Kathmandu, Sept. 7 -- It was past 11 pm on September 11 last year. President Ram Chandra Paudel sat on a sofa at Sheetal Niwas, both hands pressed against his cheeks.

This was not the usual room where Paudel held his meetings. It was Kanchanjunga Hall, in a separate building behind the President's Office. To the President's right were Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Narayankaji Shrestha, Ramesh Lekhak, Badri Pandey and others, seated in that order. To his left sat the President's legal adviser, Baburam Kunwar; political advisor Sunil Bahadur Thapa; Chief of the Army Staff Ashokraj Sigdel; Secretary of the President's Office Deepak Kafle; and others.

It was a high-stakes meeting. By then, scores of unarmed young protesters had be...