A policeman kicks an activist during a pro-democracy campaign in Kathmandu on Monday. (AFP)

April 24: New Delhi today lurched between the palace and the public as protesters tore to shreds India’s Nepal policy on the streets of Kathmandu.

Although the king announced the reinstatement of the parliament only late tonight, Delhi was abuzz with speculation that such a declaration was imminent.

The revival of the House is the best-possible scenario for India, articulated by CPM leader Sitaram Yechury who has emerged as the non-government troubleshooter after the government’s own ? Karan Singh ? came a cropper.

India feels that the reinstatement of the parliament should be followed up with the following measures:

• constitution of an interim government

• announcement of elections to a constituent assembly

• a formal invitation to the Maoists to participate in mainstream politics

But New Delhi was groping for answers to two crucial questions:

• what should be the fate of the monarchy and

• will the interim government hold sway over the army?

In the absence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee was the pivot around which the Nepal policy was being re-shaped after India on Friday welcomed the King’s offer, only to retract on Saturday. Mukherjee himself indicated that India was reconsidering its policy but said he was waiting for more information.

In a belated acknowledgement from the Indian political class, Yechury today said after meeting defence minister Pranab Mukherjee: “It would be better if senior leaders (of India) understand what the people of Nepal want. They (the Nepalese) trust the Maoists more than the king.”

Yechury has emerged as the political troubleshooter because he has been holding successive rounds of talks with the defence minister on the one hand and with Nepal’s Maoist leadership and the Nepali Congress on the other.

Between yesterday and this afternoon, Yechury has talked to the Maoist leadership, Madhav Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) and the Nepali Congress’s Shekhar Koirala and Pradeep Giri.

On what would happen to King Gyanendra should an interim government be formed, Yechury replied: “His fate should be left for the people of Nepal to decide.”

Asked if exile was an option, Yechury replied: “We have to see. It has been so long. Had he taken this step (of offering to transfer executive power) a year back, things might have been different.”

But New Delhi has also been considering a safe passage for the monarch, though officially it denied the existence of any evacuation plan for anyone.

On who would control the army, Yechury said it would be according to a redrafted constitution.