Two months ago King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva brusquely jailed Prime Minister B. P. Koirala, thus bringing an abrupt end to the first government ever to be elected democratically in Nepal.

The first popularly elected government led by B P Koirala enacted the Birta Abolition Act in 1959, that required zamindars formerly granted land by the state to pay full tax. Feudal landlords opposed ...