EDITORIAL
“Loktanrik Nepal” is very unique. Last week, after four years, the Special Court gave its verdict on the Lalitaniwas government land grab scandal. It is odd that those senior political leaders including Bijaya Gachhadar, got a clean chit, whereas, the government officers were punished. Former prime ministers Madhav Nepal and Baburam Bhattarai were not included in the case, therefore, the Court didn’t speak about them, nevertheless, the court, explaining the cabinet decision, gave a clean chit to the then ministers. The Court explained that the cabinet decisions were beyond the jurisdiction of the Commission for Investigation on Abuse of Authority (CIAA). The Court’s verdict has encouraged policy-wise corruption giving clean chit to the political leaders but it described the bureaucrats as dishonest and corrupt. Ministers are taking command of the ministry, oddly, they are not responsible for any decision made by them, a unique legal system that we find in the “loktantrik Nepal”.
Not odd, powerful businessmen are also exceptions for the court. The Kathmandu District Court decided to give bail to Arun Chaudhary, younger brother of Nepali Congress MP and business tycoon Binod Chaudhary. Arun Chaudhary and the Chaudhary Group were involved in grabbing the land belonging to the Bansbari Leather Shoe Factory. Arun, without hesitation, stated that he was ready to return to the land occupied by him. Arun may get clean chit after returning the government land as precedent has already been established in the case of the Lalitaniwas land scam. UML’s influential leader Bisnhu Poudel’s son and sitting Supreme Court judge returned the land said to be purchased by them, thus far, the CIAA didn’t filed the case against them. Binod Chaudhary is found capturing many government land but the CIAA and other anti-corruption organs have remained silent. These are the evidence of how the “offensive system” is functioning in the country!
In the case of the killing of two youths in the Balkumari agitation, the probe commission has reported that Minister Prakash Jwala was solely responsible for the killing of the two youths. Immediately after the incident, Minister Jwala’s PSO and the DSP of the Lalitpur Police were immediately suspended but Jwala didn’t feel responsible for the killing. Now, after the probe commission submitted the report, the question of moral responsibility has been raised even in Parliament but the Minister has not taken a moral responsibility, as if the political leaders are different creatures that they don’t need to be responsible for committing any kind of wrong deeds.
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