a last-ditch attempt to pressure King Gyanendra to agree to retract his October Fourth move, and restore power to the peoples' representatives. Student leaders who began their campaign by demanding that the king restore democracy are now openly calling for him to step down from the throne.

King Gyanendra himself tried to defuse the situation by initiating a series of meetings with party leaders and presenting them with his 7-point agenda for political consensus. The leaders were not too impressed.

The palace for its part doesn't seem too worried about the street agitation or the insurgency escalating out of control. Does it know something we don't? It could be pleased about recent military gains in the see-saw war as well as old rifts opening up between the NC and the UML.

The two parties are divided about whether reinstatement of parliament or an all-party government is the way forward. Both want to have an upper hand when, and if, the king backtracks. They have also adopted a two-pronged strategy: telling the students to take a hardline anti-monarchy stance while they themselves soft-peddle it.

Most independent analysts agree that neither a republic nor a return to absolute monarchy are feasible at present, so the palace and the parties have to meet halfway. Only then can they look for a solution to the Maoist insurgency. If the king decides to go it alone, it is sure to the push the parties and the Maoists closer and rush us towards a republic.

The Maoists are taking full advantage of this polarisation. Ideologue Baburam Bhattarai in a writeup in the party paper, Janadesh, this week poked fun at the king's audiences with party leaders. He urged the parties not to listen to the king and keep up the republican momentum. "King Gyanendra is offering the parties green grass.but if they fall for it again it will be suicidal and a major blunder," Bhattarai wrote. The Maoists have declared a Magar Autonomous Region in the midwest and are planning a big gathering at a secret location to mark the event next week.