Kathmandu, Dec. 29: A former senior military officer at Nepal’s royal palace, who drew flak for the massacre of King Birendra and nine others in 2001, is now rattling new skeletons with his memoir.
Gen. Bibek Shah, who rose from being the aide de camp of the king to becoming military secretary in the Narayanhity Royal Palace in Kathmandu, has opened a can of worms with his book, Maile dekheko darbar (The Court As I Saw It).
The 599-page book, the author says, is based on his dairy and observations, especially during the nearly four years that he served as military secretary, first to King Birendra and then, to his successor King Gyanendra.
Gen. Shah says King Birendra, though a constitutional king, wanted to modernise the Army and was seeking to buy “ultra modern” firearms. The king, who was also the supreme commander of the Army, had reached an agreement with German gun manufacturer Heckler and Koch to procure their G36 assault rifles. Plans had also been made to assemble the weapons in Nepal and sell them in South Asia.
But Gen. Shah says the plan was anathema to India, since the bigger neighbour did not want Nepal to possess better arms and was pressuring it to buy its indigenous Insas group of firearms that were inferior in quality.
“I think the arms politics could be one of the major reasons behind the palace massacre,” Gen. Shah says.
The other reason, he writes, could be the issue of granting citizenship to residents of the Terai plains, many of whom are of Indian origin.