Referendum should decide fate of Nepal’s Monarchy
The integration issue has turned very costly to the entire peace process? Isn’t it?
But, the Maoists have been saying that in order to democratize the Army the Militias must be integrated into Nepal Army?
Thapa: These are demands only. It is neither accepted to the political parties nor to the institution of Army. Nepal Army is the National Power, no one has the right to disrupt this power.
As far as democratization of Army is concerned let me tell you very frankly that Nepal Army as an institution runs as per the Chain of Command.
Army generals are not elected politicians. Democratization of Army rather means that it should be operated by rule of Law while maintaining peoples’ supremacy. The government must manage the Army through Security Council and defense ministry.
So the Maoists are wrong when they claim that the Army is undemocratic institution?
Thapa: The Army is governed by the constitution and the Army has served government orders. How can it be undemocratic? There are demands to make the institution inclusive. But we have been in the process of making the Army inclusive for long time now. The NA is a professional outfit which has been there for all to see as it has played significant role in maintaining world peace in the peace keeping missions abroad. It is our prime duty to provide enough resources to the Army to modernize it.
There are even rumors that Nepal Army could stage coup d’état?
Thapa: I have already told you that the Army will always abide by government orders. History is the witness that Nepal Army has always accepted political change that took place in the country after the end of Rana regime. Our Army men have been trained at various institutions abroad. They know the global political order. The Army has never staged a coup in the past and it will not do it in the future.
In the past, we fought against the terrorists but never fought against the people. The Nepal Army did not want to prolong the tenure of any government in the past through the use of force. If it would have preferred then there would have been no change at all.
The Nepal Army has betrayed King Gyanendra. Isn’t that true?
Thapa: No the Army did not betray him. The King did not want to prolong his rule by killing innocent civilians. The Army also felt the same. After the handover of power, the Army readily accepted the change. The Army did not want to stand against the main-stream politics. A county is like the trinity comprising of the Government, People and the Army. The Army cannot go against the trinity. The Army knows well that we need to strengthen the trinity to make the nation strong.
Do you think the trinity as you have explained is strong at the moment?
Thapa: No. The Nepal Army has been confined to the barracks. The intuition of Police is highly politicized. Thus the result is there for all to see in the form of worst security situation ever recorded. To guarantee safety to the civilians all organs of security must be deployed. Coordinated activities of all organs of security guarantees both internal and external security. Nepal Army cannot be sidelined from National Security framework.
Are you trying to say that Nepal Army must be deployed to take security situation under control?
Thapa: This is a political issue. However Army is always ready and if needed National consensus must be made to deploy the army.
UNMIN is being criticized for it has failed to play impartial role here, what do you say?
Thapa: We have great belief in the United Nations. Nepal has supported the UN from Nepal Army’s peace keeping missions abroad. We cannot have any feeling of resentment against the UNMIN. But criticisms are being made against the role of UNMIN. I would suggest the UNMIN to accept its role within its jurisdiction. It is also our responsibility to do our homework well prior we blame the UNMIN.
Do you see likelihood of any civil war?
Thapa: The decision to adopt federal order should not have been mentioned in the interim constitution. This decision might not bode well for the nation. Any hasty decision might lead the country to a civil war.
What about the prospect of new constitution prior to Interim constitution expires May 28, 2010?
Thapa: I am not a constitutional expert. The CA has mandate of 2 years only. Failing to draft constitution on time may lead to another election. Emergency situation might be imposed. Thus timely constitution is the only viable option.
Finally what say you of demand for referendum to decide fate of Monarchy?
Thapa: I also feel personally that rather than the CA voting monarchy out, referendum should be adopted to decide the fate of monarchy.
(Dristi vernacular weekly, excerpts only)
Comments (2)
the Indian Army is in its origins the creation of foreign British rulers who established it to create and sustain the British Raj for two centuries, and who handed it over to India after 1947.
The Royal Nepal Army was by contrast unique because it was an "organic" army that together with monarchy was responsible for the birth, growth, and maintenance of the Nepali nation as a Nepali enterprise. It was the Army of Raja Prithvi Narain Shah of Gorkha that became the Army of the King of Nepal after he declared the Kingdom of Nepal in 1769 and became King Prithvi Narain Shah. It was "Nepali" because it was "Royal" and therefore above and beyond affiliation to any particular caste, tribe, region, or party. It was part of the "umbrella of state" provided by Nepali monarchy.
As an "organic" army it had the right and duty to feel itself responsible for preserving the essence that was Nepal, its reason for being, such as monarchy (constitutional) and the Hindu rastra (with a far superior record of communal harmony than so-called secular India). If it had the intellectual and moral integrity and institutional confidence it could have insisted on the integrity of the 1990 Constitution (which had inbuilt provisions for change through amendments embedded within it, after elections that were free and fair), and its re-invigoration, through elections that were periodic and frequent and free and fair.
In failing to draw a "laxman lekha" around the essences of Nepal (like monarchy and the Hindu rastra and the 1990 Constitution) the Army failed to do its duty as an "organic" army that was with monarchy one of the oldest continuous institutions of the state; it failed in its implicit and explicit oaths and duty to Country and King and to the 1990 Constitution with its unique amalgam of constitutional monarch,parliamentary democracy, Hindu rastra, and constitutionalism and the rule of law.
No one was asking the Army to rule! But it should have insisted on the integrity of the core essence of Nepal and of the constitutional systems and processes of the State, by drawing a clear "laxman rekha" for the politicians to respect, and if necessary by insisting on an interim government of non-partisan experts to hold elections to restore the parliament that Nepali Congress Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba dissolved in 2002, and in the process to revive the 1990 Constitution.
In a time of crisis the Royal Nepal Army failed conspicuously! It behaved less as one of the world's truly "organic" armies, with its own finely developed institutional integrity. It behaved more like a rudderless child that had lost its parent that was being pulled several ways by the temptations of sundry other national and international actors.
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Tara Singh raises many vital issuess. Absolutely pertinent ones-- to which, we hope, the author, as RNA Chief of Staff would respond. Wonder, if the Army Inteleligence was not privy to all the illigitimate negotiations between Prachand and Girija and Giraja and India, whioh as per 1990 constituion tantamounts to treason