Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has resigned following a confrontation with the President Ram Baran Yadav over the firing of army chief Rookmangud Katawal. Yadav rejected the firing of Katawal.
On Monday
Dahal resigned during a televised address after the president ordered Katawal to return to work in a late night notice.
The confrontation was over the fact that many former Maoist fighters are restricted to UN-monitored barracks under a peace accord. Dahal is a former Maoist rebel leader. He wanted the men freed and put into the military. This had been prescribed until a UN-brokered peace agreement. Katawal fought those orders.
Dahal fired the army chief citing him with sparking mass protests and jeopardizing the survival of the country's first elected government in addition to refusing to admit former Maoist into the military.
President Ram Baran Yadav called the firing unconstitutional sending letters to both Dahal and KatawalSunday night rejecting the decision.
Yadav is the first elected president in Nepal. Last year the monarchy was abolished. The new government puts the army on the president's command and not the prime minister's.
AP reports:
The government says Katawal also ignored orders to stop recruiting soldiers, boycotted last month's national games, and allowing eight army generals to continue working past their tenure.
"The army chief was removed because he failed to give a satisfactory explanation on why the government orders were ignored," said Information Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara.
There are fears that the new government could already be on the brink of collapse.
AP reports:
"It has become almost impossible for the Maoists to remain in government in the present situation," said Ameet Dhakal, editor of Republica, a leading newspaper in the capital Katmandu. "It's a big crisis for the country now."
In Nepal the lines are divided between supporters of the Maoists who are considered heroes to many of the rural villagers and the Nepali Congress which is now in power.
Yesterday protesters lined the streets to support the Maoist government and others to protest.
