War of Power

Critical Discourse Analysis of a Section from Rookmangud Katawal's Autobiography

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is an act of explaining and interpreting any kind of text – both written and oral – and similar discourses, in order to understand what meaning is created in the text, how and by whom. In a CDA activity, the researcher analyses how the text means what it means in the given social context. As context is a broader term that implies a variety of backgrounds; such analysis attempts to identify how power relationships affect the discourse. Teun A van Dijk, one of the most important theorists of the CDA, defines, "Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context" (352). Van Dijk's definition hence apparently urges analysts to look into aspects of power relationships including social power abuse, dominance, and inequality.

            A couple of weeks back, former Chief of Nepal Army Rookmangud Katawal launched his autobiography titled after his name and written in Nepali language. Published by Nepa~laya, the book, penned by the General assisted by skilled journalist Kiran Bhandari, is a talk of the town in Nepali literary and intellectual circle today.
The head of the national army during a very critical time of Nepal's political history, Katawal himself is a controversial figure in Nepali society for last few years. His controversial image is especially made by his encounter with UCPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'-led government in 2009. The autobiography begins with the prologue titled 'Sorha Din ko Ladain', or War of Sixteen Days (Koirala). The section narrates Katawal's 'fight' with the then Prime Minister Prachanda and Minister for Defence, Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal', beginning from 19 April to 3 May in 2009. Despite being a part of the autobiography, the section reads like diaries of Katawal as it is written with dates as sub-headings.

            This analysis is particularly focused on two excerpts from the prologue. The first one is titled "Book excerpt" and is published on Republica daily on 8 August 2014. The second excerpt is published on Nepali Times weekly under the title "The 16-day War" on 30 July 2014. The first piece is dated 19 April 2009, the first day of what he termed "the 16-day war" whereas the other piece is dated 3 May 2009, the sixteenth day of the struggle. Hence, the two excerpts respectively open and close the section. An analysis of both excerpts can therefore represent what the section is actually about. 

In the 45-page section, Katawal apparently tries to assert his power as the Army Chief over the Maoist-led government. Each of the sub-sections in the prologue narrates the events in which the General happens to meet leaders of the Maoist government, again chiefly Prachanda and Badal. The recurring theme of almost all meetings is the Ministers and high-government officials asking Katawal to resign from the post of Army Chief. On the account dated 19 April, Katawal writes, "It was the same thing again! How many times to meet in a single day! But I had to go since it was PM´s call" ("Book excerpt"). Katawal here is referring to earlier requests, sometimes they seem threats also, by the Ministers "either resign or be ready to face the consequences" ("Book excerpt"). Hence, a critical discourse analysis of the section reveals the exercise of power by Katawal to dominate over the Ministers.

Though Katawal is felt to be under immense pressure to resign, his resistance is equally strong; and it is what makes the power play complicated in the given context. He is always of the opinion that "I'm a soldier. I won't run away from the front" ("Book excerpt"). Further, he clearly expresses, even today, that he was in direct opposition to the Maoist-led government then. Somesh Verma writes what the retired General tells him about the reason behind this historic hostility, "They wanted to establish a one-party regime. And army was the biggest obstacle." Katawal had feared that the government wanted to integrate around 19,000 Maoist combatants into Nepal Army, which he believed would surely defame the institution in international level (Verma). Hence, Katawal's exercise of power, domination and control over and against the Maoist government is very predictable. The chosen excerpts of the book exemplify so.

Several instances in the chosen excerpts embody power exercise of the Army Chief. Katawal tries to undermine Prachanda's supposed power when he narrates his meeting with the Premier on 19 April morning. He writes, "Unlike other days, he didn't look cheery. He wasn't even looking at me eye to eye". He then repeats - at least three times - that the Prime Minister is unable to establish eye contact.  In the section, for this particular day, he presents Prachanda's helpless picture that he cannot conclude the talk and ends the meeting saying, "Okay, we will meet later" ("Book excerpt").

In the same section, he describes that he is summoned again in the same afternoon. But, in this second meeting too, Prachanda's image is as weak as it was in the morning. Having failed to convince the General for resignation with request, Prachanda, as Katawal narrates, lures him with an offer of ambassadorship. If what Katawal has written is anything to go by, Katawal very bluntly replies to the PM, "You tried to choke me in the morning, I didn´t give up. Now you're trying to pull me down." The meeting again ends with victory of Katawal, as he narrates it, "I've told you my decision. How many times do I have to repeat? My decision won't change." Prachanda, though he tries as hard as he can not to "let tension appear in his voice", sees off the General failing to convince him ("Book excerpt").

After 18 days, the climax is being staged. Beginning of the section dated 3 May 2009 seems soft and candid as he narrates his daughter living in America calling ritually and his grandchildren watching TV and playing at home. Yet, the repeated occurrence of the term "fight" allows this particular candidness to assert his military mindset. The daughter from America asks her father to "keep on fighting" whereas his innocent granddaughter wonders, "Prachanda Uncle and Sita Aunty (Prachanda's wife – Sita Paudel) used to come to visit Daddy, they would take me in their laps. Why are you fighting now?" ("The 16-day War"). The talk of 'fight', though casual for an army man's family, seems not natural at least for the grandchildren who have only understood that visiting someone frequently essentially means good terms. Hence, the term seems deliberately inserted to represent the General's fighting mindset during that time. Katawal confirms this mood when he writes, "I was on the cusp of my final battle. It was win or lose" ("The 16-day War").

Amid this casual talks and discussion, Katawal receives the invitation from the Defence Secretary for PM's residence in Baluwatar. The General seems quite honest in writing that before reaching Baluwatar, he himself does call the President, the former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and top leaders of major political parties just to let them know his stand on the recent developments. "My message to all of them was: The Nepal Army does not surrender, you can do as you wish" ("The 16-day War"). In this account, he seems to have believed that he has overall national and international supports and only the Maoists are against him (though he says he had a contact with "a well-wisher Maoist minister").

As expected, he is offered a "thank you letter on behalf of the government". The "thank you" letter here euphemistically means that he is sacked. It is surely a mistake on part of the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister to expect that Katawal takes the letter without any protest and leaves the place. In fact, he has security troops for him standby, as Kunda Dixit rightly reds, "he took two pickups of Special Forces to Baluwatar with instructions to storm the building if he didn’t reappear every ten minutes". So, the General instantly produces a fierce reply to the letter, "Am I a peon...Did I come here to receive official letters wherever you want?" ("The 16-day War").  Once the Defence Minister says he may choose not to receive the letter if he wishes so, Katawal returns to the Nepal Army Headquarters.

Few minutes before the letter to him is given, his deputy Kul Bahadur Khadka has been given the appointment as acting Chief of Army. Hence, back in the Headquarters, Katawal also exercises his domination over Khadka too. He summons Khadka at a meeting of high officials and immediately inquires, "Hey, Comrade, under whose orders did you go to Baluwatar?" The use of the term "Comrade", the term that communist leaders use to address fellow party members, apparently aims to offend the deputy, for it indirectly accuses him of being a Maoist. Even after Khadka tells him that he did visit Baluwatar after repeated calls from the Defence Minister and thinking that Katawal himself was with the Minister, the General repeatedly questions the chain of command, calls him a liar and shouts to get out of the meeting hall, in a rude fashion ("The 16-day War").

Himself a senior army official, Khadka loses his dignity in front of arrogant Katawal. The Army Chief's concluding comment about Khadka appears to be sympathetic, but in deeper analysis, it again is meant to defame his dignity as it calls him a pawn. "Even though the short-term plan of the Maoists was to replace me with Kul Bahadur, their long-term intention was to install their own chief…Kul Bahadur was only a pawn" ("The 16-day War"). Critics even suspect that the General's treatment to Khadka on that very day must have been crueler and more impolite. Some fear that Katawal might have crossed the limits of not only military courtesy, but all general norms of public conversation."You bloody joker, what do you think you are doing? - Katawal says he told Khadka, but what he really said is probably unprintable" (Dixit).       

Katawal connects his move with ideas of rule of law and democracy. He says he told the President and top leaders of major parties that the move of Prachanda-led government is not only unlawful, but also a challenge to democratic rule. "This isn't just a blow to the Nepal Army, it is also a blow to democracy." He further justifies his move that "the President, Girija Babu and others told me to strongly maintain my stand" ("The 16-day War"). As many scholars of critical discourse analysis have pointed out, Katawal here presents his discourse of domination as if it is natural and others have to accept it. He naturalises his power connecting it with greater ideas of democracy, rule of law and chain of command.

His power exercise seems to have extended up to an implicit threat to the President. Even till 11 at the night, he fails to get reinstatement letter from the President. In such a situation, he tells an advisor of the President, "My legitimacy finishes by 12 o'clock at night, we are not going to surrender. No way. I don’t want to do anything unpleasant myself" ("The 16-day War"). This final sentence of his 'final word' – "I don’t want to do anything unpleasant myself" – among a range of interpretations, might also mean that an army coup ("doing anything unpleasant myself"). He also narrates that he entertains some junior personnel's view that they are fighting with the Maoists and they are ready to do whatever he commands. This brief anecdote also hints that he is proud of his power and position, that night.

The "war" ends with his reinstatement from the President, that eventually leads to resignation of PM Prachandra and his government the next day. "Definitely, it was the decisive war that saved him from being just another general, and earned him a mixed bag of fame and notoriety" (Koirala). The account of the war, hence, proves that how he succeeds to separate himself from other generals who leave their office on last days of their tenure and get forgotten in history.  From critical discourse perspective, it essentially is a war of power and domination, where the Army Chief wins over other power centres including the government, its chief and senior ministers. 

Works Cited

Dixit, Kunda. "A General's labyrinth." Nepali Times. 30 July 2014. 26 Aug. 2014 < http://
nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2014/07/30/a-generals-labyrinth/>

Katawal, Rookmangud. "Book Excerpt." Trans. Somesh Verma. Republica. 8 Aug. 2014. 26 Aug. 2014. < http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/
index.php?action=news_details&news_id=80530>

---. "The 16-day War." Trans. Kunda Dixit. Nepali Times. 30 July 2014. 26 Aug. 2014 < http://nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2014/07/30/a-generals-labyrinth/>

Koirala, Keshav P. "General Katawal makes big revelations in autobiography." The Himalayan Times. 15 Aug. 2014. 26 Aug. 2014. www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=General+Katawal+makes+big+revelations+in+autobiography&NewsID=424224>

van Dijk, Teun A. "Critical Discourse Analysis." Discourse in Society. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://
www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Critical%20discourse%20analysis.pdf>

Verma, Somesh. "A General's journal." Republica. 8 Aug. 2014. 26 Aug. 2014. www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=80530>