Why India is shielding Nepal Army Chief Katawal?
TGW
If
the Maoists’ Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal still thinks that he can
take a rest for over six hours, somewhere in the outskirts of
Kathmandu, leaving the country in doldrums, and that too after meeting
the Indian envoy and one of the declared Indian agents, then he is
mistaken.
Prime
Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was accompanied by the families of some
Maoists Peoples’ Liberation Army Commanders and his family members
obviously, beloved wife Sita, heir apparent Prakash, daughter-in-law
Srijana and nephew Sameer. That PM Dahal was more a family man than the country man is not also a secret either.
The
rebel leader who was forcefully sent to the mainstream Nepali politics
by the Indian regime which later followed by his election as the Prime
Minister of the country, say experts, is bound to pay for this Indian
magnanimity exhibited then.
That he is paying the dues become evident when a legitimate Government Head finds himself unable to sack the Nepal Army Chief.
After
all, why the Indian regime is shielding Katwal is a Himalayan mystery?
But the mystery remains no longer a secret affair for the intelligent
brains and nationalists. There is no free lunch in Indian diplomacy!
PM
Dahal headed straight 30 kilometers north-east of the capital, avoiding
the May Day celebrations, May 1, 2009, and arrived at a resort in
Lapsi-phedi VDC. However, Dahal’s destination was kept a guarded
secret, say police sources.
The
Kantipur daily writes quoting the Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam, the May
Day is generally taken as a day of relief, thus he may have gone there
to take a rest.
It
was around seven in the morning, Amresh Kumar Singh the former Nepali
Congress parliamentarian whose being a Nepali national remains suspect,
had come uninvited to seek an audience with the Prime Minister.
What
transpired in between the two, though still a mystery, but a quick
guess makes it clear that the man who was chosen by the Indian
establishment to act as a mediator between the then rebels and the
seven party alliances to sign the 12-Points Agreement, holds lot of
water in Nepali politics still.
PM
Dahal was about to take on the SUV ride to an undisclosed location,
there appeared the busiest man in Nepali politics, Rakesh Sood, the man
who is officially known as the Indian Ambassador to Nepal whose scope and sphere of influence in Nepali politics is boundless.
PM Dahal took him to his private chamber and the two returned after ten minutes.
“The
abrupt decision to stay away from May Day Celebrations was taken
immediately after the Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Rakesh Sood met with
the Prime Minister early morningâ€, adds sources.
After
meeting Sood, PM Dahal talked to the Finance Minister Dr. Babu Ram
Bhattarai and asked him to address the May Day gathering in Public
theatre in Kathmandu, to which Dr. Bhattarai readily accepted.
PM
Dahal also told Bhattarai that the Indian envoy was still pressurizing
him to retain Katawal or else, says Sood “await catastrophic situation
in the countryâ€.
The moot question thus again is: why Indian establishment is shielding Katawal?
What gains after all India will have upon retaining Katawal?
Or is it that Katwal has some “soft†inclination towards the Indian regime?