That seems to be the case with the hagiographical articles around King Birendra routinely published around June 1, the date of the palace massacre in 2001. Fifteen years on, such pieces continue to dwell more or less around one facet—that he was a decent human being. To give one example, there was a personal story yesterday by a general in his guard contingent extolling the generosity of the king for i) allowing a non-Pancha to speak in a mass gathering in Palpa, and ii) releasing an unlawfully detained journalist in Bhairahawa the day after the matter was brought to the king’s notice. All personal reminiscences about Birendra are quite similar in that they involve the king doing something bordering on the humane only to be taken as a sign of greatness.
In his celebrated novel, The Fall, Albert Camus asks: ‘[W]hy we are always more just and more generous toward the dead?,’ and proceeds to provide the answer: ‘The reason is simple. With them there is no obligation.’