President Koirala not yet convinced

September 8, 2004
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Kathmandu: Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala has reasons to be unhappy with the findings of the government constituted commission, which has apparently made Koirala clear that the incident at the airport was just a trifling matter, which warranted no greater attention.

“It was just the lack of proper and effective coordination of information in between the security agencies stationed at the airport and elsewhere which caused the emergence of this sad incident”, is what the commission said in its report that it submitted to the government last week.

Koirala and his colleagues, however, reject this version of the government and dare to say that some powerful forces could have influenced the findings of the commission, which belittled the issue wherein Koirala was debarred from attending a meet in Bhairahava on that fateful day.

Koirala’s airport incident could have stretched for long, analysts say, but one very unfortunate and chaotic event last Wednesday shadowed all other previous smaller incidents, comparatively speaking, for example, that of the congress president. Or else the manner the congress party and its affiliated organizations had begun retaliating against the airport incident did hint that the nation would reel under its weight for some time to come. However, that did not happen for other events of national dimensions replaced the one wherein Koirala expected justice for himself, who was denied, he and his colleagues claim now.

However, certain sources close to Deuba claim that President Koirala was denied entry at the airport when security agencies came to know in advance that apart from addressing a congress meet in Bhairahava, Koirala was all set to have a secret level talks with one Maoists central committee leader, Dev Gurung, some where in the periphery of that town in western Nepal. So far others have not substantiated this news save one weekly that apparently talks in favor of Deuba and his political paraphernalia. If this were true would mean that Koirala is on the run to sort out the Maoists imbroglio. Not bad!

Be that as it may, the government’s version in this regard is yet to come to the open.

Congress party under Koirala nurtures a feeling that the Nepali army has some reservations vis-à-vis the party and its paramount leader, Koirala.

The fact is that Koirala and his party conclude that the Nepali army has never listened to the orders of the sitting government and that the army gets mobilized only when the monarch tells them to act. Koirala and his colleagues recall that when the then prime minister tried to mobilize the army at time of the Holeri incident against the Maoists some five years ago, the army simply denied the governmental orders which meant that a sitting prime minister can’t force the military to act unless the Premier is backed by the monarch. These events have made the congress to conclude that the army has got to be tamed and since the Holeri incident, congress has been demanding the army to remain under the government control. In the process, Koirala and his party have made some scathing comments against the army.

The Royal Nepali Army rebuffs this claim and clarifies that the entire institution is at the service of the nation and that they have come out of the barracks as and when the government has ordered them at act.

The RNA thus disclaims Congress allegations.

In the process, a sort of misunderstanding thus apparently persists in between congress and the military institution. If it is, say analysts, by default then it has got to be corrected at the earliest.

It is in this light Koirala suspects that the commission that was told to go deep into the causes of him being debarred from entering into the airport premises to have been influenced by the members of the commission belonging to security agencies.

This is unfortunate, say analysts. They hasten to add that two powerful institutions of the country, one political force and the other a very powerful security wing of the nation, should have reconciled with each other in the larger interest of the nation.

How Koirala and his party will react to the findings of the commission will have to be observed.

In the meantime, Congress president has demanded the formation of three separate powerful committees to investigate the incident that rocked the nation last Wednesday in the wake of the Iraqi massacre of twelve Nepali youths. According to Koirala, different committees are allowed to investigate the religious, social and the other aspects of the damage caused by the riot. Koirala’s logic appears tenable given the riot has hit hard practically all the fabrics of the Nepali society.

The government is yet to act as per Koirala’s wishes.