Madan Kumar Bhattarai

Lieutenant General (retd.) Krishna Narayan Singh Thapa has come out with memoirs entitled SAMAYA SAMJHANA: JIVANKO BANSURIMA BAJEKA DHUNHARU that can roughly be translated as Time and Memory: Tunes Blown from the Flute of Life, depicting the interesting saga of a prominent security officer recognised for his competence and immense contributions both at home and abroad. Devoted to his mother, Chandra Kumari Thapa, the book with 37 chapters, covers a wide range of issues, security, strategy, diplomacy, international peacekeeping, and domestic politics etc.

General Thapa spent almost four decades in Nepal Army and served under ten army chiefs. They included his batch mate General Dharmapal Barsingh Thapa as both had gone to England to complete cadet courses before formal induction into the army as Lieutenants. Of the ten service chiefs, at least two (Nir Shumshere and Surendra Bahadur Shah) became Field Marshals after their retirement and as many as five (Singha Bahadur Basnet, Guna Shumshere, Singha Pratap Shah, Arjun Narsingh Rana and Satchit Shumshere) were selected as political appointments after they laid down their office.
Thapa joined Nepal Army rather in an unplanned manner as the then Director of Military Training Colonel Singha Bahadur Basnet who was familiar with his father, inducted him. Otherwise, Thapa was initially bent on becoming an engineer.

The first chapter is quite composite dealing with the introduction of Mugali Thapas. He traces the historical origin of the settlement at Muga, Dhankuta, by Lamichhane Thapas, his childhood days, school and college days at Muga, Dharan and Darjeeling, and his eventual betrothal with Yun Hajur Thapa, the only child of Major General Shobhag Jang Thapa and Durga Devi Thapa. Yun Hajur is an established name in Nepali literature.
Shobhag Jang Thapa was Nepal's last head of mission in New Delhi before the conversion of the office to that of Consulate General in 1934, the first Military Attache to London when Nepal opened its first mission in Europe, Defence Secretary twice, Foreign Secretary and Cabinet Secretary until the beginning of 1961.

The second chapter with the title, first time in Kathmandu, gives a brief description of his entry into the army and selection for the cadet course in Sandhurst, England. Taken as one of the most enlightened army officers, Thapa is believed to have lost his chance for the top position of the Nepal Army by a whisker as he was also said to be in the striking range of becoming an Ambassador.
They included first Foreign Secretary Sardar Narendra Mani Acharya Dixit, who chaired the board, Padma Bahadur Khatri, who distinguished himself as a lead diplomat, senior bureaucrat Kshetra Bikram Rana, who later took over as Ambassador to China, and Singha Bahadur Basnet who got his post-retirement assignment as Ambassador to Egypt.

Four subsequent chapters deal with preparations for visiting London for cadet training through sea route, Sandhurst days, return to Kathmandu by air after completing the course and formal joining of the Nepal Army and various training courses undergone in India. The seventh and eighth chapters deal with two crucial assignments as Aide de Camp to the Chief of Staff (General Nir Shumshere) and King Mahendra respectively. Quite expectedly, Thapa remains a great admirer of King Mahendra and has even reproduced his handwritings with a political slogan.

The ninth and tenth chapters are very pertinent about the author's services outside the country first as Military Attache to the US and Canada, and stints with UN peacekeeping operations including as Force Commander respectively. Thapa was quite fortunate in the sense that his tenure in Washington DC coincided with ambassadorships of two of the best stalwarts of our foreign relations, Prof. Yadunath Khanal and Major General Padma Bahadur Khatri. He particularly mentions two issues during his stay in the American capital.

The first relates to sheer inaction on the part of headquarters to the proposition made by our Embassy in the US seeking permission to approach for the supply of some Bell helicopters for agricultural use when Washington was winding up operations in Vietnam with offers of supplies of hardware to needy countries. The second and more serious was the instruction from the Foreign Ministry to take into possession contrabands purported to contain 32 reels relating to the King's visit to the eastern part of Nepal, sent in violation of diplomatic privilege.

Concerning his five-year duty under the umbrella of the UN in terms of peacekeeping, Thapa calls it the most important and the most satisfying period of his 39-year-old association with the Nepal Army. The rest of the book deals with other domestic assignments of Thapa and his multiferous activities including his passion for sports, particularly golf. He also made a four-week drive from London to Kathmandu during October-November 1976.

While the book is a must-read work, there are some obvious drawbacks in the form of typos and proof mistakes and also on factual terms. One example is the description on page 197. Prof. Yadunath Khanal was not among civil servants dismissed in February 1961 as part of a massive administrative reshuffle and reorganization. He was inducted on that day as Foreign Secretary. The other secretary who was relieved was Bishwa Shankar Shukla and not Tapa Nath Shukla as erroneously mentioned. Likewise, Bishnu Prasad Dhital was not among those who were given marching orders.

Similarly, Sardar Narendra Mani Acharya Dixit was only a member of the Public Service Commission and not Chairman as written on page 36. Despite such minor lapses that are quite understandable, the book is decidedly one of the best presentations from among army officials whose writings seem to have flooded the market in recent years. Our congratulations to the author on his noble endeavours.
A former Foreign Secretary, Ambassador and Foreign Policy Adviser and once associated with The Rising Nepal, Bhattarai is an author involved in the study of Nepal's foreign relations from a historical perspective. He is available at kutniti@gmail.com.