The first man to suffer from this illusion was former king Gyanendra. As the supreme commander of the army, he thought it would forever remain loyal to him and could be called upon to move whenever necessary. He, therefore, did not fear to be dislodged from the throne no matter what the rest of the nation thought. But when the chips were down for the abolition of monarchy, he was disillusioned. There was widespread belief that the army would intervene in disrupting the act of establishing a republic. That never happened. It was a mistake on his part to emotionally own the army as he did.
NA is slowly being made aware of its power and influence.
On the other end are the Maoists who were right to treat it as their enemy during the insurgency days but it was wrong on their part to continue their hostile attitude towards the institution when they came to power. They perceived it as a potential threat to their plan to what they described as seizure of power. They went one extra mile to emotionally disown it, just the contrary to what the king had done.
Both of them, the king and the Maoists, over understood and rather overestimated the power of the army and, consequently, both got disappointed in their respective ways. Other political parties are not far behind in misapprehending its strength in their power play. In the dispute on Rookmangud Katawal, big parties like Nepali Congress and CPN-UML were openly seen patronizing the army as a safeguard against the alleged Maoist takeover. It was symptomatic of their psychological fear from the Maoist force, more than the true recognition of the army clout.
The problem of all these confusions arises not from the role of NA, which has never sought a political role in the government, monarchical or democratic. The actual problem lies with the intelligence of General Katawal, who has been outsmarting the political leaders and legislators in logic and arguments during their encounters at parliamentary committees or elsewhere. His assertive disposition is found to evoke fear instead of appreciation among the little-informed and less-read politicians. This impression was confirmed by none other than Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal himself.
Whether General Katawal ever dreamed of taking over power and ruling the country like his counterparts do in Pakistan, Bangladesh or, say, Thailand, I don’t know. But it is universally taken for granted that he is capable of doing it and running the show. It is tragic to witness that his proven merit of articulation and persuasion is generally misconstrued as his dangerous demerit. He reminds me of Aditya Shumsher JBR, a smart, well-educated and eloquent army general in the-then Royal Nepal Army many years ago, who was feared to take over power and revive the Rana regime. He never got elevated to the top job, which General Katawal holds today, on this misperceived ground. Once he sensed such a bias against him for his god-given talents, he diverted his energy toward business and eventually quit the military career. In this sense, General Katawal is lucky to be on the top and stays put there despite the big storm against him.
The Katawal controversy has willy-nilly brought NA to the center stage of Nepal’s political spectrum. The army, which is confined to its barracks in juxtaposition to the Maoist fighters sheltered in separate cantonments under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, is slowly being made aware of its power and influence and at times being promoted and provoked to play an active role in public affairs. It would be yet another tragedy if the army too gets carried away by the illusion that it can capture power and run the country. It would be nothing less than the royal folly of being deluded by a similar belief. It is, of course, just a matter of a few hours to seize power, if it so chooses but it is beyond their capability to bring the situation under control and run the country in an intended smooth way. Any potential military rule will add one more dimension to the chaos we are already in.
The current debate on the role of the army is actually misplaced. Our attention should, on the contrary, go to the potentiality of the NA in the broader context of the world. The government spends about 20 billion rupees annually on the 100,000 strong army. Many people complain that it is oversized and over spending taxpayers money. If we make a pause and rethink its potential, it can bring in more than 20 billion dollars in the country. It is high time to transform our negative attitude towards it into a positive one for the larger interests of the country.
Take the peacekeeping missions, for instance, in which Nepal has earned a very good reputation. That is one area which has high prospects in the future as the world is turning more and more insecure not because of inter-state conflicts but because of threats posed by non-state forces. Nepal can offer to deploy its security forces for international services for peace and security in various forms. Under the increasing influence of globalization, there is a decreasing possibility of inter-state wars to settle cross-border disputes that marked the twentieth century and before. It is difficult to imagine, for example, India and China fighting a war on their disputed territory as they did in 1962. There are no conceivable conflicts in North America, Europe and Australia, which could flare up a war among nations. Asia, Africa and Latin America are still vulnerable but the whole concept of settling a dispute by violent means is dying out. However, to prevent any such flare-ups, peacekeeping missions are in place and Nepal, which is a part of it, can be an even bigger part of it. The security system in the world is undergoing rapid changes in which our armed personnel can find an honorable and lucrative position.
adityaman@hotmail.com
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