The Rastriya Prajatantra Party held a demonstration at New Baneshwar on Sunday amid internal discord over whether to breach the restricted zones.

The RPP, the fifth-largest party in the House of Representatives, organised the protest demanding reinstatement of monarchy and announcement of Nepal as a Hindu state.

They also demanded release of the RPP’s Senior vice-chairman Rabindra Mishra and General Secretary Dhawal Shumsher Rana, who were arrested after the March 28 protest at Tinkune.

Although the party called for a protest in the Capital’s restricted area on Sunday, the demonstration couldn’t draw a large number of people as anticipated.

The protest was disorganised right from the start as party chair Rajendra Lingden, party vice-chair Buddhiman Tamang, chief whip Gyan Bahadur Shahi, among others, were arrested from Singha Durbar even before reaching the protest area.

Police said they were detained after they started chanting slogans and distributing flyers within Singha Durbar, the government’s central secretariat.

Police released the leaders after detaining them for a few hours.

On Sunday, the politicians had gathered at Singha Durbar citing a meeting of the RPP’s parliamentary party.

Following the meeting, Lingden and his team began demonstrating with pamphlets inside Singha Durbar itself, demanding a judicial probe of the March 28 protests. They also demanded the release of their two leaders, Mishra and Rana.

“They were taken into custody after attempting to distribute flyers and chant slogans on the Singha Durbar premises,” said Superintendent Apil Raj Bohara, also the information officer at the Kathmandu Police Range.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday had warned the RPP against its planned protests in restricted areas of Kathmandu, saying legal action would be taken against those violating the law or inciting public disorder.

The team led by Lingden, accompanied by other lawmakers, started a march from the party’s parliamentary party office carrying pamphlets inside Singha Durbar. Police then took them into custody before they could proceed towards the restricted area at New Baneshwar.

After arrest, the leaders were held at the Kathmandu Police Range, Bhadrakali.

Lingden responded after his arrest that he was not surprised to be taken into custody. He told reporters that such actions were expected of an ‘authoritarian government’.

“We are not shocked by this; we are all prepared to be arrested,” Lingden said.

A leader close to General Secretary Rana said the party’s movement was weakened following Rana's arrest on March 28.

Party leaders looked divided over the planning of the protest as well. Some said it was wrong to plan to demonstrate at a restricted zone in Kathmandu while local leaders were working to protest in their own districts on Tuesday.

“In such a way, how can our movement be effective? It seems some leaders are intent on weakening the movement rather than strengthening it,” a party leader said on the condition of anonymity.

RPP leaders have reportedly urged the government mainly through Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to release General Secretary Rana, citing his health condition. Rana is a cancer patient.

Despite discussions surrounding his potential release, Rana has not yet been freed. Party Vice-president Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan said that efforts are on not only for the release of Rana, but also Mishra.

“We have initiated efforts for their release not only through Congress President Deuba but also Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli,” he stated.

The RPP has given continuity to its agitation as several questions regarding the March 28 protest at Tinkune remain unanswered.

The Tinkune protest, which was organised by another pro-monarchy force led by Panchayat-era leader Nabaraj Subedi, had turned violent leaving two dead and over 120 injured. The RPP leaders joined the Subedi-led protest, extending their support saying that they had a common objective of reinstating the monarchy.

Following the March 28 protest, the police detained two senior leaders—Mishra and Rana. Later on, police also detained Durga Prasai, the field commander of the protest organised by the Subedi-led Joint People’s Movement. The government has placed Subedi under house arrest since then.

Meanwhile, a group of senior RPP leaders, including party chair Lingden, met with former king Gyanendra Shah at Nirmal Niwas on Friday.

Although the leaders privy to the development claimed that the meeting with the former king lasted almost two hours, they didn’t divulge the details of the discussion with the former king.

The lunch meeting between the former king and RPP leaders was regular, said an RPP leader.

Among those present were senior leaders Pashupati Shamsher Rana, Prakash Chandra Lohani, and Vice-chairs Buddhiman Tamang, Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, and Bikram Pandey, as well as party spokesperson Gyan Bahadur Shahi.

“We are pro-monarch people and we meet the former king on a regular basis,” said Shahi, who is also the RPP chief whip.

“There was nothing specific to share about our meeting with him on Friday,” said Tamang.

Another leader also claimed that the discussion touched upon topics like violence during the Tinkune protest and reports about the appointment of controversial businessman Durga Prasai as the commander of the protests. A person privy to the development said that the former king expressed his deep concern over the loss of lives and property during the unrest.

Former king Gyanendra had also expressed similar concerns through a video statement released on the eve of the New Year.

“We are peace-loving people. Even when we left Narayanhiti Palace, there were no unpleasant incidents. A regime established through bloodshed cannot sustain itself for long,” an RPP leader quoted the former king as saying at the meeting. “The police are our brothers; stones should not be thrown at them.”

The former king also denied appointing Prasai as the protest commander, stating that he hadn’t even met Prasai since a programme at Mechi Bridge, Jhapa a few years ago. A day before the March 28 protest, Prasai’s vehicle was spotted coming out of Nirmal Niwas, the residence of the former king.

A few moments later, he was declared the protest commander. However, RPP leaders, after meeting the former king, said that on that day, Prasai had only met an aide to the ex-king, not Shah himself.

Quoting the former king, the RPP leaders who met him on Friday also said that Gyanendra Shah denied even appointing Nabaraj Subedi as the coordinator of the so-called People’s Movement Committee.

Subedi, who is under house arrest following the March 28 violence, spoke to the Post over the phone and denied meeting the former king before the incident.

“It has been more than six months since I met the former king,” Subedi told the Post.

“Since there was no figure acceptable for all royalists to lead the movement, they convinced me to do so. The former king has no role in it.”