The clash has surfaced with the army leadership reportedly rejecting Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s instructions to halt the process of recruiting 2,884 personnel into the rank and file of the state army. [break]
But the Maoist-led government appears in a false position if we look at the formalities that the army completed before initiating the recruitment process. On October 16, the Office of the Adjutant General, which supervises the recruitment department, sent a letter to the Defense Ministry informing it about the recruitment.
The letter titled “Regarding fulfillment of vacant positions (Padpurti Sambandhama)” was registered at the Defense Ministry. The registration number of the letter is 1650.
According to a source at the recruitment department, the Defense Ministry was also informed by telephone prior to the letter. However, neither the prime minister or Defense Minister reacted to it nor did they oppose the recruitment move then. Both the PM and the defense minister spoke only after one of the Maoist PLA commanders Chandra Prakash Khanal opposed it during a rally in Butwal recently. Khanal had said that PLA too would recruit new combatants if the Nepal Army went ahead with its plan. Then the United Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) issued a statement on the controversy, saying any new recruitment by either side would be a breach of various past agreements.
The army called applications for the vacant positions through a public notice in state-owned Gorkhapatra daily on November 1 and 2, two and half months after Maoist supremo Puspa Kamal Dahal took charge as prime minister and another top Maoist leader, Ram Bahadur Thapa, became defense minister.
The Maoist leaders, who are in senior cabinet positions, asked the army to halt the recruitment process when it was already in its final stage, and one of commanders of the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army (PLA) threatened to start similar recruitment for the PLA. Army generals say recruitment is part of the yearly calendar approved by the Public Service Commission and Defense Ministry representatives and is as mandated by the Interim Constitution. The Maoists, however, claim that recruitment by either side is prohibited under the Comprehensive Peace Accord.
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