By Our Correspondent
It seems political uncertainty has further deepened after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal all of a sudden formed a new coalition by dumping old allies on March 4 this year. In three months, PM Dahal and the CPN-UML, the largest party in a coalition led by KP Sharma Oli, threw their full strength to protect Rabi Lamichhane, president of the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, after Nepali Congress strongly raised the issue of Lamichhane’s involvement in embezzling millions of rupees from several cooperatives in the past. It was Oli, who used all his might to save Lamichhane from the corrupt allegations, but it resulted to be counter-productive for Oli.
Now Nepali Congress is gearing up to raise the issue of Giribandhu Tea Estate’s land, the biggest case of policy-level corruption committed by the Oli-led government, and the comments made by Lamichhane against NC General Secretary Gagan Thapa saying that Thapa sold information to foreigners. Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor also attacked Oli raising the issue of Giribandhu Tea Estate this week.
Thapa has challenged the PM to prove what Lamichhane said in the House. These all developments have made the government defensive.
Although a parliamentary committee, as demanded by the NC and backed by the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, has been formed to investigate the misuse of cooperatives’ money by several persons including Lamichhane, NC is now preparing to raise the issue of Giribandhu Tea Estate. NC lawmaker Pradeep Paudel has already registered an application in the House regarding the Tea estate case.
The Supreme Court recently scraped the decision of the Oli-led government to allow to exchange of the expensive land of the Birtamod-based tea estate with the cheap land of the border area terming the decision as policy-level corruption.
Dahal, who has been arguing that his government will maintain good governance, is now running with tainted faces like Lamichhane and Oli as his key partners.
Had it been elsewhere, Lamichhane should have quit the government. But in Nepal, he used his all tactics to remain a powerful Home Minister despite his involvement in misusing the cooperatives’ money without being their member, which is an unlawful act at first sight.
Moreover, at a time when newspapers were reporting about Lamichhane’s involvement in embezzling the money, he ordered police to arrest Kailash Sirohiya, chairman of Kanitipur Publication, on a case related to citizenship forgery. Interestingly, Lamichhane himself was punished by the Supreme Court for not possessing lawful citizenship and he lost the post of a member of the parliament in the past. The arrest of Sirohiya, although it was not related to media freedom or curtailing media, the Western agencies including some diplomatic missions took the issue of misuse of the citizenship as an attempt to curtail media freedom. USA, EU and other organizations expressed concerns about the arrest while the New York Times published a lengthy story about how the press in Nepal has been under attack about the arrest. The EU officially informed the Prime Minister about its view on the arrest. These all only tainted the image of Nepal and PM Dahal in the international sector. The government may not get the desired support from these countries. Moreover, India has not spoken about the arrest, and probably it will speak only after forming a new government in New Delhi. The above developments are examples of to what extent the West has manipulated the media in Nepal.
When NC general secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma in a public address in Kathmandu said there was an agreement between Oli and Lamichhane to cooperate in the cases of cooperatives and Giribandhu, UML vice president Bishnu Paudel objected to the comment stating that NC should apologise for dragging Oli in the case. Ironically, Paudel was also one of the leaders who had purchased the land of Lalita Niwas and was dragged into controversy. Oli saved him by letting Paudel’s son to return the controversial land. This was a fitting example of how the political parties in Nepal have become a heap of corrupt leaders.
However, NC has reiterated to raise the issue of Giribandhu land in Parliament, and it will further polarize the politics.
Meanwhile, the fate of the Dahal-led government looks uncertain. While Madhav Kumar Nepal of the CPN (Unified Socialist) is unhappy with the way PM Dahal is working without consulting him, the RSP leaders are also unhappy after Oli made comments on Education Minister Sumana Shrestha. Although Dahal and Oli managed to convince Nepal to continue the present coalition, the government could collapse at any time. If the SC invalidates the breaching of the Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal or convicts Lamichhane in the Pokahra-based cooperative, the Dahal government will face a crisis.
Moreover, the relationship between the CPN-UML and RSP may not last long because of Oli’s comment on Education Minister and RSP leader Sumana Shrestha. Recently, Oli made an objectionable comment against her. Although RSP has not responded to the women-centric comment of Oli targeting Shrestha officially, probably because of the connection between Lamichhane and Oli, the case could boil on any day. Now when Balen Shah openly challenged Oli citing the latter’s corrupt activities, the UML had reached a defensive position.
Above all, PM Dahal himself is unhappy as Oli continues to interfere in his work. It may not be a surprise if Dahal changes the coalition partners in the next two or three months after getting fed up with Oli’s high-handedness in administrative works.
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