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Kathmandu Wednesday October 04, 2000 Aswin 18, 2057.
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Koirala's hazy signal
The all-powerful Prime Minister Girija
Prasad Koirala has brought in Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya, his protegee and relative,
as Defence Minister to rescue him from his present predicament. The government is facing
all round criticism and trouble over its inability to maintain even a semblance of law and
order in some parts of the country or to provide a sense of security to the people in most
parts of the country. "Sources" close to the prime minister and the
government claim that this is a clear signal to the King and to the Army that the
government intends to suppress the Maoist rebellion. This apparently means that Acharya
can do what the Prime Minister could not or would not do. If the prime minister could not
do it, there is little chance that his defence minister can do it. But we were never told
officially if the Prime Minister ever attempted to use the Army and if he did, whether the
army refused to obey his order.
There is little doubt that a very loud and
clear signal is being sent to the Bhattarai and Deuba camp that Koirala's preferred choice
as successor is Acharya rather than Deuba. The new defence minister will no doubt do
something if only to prove that Koirala's decision was a wise one. He can do no less. In
the process, the army could be used to quell the Maoist insurgency. To some extent, it
might even meet with success. For the army, unlike the police do not have to interact with
the people and the only training given to soldiers is in ways to kill. If the government
thinks this is the desirable and only option open to it, then it is very surprising that
it has not yet ordered the army to take action against the Maoists.
There can be no second opinion that the
army must be under government control. This is true not only in democracies but in
authoritarian regimes as well except, may be, in military dictatorships. It is unfortunate
that there is even a debate about this, specially after the Defence Ministry issued a
statement the other day that the army was fully under government control. There are
allegations that the ministry issued the statement without the knowledge of the Defence
Minister. If so, this is a serious flaw on the part of the Defence Minister who was
unable to control his own ministry. Such a person should have had no option but to resign.
We, therefore, assume that the ministry statement was endorsed by the Defence Minister who
then also happened to be the Prime Minister. With Maoists now openly saying no to talks
with the present government, time might have come to deal with the Maoists firmly.
Let the government order the army to take
charge of security. Even though the army will be stretched thin, specially if the
Maoists diversify their areas of operation, there will at least be the consolation that
the government tried everything in its power to bring the insurgency under control. We
have never been told that such an attempt was made by different governments in power in
the past. And unless the government really thinks and believes that the new strategy will
deliver the goods, we might run out of options and land in a mess that will drown the
army, police and the nation. We sincerely hope that Koirala has not acted hastily without
taking into consideration the far reaching consequences or that Koirala acted only to
spite his rivals within his own party.
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