Nepal, July 14 -- United less by a shared vision of the future than by a collective rejection of the immediate past (1990 - 2025), the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has never quite reconciled its two commanding figures: Founding chair Rabi Lamichhane and its 'senior leader' and Prime Minister, Balendra Shah. They remain yoked together by necessity rather than joined by temperament. Little wonder, then, that when Shah travelled to Lamichhane's Budhanilkantha residence for a four-hour huddle, it instantly became the chief preoccupation of political reporters in the metropolis.

Contrary to the breathless speculation in the popular press, it is highly unlikely that the first 100 days of the Shah administration, the petty bhagbanda of consti...