by Deepak Gajurel
The fresh disclosure by a King's close military aid suggests that Indian establishment was behind propagating Maoists insurgency against monarchy in Nepal.
A former aid to the King of Nepal has revealed that India provided arms training to Nepal's anti-monarchy Maoist insurgents. In his memoir, 'Maile Dekheko Darbar' meaning 'The Palace As I Saw,' former palace military secretary General Bivek Kumar Shah writes 'Indian military trained Nepal Maoist insurgents at a Military Training Camp at Chakrata, near Dehradun.'
The former general of the Nepal Army, who had served the palace for nearly 30 years, launched his memoir recently which has made revelations on various unfolded aspects of Nepali politics and its foreign policy conduct.
Shah writes that a team of Nepal Armed Police, that went to Chakrata in Uttaranchal state of India to receive arms training, were told by the trainers (Indian military instructors) as well as locals that in the past Nepal Maoists were also trained in the same facility.
While Nepal state-intelligence was gathering information on India-Maoist nexus, other foreign sources too were convinced that Indian government agencies were working against Nepal monarchy, through Maoists 'revolution.'
The then Chinese ambassador to Nepal Wu Congyong met the then Nepali prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, and was 'understood to have clarified that Nepal's Maoist Party (then a banned terrorist organization) moved as per the Indian agenda and has no relation with China,' Gen. Shah states in his memoir.
'According to the information given by the Chinese ambassador, there is an unofficial agreement between the Maoists and India's intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) to end monarchy in Nepal,' the memoir says.
Shah also claims in his book that India trained the Tamil Tigers as well as Bangladesh's Mukti Sena at the same facility. When he was informed about this by a senior police officer he tried to investigate the truth, Shah writes.
The allegations come even as India has been saying that its Maoists have been receiving arms training by Maoists in Nepal.
In his 599-page memoir, General Shah alleges that India could have possibly incited the killings of the then King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev and his family members, in the Narayanhiti Royal Palace shooting spree, on June 1, 2001.
According to Shah, who was military secretary to both King Birendra and his successor King Gyanendra, though it was undoubtedly Dipendra who pulled the trigger and caused the carnage, in which nine others died, he could have been incited by foreign powers.
King Birendra, he writes in his book, tried to modernize the outdated arsenal of Nepal Army. He had entered into negotiations with a foreign (European) gun manufacturer to buy as well as assemble guns in Nepal, from where they could be sold to other countries of South Asia, Shah adds.
'India was against Nepal having more sophisticated weapons than it had,' Shah writes adding, 'India was also worried about what would happen if such sophisticated guns fell into the hands of the Indian Maoists.' Shah reveals that during both Birendra and Gyanendra's visits to India, they were pressurized by the Indian leaders to buy India made Insas rifles at a 'friendly' price.
According to the Memoirs, not only his political moves but also a plan to break hold of India as the sole supplier of weapons to Nepal sealed Birendra's fate. 'India was not at all pleased with his plans to buy automated HK-38 rifles from Germany and set up assembly plants in Nepal. India was insisting upon Nepal for buying the sub-standard, made in India, Insas rifles', the formal general writes. 'The politics of weapons is somehow or the other linked to King Birendra's assassination.' Gajurel is a Political Scientist with Tribhuvan University, Nepal. His areas of interest are International Relations, especially Himalayan Asia. He can be reached at deepakgajurel@gmail.com
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