Kathmandu, April 19
Kul Bahadur Khadka, who became Nepal’s army chief for less than ten hours in 2008, has said he has no regrets over how he acted that night.
Khadka, in an interview with Onlinekhabar, maintained that he accepted then Prime Minister Prachanda’s decision to appoint him as Chief of Army Staff, as the government had fired then CoAS Rookmangud Katawal, and he was Katawal’s deputy.
On May 3, 2009, then Prime Minister Prachanda relieved the Army’s Chief Katawal of his duties for allegedly disobeying instructions not to hire new recruits and refusing to accept the “supremacy of the civilian authorities.”
But President Ram Baran Yadav ‘annulled’ the Prime Minister’s decision, and Katawal again became the chief of the army. While Prachanda resigned the next day, Khadka put in his papers a few days later.
“Katawal ji was fired because he did not obey orders from the government. He did the exact opposite of what the Defence Ministry had ordered him to do,” said Khadka. “He thought that it was the Maoists who were running the show, and there was no need to obey the government’s orders.”
Khadka, who has been talking to the press to refute allegations levelled against him by former army chiefs Katawal and Chhatraman Gurung (both of whom have published their autobiographies), said that there was talk that the government was going to take Katawal to task.
“I haven’t received a formal letter from the government explaining why I am not the Chief of Staff,” said the former army man. “I agreed to my appointment because it was legal.”
‘Katawal tried to assassinate my character’
Khadka alleged that Katawal went around spreading rumours about him. “There were times he said I was close to the Maoists, and there were others when he said I was close to the Nepali Congress. He even told the Indians that I was close to the ISI.”
He said that Katawal and Gurung tried to add spice to their books by touching upon his personal life. “I have not resorted to doing so in my response to their allegations. If I started doing the same, they would not be in a position to say no,” he added.
