By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Four years after contacts between the armies of Nepal and India stopped following King Gyanendra’s bid to capture absolute power with the help of an army-backed coup, the two neighbours will resume military contact once again with Nepal Army Chief Gen. Rookmangud Katuwal going to India on a week-long visit Sunday.
What was originally an invitation from the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun, of which the general is a former student, to attend the platinum jubilee celebration of the academy, was converted into a full-fledged official visit after the general sent feelers to Indian Army officials.
After the two-day IMA celebrations ending Monday, Katuwal will go to New Delhi where, among his other official engagements, he will attend an investiture ceremony in which the Indian President Pratibha Patil will confer on him the honorary title of general of the Indian Army.
As per tradition, the chief of the Nepal Army is an honorary general of the Indian Army and vice versa. Each newly appointed army chief visits the neighbouring country after assuming office.
Katuwal’s visit comes more than a year after he assumed office in September 2006, succeeding Gen. Pyar Jung Thapa. At the end of his tenure, Gen. Thapa ran into controversy for supporting the regime of King Gyanendra.
After the fall of the king’s 15-month government, though all the other security agency chiefs were removed as punishment, Thapa was allowed to retire in due course though he was found guilty by a commission set up to bring to justice the abettors of the royal regime.
Even Katuwal’s succession created a controversy with human rights organisations saying that he had a tarnished rights record.
During the last days of Thapa, India stopped arms assistance to the then Royal Nepalese Army to show its displeasure at the royal coup.
Gen. Nirmal Chander Vij was the last Indian general to visit Kathmandu in April 2003, within four months of being sworn in as the army chief. During his four-day visit, he had received a sword from King Gyanendra, who was then titular head of the RNA.
The last Nepal Army chief to visit India to receive the same honour was Thapa, who went to New Delhi in Dec 2002 on the invitation of the then Indian Army chief Gen. S. Padmanabhan.
Since then, a sea change swept Nepal after King Gyanendra began ruling the kingdom directly as chairman of the nominated council of ministers in 2005.
India put off engagements with Nepal and Vij’s successor Gen. Joginder Jaswant Singh did not come to Nepal during his tenure.
With India resuming diplomatic links with Nepal since the fall of King Gyanendra’s government in April 2006, it remains to be seen when Singh’s successor, Gen. Deepak Kapoor, pays a visit to Kathmandu.