By Rabi Raj Thapa
People’s euphoria over the Balen government seems to be hitting its head against the wall, just as its predecessors did.
This time, it is not the police against demonstrators on the streets. This time, it is the unruly parliamentarian Khagendra Sunar confronting Nepal Police IGP D. B. Karki in a parliamentary committee. This confrontation has become not only political and functional but also exceedingly emotional.
For ordinary Nepalis, this row between RSP parliamentarian Khagendra Sunar and Nepal Police IGP D. B. Karki has become as sensational and shocking as communal strife in Sihara.
To add fuel to the fire, another RSP parliamentarian, Raju Pandey, rammed a bulldozer into the wall of a Nepal Army compound in Gokarna, apparently portraying himself as an Armageddon-like figure fighting military encroachment on public land. This prompted the Home Minister and the Speaker of Parliament to intervene to defend the authority, dignity and respective roles of their institutions.
But the most common feature of all these incidents is that they are related to the security and credibility of Nepal’s security institutions.
For a long time, Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force have appeared increasingly weak and defenseless from all sides. They are suffering from low morale and motivation, while their physical facilities remain poor and inadequate. Yet the government and parliamentarians such as Khagendra Sunar appear to have little feeling or sensitivity toward these issues.
Today, many veteran police officers who joined the Nepal Police before the political change of the 1990s strongly believe that the Nepal Police has repeatedly been made a whipping boy for government failures since then—and that this practice is still continuing.
Since the promulgation of the federal Constitution, the Nepal Police has been fractured and divided vertically into three tiers and horizontally into seven provinces. Looking at the attitude and behaviour of some new parliamentarians, Nepal’s security agencies seem to be suffering more from the government’s flawed structural management than from the performance of police personnel. They appear to be going from “the frying pan into the fire.”
The smooth and effective functioning of any security organisation is actually quite simple: it can perform well when there is a clear government plan and policy, proper direction, good intentions, clear instructions, adequate orientation, timely decisions and clear guidelines from its oversight bodies, including parliamentarians. On the contrary, bullying, threats and condemnations only create greater chaos, lower morale and confrontation, particularly when security personnel are cornered and insulted beyond reasonable limits.
People and the government may have their own views and perceptions of police work, but police personnel on the ground can also feel sick and tired of the never-ending and ever-increasing anarchic crowds on the streets—as well as the growing incidents of indecent and unruly behaviour by inexperienced parliamentarians inside Parliament and its committees.
It is needless to say that the government has neglected the country’s only national intelligence agency. How can the Nepal government and Parliament protect the country with an almost non-existent, deaf-and-dumb intelligence agency when so many things are happening across the country? Today, Nepal needs a robust National Investigation Department as its only covert security apparatus to protect the national interest and serve as the ears and eyes of the government.
As far as corruption and misappropriation by senior security officials are concerned, the Nepal government has full authority and a free hand to form any type of special investigative body, as it has done in the past.
Today, both of Nepal’s immediate neighbours are seeking security assurance and support from the Nepal government and its people. Nepal must take their diplomatic signals seriously, as they could be interpreted as warnings of consequences short of war or armed confrontation.
It is interesting to see that Nepalis are always in demand in security services abroad. They have earned a strong reputation for providing security services internationally, including in United Nations peacekeeping missions. That is what Nepal Police IGP Dan Bahadur was reminding parliamentarian Khagendra Sunar in front of all the responsible national stakeholders.
This may be the first time that a Home Minister and the Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament have spoken in favour of a police IGP in such an open, frank and unbiased manner. Home Minister Sudan Gurung’s candid comments and his suggestion that parliamentarians should not behave like judges are timely and commendable.
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