Military supremacy or Civilian Supremacy ?

Picture Dinanath Sharma

Representatives of all 24 political parties representing the CA engaged in an all-party meeting called by the ruling Unified CPN (Maoist) to discuss the issue of sacking the Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Rookmangad Katawal, Wednesday evening.


UCPN-M Spokesperson Dinanath Sharma, coming out of the meeting. “So Prime Minister said he is in favor of finding a middle point to resolve the issue.”

Sharma said all the parties in the meeting agreed in principle that it was the government which can seek clarification or take action against Katawal but there were for and against arguments on the timing of the action.

“All the parties agreed that it was the government’s prerogative to seek clarification or initiate action but they differed on the timing of the action because of the challenge of transitional politics,” he said.

According to Sharma, the parties have agreed to meet again to decide what to do further in Katawal’s case. All the parties have been provided with the copies of the clarification furnished by Katawal for study.

“We called the meeting with a view to consult the parties on the issue of government action against the army chief,” said Prachanda l. “We all agreed that the government should take further step only through consensus.” He said whatever action the government will take will be decided by all the parties.

Speaking at the meeting, prime minister said initiated action against the army chief to stop the army from turning authoritarian like in Pakistan and Bangladesh and bring it under civilian control, according to Sharma.

“The prime minister also drew attention of the parties toward possibility of establishment of military supremacy if the parties unnecessarily politicize the issue,” Sharma said.