The Small Blue and Green Army

Nepal has not fought a war since 1856. Of course, as Gurkhas (Gorkhas), hill people from Nepal have fought and died in other peoples´ wars. But, it has been a long time since they have been asked to march out for Nepal.

The Royal Nepalese Army, as it is formally known, was the outcome of Prithvi Narayan Shah´s sallying forth from his hilltop palace in Gorkha to conquer and unify what is present-day Nepal. It is this association with the creation of the nation that officers in the Nepali army are proud of, and one that is often forwarded in support of its continued maintenance.

For there are those in Nepal who feel the army may have outlived its purpose. They point to the futility of keeping an army to counter the Indian or Chinese juggernauts, and argue that a country that likes to flaunt its status as a "peace zone" cannot have it both ways. An expensive standing army, said an unusually candid economic column in The Kathmandu Post daily, is like a "white elephant wearing an olive-green outfit".

Sensitive to this criticism, the army top brass maintain that their role is somewhat larger than protecting the hill and tarai from aggression, for which the army is "prepared enough". They point to the contributions of the army during peacetime.

The list is impressive. As the official guardians of Nepal´s national parks since 1975, the men in green have served an environment defence role, and their rapid mobilisation during floods, landslides and earthquakes that regularly strike the Himalayan kingdom makes the Royal Nepalese Army a kind of a stand-by rescue force.

Lately, the army has also been building roads. And, since 1958, the army, donning the blue helmet of UN peacekeeping, has brought considerable foreign exchange to soldiers´ pockets and the national exchequer.

Defence officials say the army is also necessary for internal security, and recall the 1970s when the army was asked to put down the CIA-funded Nepal-based Khampa rebels who were making things difficult for the Chinese in Tibet. Given the ethnic, regional and ideological aspirations simmering just below Nepal´s seemingly calm political surface, a strong deterrent is essential in the form of an army, they say.

Actually, it is not the army´s mission, but its size and the cost of maintaining is what critics object to. Even the number of soldiers is secret. "That would be telling," was the coy answer of the spokesman for the Defence Ministry, but it is generally believed that the military is 50,000 strong.

The army does not lend itself to easy scrutiny. In fact, probing of any kind is discouraged, fuelling speculation that there is much that the army has to hide. It seemed that the era of hush-hush might end when a corruption scandal extending to the top brass broke a year ago. That did not happen.

Sources say that the spending on the army (Nepal has neither an air force nor a navy) is much higher than the 6 percent that has been shown in the budget for years. Funds are said to be siphoned off from other fiscal headings, bringing the total considerably higher than the 1 percent of GNP it is made out to be. A change in status quo cannot be expected at this point, however.

Political players in Nepal´s multiparty democracy have a love-hate relationship with senior army officers, who make no secret of where their loyalties would lie if asked to choose—the Royal Palace. The most telling instance was in the Spring of 1990 when soldiers were a trigger-squeeze away from firing upon the public as it demonstrated against King Birendra´s absolute rule.

As things stand, there is little likelihood of a reduction in the size of the Nepali army and the military sees no reason to be apologetic. Besides, it is currently riding high after having been asked by the United Nations to keep a standby force of 2000 men for rapid deployment.

Due to its long peace-keeping experience and because South Asian countries are being increasingly asked by the UN to serve as peace-keepers, the army is thinking of establishing a peace-keeping training centre in Nepal. That might be something to occupy a sizeable army in a tiny state.