Nepal, June 24 -- Alternating between chest-thumping nationalism and breast-beating liberalism, the 'White Shirts' of Kathmandu refuse to realise that they are as much responsible for the current mess in the country as the political class. Closer in convictions to the monarchist Yellow Shirts of Bangkok than the fascist Blackshirts, the urban bourgeoisie maintains its democratic pretensions with panache.

The 'Lost Generation'-middle-class Nepali men born between 1950 and 1960 that grew up during the high noon of Shah Regime, felt the chill of Cold War in their formative years and prospered after the 1980s under the reign of free-market fundamentalism-was at the forefront of coalescence of class interests heavily invested in the continuat...