It is beyond any doubt now. The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has deliberately sought to drag the national army and the other political parties into over-reacting to its provocations over a long time. And the army chief has only made it easier for the Maoists to make the entire development look like the army’s defiance of civilian authority.
That is cunning, and, unacceptable.
And it is time other parties, so far unable to challenge Maoist high-handedness, stood up to the former rebels. The parties have been afraid to be seen as harming the peace process. This has made them always give in to Maoist blackmail.
Thanks to the well-oiled Maoist propaganda machine, they have been successful in silencing criticism from other parties and civil society or limiting it to mere murmurings. The result has been their continued brazen acts that are taking this country to the brink of disaster. The Maoists have been doing more to harm the prospects of lasting peace than all the other parties put together.
From blatantly promoting a murder-accused inside the party hierarchy to sheltering such individuals to openly issuing threats against media organizations and the judiciary to failing to honor past commitments, the Maoists have done it all. But they have always blamed others for their failures and dishonesty.
Prime Minister and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is masterly at shedding tears in public or appearing to do so, has no qualms over repeating un-kept promises. He keeps accusing everyone else. He sees a nefarious design to topple his government, and he smells the involvement of foreign powers in this. Isn’t somebody in his circle telling him that his desperate attempts to divert attention from his government’s abject failure to perform are so easy to see through? He keeps on harping that the government has not been able to perform, as if this confession would absolve him of failure. Dahal should spare himself the ignominy. He has only succeeded in lampooning himself time and again.
So far the Maoists have been seamless in their planning. They have primed the country for the decisive blow.
The Maoist-headed Defense Ministry asked the Nepal Army to stop its recruitment a full month and a half after Army Headquarters sought permission from the ministry. Then came the decision to retire the brigadier generals and give them no extension of tenure. While the generals’ retirement was still the talk of the town (the case is pending at the Supreme Court), the prime minister decided to allow his party’s private army -- People’s Liberation Army’ (PLA) -- to take part in the Fifth National Games. The Nepal Army nearly pulled out of the Games in protest.
And now they have targeted the army chief.
The Maoists believe that the series of incidents that they have engineered so far has given them the excuse to sack Katawal. Their pretext is his ‘defiance’ of the government’s directives.
The real issue of course is the Maoists’ carefully-worked-out plan to remove the only remaining obstacle to the realization of their ultimate and stated goal of establishing a “people’s republic” in Nepal: the national army. If we keep remaining silent, treating this as an affair limited to the army and/or civilian authority over the military, we will be committing a grave collective mistake.
All the top Maoist leaders have been open enough in backtracking on their promise to play by the rules under multi-party democracy. Now they speak openly of adding to the prevailing chaos since, in the words of party senior leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai, destruction alone will pave the way for construction.
The Maoists have warned and threatened harm against every single institution that they perceive as an obstacle to their designs. The political parties, parliament, the judiciary, the press. Anyone who is critical of the Maoists is an enemy of the people. And biased. Someone who doesn’t want the peace process to reach its logical conclusion. An agent of foreign governments. The list is endless and fanciful.
Isn’t it time now to call their bluff? Actually it is beyond time. Silence will only bolster the Maoists still further.
If the political parties – especially the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum – fail to comprehend the risks of doing nothing as has been their wont until now, we are in for the worst.
The Maoists are in a hurry to sack Katawal. The reasoning is that their choice of next army chief – Kul Bahadur Khadka – is retiring four months before Katawal does. If the Maoists can remove the incumbent chief now, they can appoint Khadka, who will then enjoy a three-year term. An army chief who is obliged to them in this time of instability is someone that the Maoists would much prefer to live with.
We don’t know how the Nepal Army would react if their chief is removed before his term expires in September. A misadventure such as in Bangladesh, as has been suggested by some “nationalists”, is very much likely to repeat itself in Nepal. Katawal would be more than willing to step in, all in the name of protecting democracy, and I say so with confidence. If that were to happen, it will not only be the Maoists who have to share the blame. We will be no less culpable, for failing to act when we should have.
The Maoists need to be told without mincing words: enough is enough.
damakant@myrepublica.com
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