Courtesy: Internet
By L.D. Pulami
The country seems to be seeing nothing but scandals these days. Just last week, a famous cricket player was convicted by a court, and a person who called himself an ascetic was arrested by the police.
It is said that hard cash worth more than thirty million rupees was confiscated from the lavish home of the so-called ascetics who meditated mostly in jungles.
Famous cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane was convicted by the Patan High Court on the charge of raping a girl when he was supposed to be in a closed camp in preparation for an international tournament.
One can imagine the difficulty and mental trauma this young cricketer must have gone through when the courts just kept on lingering in his case. This suffering he must have gone through was reflected in his performance on the field as well. This does not mean he should go unpunished for his crime, like said by many on social networks, but just like him, others should also be held accountable. For example, officials of the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) must also take some responsibility for not being able to monitor its own national-level players when they are supposed to be in training in a closed camp. What is a ‘closed camp’? This means the players in the camp have to totally be in training and they cannot go outside or be distracted from the game. This also means that CAN authorities have to keep strict vigilance that the rules are being followed. But it seems the CAN authorities were very lax and they did not know anything even when one of their’ star’ players had gone AWOL (away on leave), when he was supposed to be in the close camp.
These incidents seem to be common, but only a few cases have come to the notice of the media. For example, a very good young football striker had run away and gone to some bars in Thamel when he was in a close camp. But he was quickly shunted aside from the team and he was never selected in the national team from that time. In contrast, CAN authorities reacted very late and only after the court verdict, it has said Lamichhane will not be able to take part in any international or domestic games. The memory is still fresh when players of another country refused to shake hands with Lamichhane after Nepal played a game against that country. Shouldn’t CAN authorities have been humiliated as many other Nepali fans of the game felt?
Meanwhile, the self-declared ascetic Ram Bahadur Bomjon has been kept in custody on the charge of murder, rape and disappearance of some of his disciples.
There are no doubts about it that such acts are heinous crimes, but we still have to hear the decision of the courts before coming to any conclusions.
But one thing that this author knows is that some criminals and cheaters also tried to hide behind the façade of this ‘guru’, while they indulged in their criminal activities and also cheated innocent people. One of them is a person called Ram Bhakta Bomjon, who is an expert in cheating people out of their lands. This fellow used to fly the flag of Buddhism and placards of the accused ascetic while stealing the land of others. This man probably out of fear, also is living a low-profile life after he made millions by cheating innocent people. People like this fellow should also be arrested by the police while the ascetic Ram Bahadur Bomjon is being held and under investigation. Probably the police would get more information from such individuals who promoted and sold the name of ‘Bomjon’, bringing shame to the whole Buddhist community, for which people of all faiths have a lot of respect.
The conviction of Lamichhane and the arrest of Bomjon have been mentioned because they happened only about a week ago. But many more scandals and scams have been unveiled in the past when political leaders have been directly accused of being involved and bureaucrats and security officials have also been seemingly indulging in corruption. But as our own so-called mainstream media are involved in trying to hush up things and doing nothing as a follow-up after making headlines and making a sensation of some news, criminals are seemingly going away Scot Free.
In the past year or so, there have been cases of smuggling of kilos of gold from the much-protected Tribhuvan International Airport, news about a land scam in which many acres of land just next to the official residence of the prime minister were grabbed and sold by crooked politicians and government officials and of course, the pardoning of criminal politicians by the government were exposed among many such other cases.
In one gold smuggling case, several people lost their lives in mysterious Mafia-style killing and no one was aware of where the kilos of gold were. The investigation ended with only a few police officials being either fired or suspended. It is hard to believe how so many kilos of gold were smuggled in without the knowledge of different government authorities manning the airport, and how no one seemed to know where the smuggled gold actually reached.
It is not that corruption did not exist during the Rana regime or when the former kings ruled this nation. Corruption was there, but while the former kings were not involved in such activities of which they are accused of now, ironically some secretaries in the palace were very corrupt, specially during the long stint of rule of late king Birendra.
Now, corruption is a ‘free for all’ game where not only the top-level leaders but also their close ones and many others are involved in economically looting the nation and the people. It was said in the media how present prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal went to inspect the Nagarjung Palace soon after he came to power and he was surprised to see that the former king slept in an ordinary bed. But Dahal himself bought a very expensive bed for use in his official residence in Baluwatar. That is the seed which breeds more and more corruption.
No wonder the majority of Nepalese are disgusted by the performance of the political parties and all are trying their best to leave the nation and work abroad even if it means they have to do menial jobs and more importantly, lose their identity.
All we as true lovers of this impoverished nation can do is hope that some individual emerges to not only save this country but to also get the nation to come out of the stigma of being one of the most corrupt nations of the world.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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