Nepal: Curtain falls

Nepal: Curtain falls

N.P.Upadhyaya

Kathmandu: It is widely believed that those who claim themselves to be over stylish stumble many a times compared to those who are less intelligent.

The current muddle in Nepali politics is mainly a surrogate war that the political parties adhering to different systems and ideologies are fighting with each other. Thus the Nepalese are fighting with the Nepalese for others.

But in politics more so in a country like Nepal having been placed in a strategic location, the inner party and intra party feud benefit the aliens for whom the parties fight and in the process the internal fighters lose.

The current political drama is the cocktail of real problems, created problems and the imposed ones.

However, who has imposed the problems on the Nepalese is any body’s guess and by now the highly qualified readers of this paper may have already taken note of and thus it needed no more explanations. A word to the wise should be enough.

Politics is more than meets the eye and thus let’s dig out those who remained instrumental in forcing the country to the current mess whose easy solution is not round the corner. They remained instrumental but preferred to watch the high voltage drama by being in a dark corner.

Act One:

The Indian Army Chief, Deepak Kapoor, a class friend of Nepal’s Army Chief Rukmangad Katwal, was being intermittently briefed by his Nepali counterpart that the incumbent government in Nepal may sack him under one pretext or the other and thus he may seek the support of his( read Kapoor) good offices if the situation so demanded.

Kapoor assured Katwal that in such an eventuality he will lobby in New Delhi for Katwal.

The Indian Army Chief did his job effectively and saved his long time associate but never came to the scene. Clever Kapoor.

Act Two:  By February this year, CoAS Katwal had already understood that he will be attacked by the Maoist led government any time from now and in order to block his unceremonious ouster, Katwal began knocking at the doors of Senior Koirala, Madhav Kumar Nepal, K.P. Oli and finally, the President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav and seduced them.

Katwal while meeting these high flying “democratic” leaders convinced them all that he was a democrat tip to toe and that his institution will remain a democratic one till he was in place. The leaders agreed and Katwal began concluding that he was now safe.

Act Three: In the mean time, the arrival of the Chinese delegations to Nepal increased exponentially which is what not only irked the democratic leaders but their alien mentors as well.

A practically disturbed and panic-stricken India tried to counterbalance the increasing Chinese influence but failed miserably. It was too late for the Indian establishment to control the increasing Chinese penetration in Nepali politics. But India kept on watching. When enough had been enough, the Indian establishment began devising dangerous schemes to dislodge the Maoists government inNepal. The stage was thus set to unseat Prachanda’s government. But how, was the Himalayan question for India? India was awaiting a sort of ploy to unseat Prachanda who had by then become half-Chinese or at least pretended to be so.

Act Four: Fortunately, the forced retirement of the eight army generals in March this year perhaps provided some space for the Indian regime and the so-called democratic leaders to tease the Maoists in government.

As if the fresh recruitment of the soldiers by the Nepal Army were not enough to jolt the brains of the Maoists led defense ministry, the Stay Order notice served by the apex court in the name of the government also contributed to further corner the Maoists. The Maoists anger multiplied because taking the stay order to have come in favor of the eight generals, the NA instantly provided them all with formal letters wherein they were told to resume their former posts. Now that the Supreme Court has nullified the Maoist led government writ petition must have further disturbed the peace of mind of the Maoists-now told to act as a caretaker.

The eight army generals’ case infuriated the Maoists and thus they are presumed to have decided to sack Katwal who in their eyes had already become a bad apple or a rotten egg. The anger was about to burst. Only an opportune moment was being awaited by the Maoists hopefully.

Act Five: A clever Katwal by then is presumed to have opened up the entire cards that he had under his sleeves against the Maoists. Fortunately, he “pocketed” a bombshell through the kind courtesies of his moles which were inside the Maoist camp and meticulously “distributed” the said “gelatin” among the leaders of the political parties, diplomatic missions and finally to the President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav plus to some media men of his choice. A packet containing this “explosive” was also sent to Indian Army Chief Dipak Kapoor, claim high placed sources.  This yet remains to be substantiated. The friendship perhaps….?

The bombshell was kept a guarded secret and the recipients of the explosive decided to “use it” at an appropriate time. All that was needed the arrival of the opportune moment. The much awaited moment was round the corner.

Act Six: A pretty exasperated Prime Minister who was being scathingly criticized by his own party’s hardliners for having failed to sack a mere Army Chief finally decided to sack Katwal on May 3, 2009, mid day, and entrusted the same post to his political preference and choice, Kul Bahadur Khadka.

Indian media reported that Prime Minister Prachanda sacked Katwal under the forceful instructions from the Chinese regime. Why the Chinese regime wanted Katwal to vanish from the scene is any body’s guess. Thus Katwal was sacked and Khadka made the new Army Chief. The beginning of the beginning of the Maoist presumed down fall though they are still kicking and alive.

Act Seven: The President who by then had already received the bombshell forwarding his own constitutional reasons and prerogatives reinstated the sacked Army Chief Katwal to his former post. Since then Nepal as a nation-state has not only two sets of Armies but concurrently two Chief of the Army Staffs. One appointed by the legitimate government and the other by the President.

The symptoms of a failed State by all means.

On May 3, 2009, evening, rumors have it that the Indian Army Chief talked straight to Nepal President and sought his support in rescuing his friend Katwal from the continued onslaught of the Maoists. The President apparently got the point and acted fast.  The height of an unfortunate drama. The stage is set now for Prachanda to decide his continuity in government or not. He decided.

Act Eight: A completely embarrassed and fatigued Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal couldn’t control his high voltage emotions which he received through the kind courtesy of the President thus addressed the nation, May 4, 2009, and summarily tendered his resignation stating that “I can’t tolerate any more political interferences coming as it did from alien quarters and in the name of safeguarding people’s supremacy over Army’s supremacy, I have to resign”.

The easy manner with which Prachanda quit the Prime Ministerial throne was neither expected nor warranted. In effect, he could have fought the battles by remaining in government. However, he did what his inner conscience told him to do. But then yet, he is the first ever Nepal PM who has exposed India to the hilt whose reverberations could still be felt in Kathmandu’s political circuit. The Maoists cadres will perhaps make the Indian establishment nude this time around. Nevertheless, the cadres may have taken India as a bully or a Goliath, but the top leaders have already been found busy in “mending” their torn relations with India with the sole aim to bring it into its original frame. The process is in progress.

Act Nine:  With Prachanda’s resignation, the self styled democratic leaders now had their free ride in Nepali politics. Practically all the political parties, save the Maoists, began pouncing upon the Maoists-the former rebels.

The climax: the bombshell was defused through dissemination:

In effect, the explosive was nothing but a Compact Disc with Prachanda’s lectures that he made in front of his cantonment cadres in Nawal Parasi on January 2, 2008, three months ahead of the conduct of the Constituent Assembly polls. The CD was deliberately made available to some electronic media quarters who in turn telecast it round the clock in order to “expose” the inner intents of the Maoists as talked by Comrade Prachanda in the televised lecture.

Nothing was wrong in the said CD. A revolutionary leader of the sort of Prachanda was making lectures to what is demanded of him. A revolutionary leader, who hates parliamentary system tooth and nail, has the right to say that the next step was “State Capture”. He lured his cadres that sooner than later the entire State will come under their grip. Not unusual.

But what went wrong is that the CD got leaked.

Naturally, no sane people who believe and repose trust on the parliamentary system would wish to see the country overpowered by the radical communists. The blunder of the Maoists had been that the party could not guess that some moles could have been posted into their own paraphernalia by aliens. The unbelievable happened. Some double agents passed on the entire recording to the Nepal Army and the army later is supposed to have sent it to the media houses. The anti-Maoists media under the instructions of some foreign forces, near and far, made the CD issue a mater of life and death. But the Maoists remain yet undeterred.

Act Ten: The politics thus continues to be in a mess still. The entire liberals have made it a point to corner the Maoists. However, the numerical strength of the Maoists in the Constituent Assembly has been that you can’t ignore their presence in the country’s politics. Whether in government or out from the power structure, the Maoists say will remain intact even if one liked it or not.

Prachanda in his fresh bid to please the irritated Indian regime is using the remaining cards kept under his sleeve. In the process, he is granting interviews to Indian papers apparently stating that relations must come on the original track. A glaring case of double speak. Isn’t it? But politics is also the art of the possible. The curtain falls.

2009-05-12 06:32:59

source:

http://telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=5393