NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 19 Just ahead of the King of Bhutan’s landmark announcement that he would abdicate and pave the way for parliamentary democracy in Bhutan, heir apparent Chhoetse Penlop Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, who will be coronated in 2008, returned to Thimphu a few days ago. He was in India for a year-long course at the National Defence College here, a course aimed principally at equipping him for his future role as the mountain kingdom’s ruler. There were strict instructions from Thimphu to the 25-year-old prince not to make any statements or give any interviews ahead of the King’s announcement on Sunday.

The NDC course designed for the prince, principally a capsule in security, military studies and subcontinental geopolitics, has been kept very low key over the year both by the college and the Royal Bhutanese Embassy.

According to informed sources, the future king was given instruction at NDC on threat perceptions in the subcontinent, the new dynamics of having two and potentially more nuclear powers in the region in the near term, historical analysis of trans-border conflicts between India and Pakistan and India-China war, the power dynamics involving the West especially in the last five years, and the role the military has in a democracy.

The proposal for the prince to receive a degree from the course fructified after the King’s dispensation cracked down on ULFA and other Indian militant groups on the Indo-Bhutan border in late 2003. The prince’s movements within the country were also kept decidedly quiet because of a perceived threat to his life by insurgent groups.