Prachanda said his support for the principle of civilian supremacy will continue. That is actually what is being contested by many in the country and outside. A videotape that purports to be of Prachanda addressing Party-affiliated senior commanders in the past, shows him sharing his plans for state capture, including plans for the Nepal army. But he was clever enough to understand that, for that, the party must continue to raise very attractive slogans. In the subsequent politics, the slogans that he raised the most were about the end to impunity, of civilian supremacy and of human rights. The tape also seemed to contain plans about how to capture the army: “Once in, our 3,000 combatants can easily capture the Nepal army of 95,000 and that is why Katawal is opposing it.” If true, it would be thus appropriate for him to get rid of Gen Katawal, the enemy who understood the Maoist game plan, in the name of civilian supremacy. Nor did, on the tape, Prachanda speak of the need to democratise the army: “We will go for its politicisation.”

So far, all the government’s acts fit in with what the tape shows Prachanda telling his commanders. Politicising the judiciary by directly bringing it under executive control — the Maoist manifesto says there will be ombudsman watching the judiciary — would have been far easier once the politicisation of the army or its takeover was complete.

The dissemination of the videotape coincided with the crisis, and with Prachanda’s quitting the government in protest against the president’s action. Another example of the apparent game plan, according to the tape: Prachanda says he has been able to get the UN to certify the number of combatants as higher than they actually are; and multiplying them will be easy once “we control the political power”. All exercises, it seems, towards taking over the state completely.

... contd.