By Swadesh Khatri

When the present political alliance of Nepali Congress and UML was abruptly formed about five months ago, that time it looked nothing more than a cheap political thriller that Nepalese have been seeing for the last three decades. Changes of government and political alliances by the three big parties depending on their conveniences and personal and political interests, to always keep the reign of power among them, was all too common. Those alliances always had sinister motives of personal and partisan gains, mainly to cover up corruption and corrupt practices.

Allegations of corruption and abuse of power linked to those parties and their high ups, have always been hushed up, and the parties, both in power and outside, remain quiet and indifferent with occasional lip services. But now, it looks like the party or parties in power have come out with a new tactic of vengeance against those who make such accusations – preemptive counteraccusations or charges to silence them or force them to give in. Is it because they feel, the political control of the country is slipping away from their hands with new parties and individuals getting increasing attention from the people?

About five months ago, as soon as the scandal of Nepalese citizens sent for resettlement in the United States and other countries branding them as Bhutanese refugees with alleged involvement of big names, the Nepali Congress abruptly broke its alliance with Prachanda's Maoist party and allied with KP Oli's UML.

However, the new coalition led by Oli was rocked by a series of scandals and alleged corruption as soon as it was formed. It looks like Prime Minister KP Oli opened one front too many for confrontation immediately after assuming the office. But they all seem to have backfired and boomeranged on him badly.

As soon as he became prime minister, Oli confronted Kul Man Ghising, executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority, who defied Oli's order to connect electricity to industries, which have been refusing to pay bills running into billions of rupees for electricity they used through dedicated and trunk lines when the general populace was under heavy load-shedding. Ghising has even dared Oli to remove him in the face of massive public support to collect the money. Then, Oli got into a verbal tussle with Kathmandu mayor Balen Shah over trivial issues like expanding the sidewalk on a section of New Road or parking arrangement beneath Dharahara tower.

As soon as the new government was formed, Ravi Lamichhane, the erstwhile Home Minister of the Nepal Swatantra Party in the previous coalition, who said that he would proceed with an investigation of the Bhutanese case, was arrested and charged with fraud and embezzlement of funds of several cooperatives, while he worked as Managing Director of the now closed Galaxy TV. His party members and supporters call this a case of political vengeance and they suspect he might be framed with more charges like organized crime and money laundering that might put him away for an extended period, practically finishing his political career. His case of misuse of Nepali passport has also been revived with the court proceeding slated in four months. This does not mean to say that Lamicchane should not be held accountable and punished for his wrong-doings if proven. But allegations and accusations against all others - everybody in positions of power, past and present, must be investigated fairly and punished if found guilty.

Then, it was Durga Prasai, who posted on his social media account, about alleged business links worth more than 30 billion rupees of Prime Minister Oli's with Smart Axiata, a Cambodian Telecom Company. Axiata used to run Ncell, a telecom company in Nepal until 2023. This accusation has set Nepal's political and social media spectrum into a frenzy. As soon as those documents were posted, Prasai was immediately arrested under the cyber-crime law, accusing him of posting fake and false documents on social media.

Prasai used to be associated with the UML party till a few years ago but parted ways later, now has been campaigning for the restoration of monarchy accusing the political parties of massive corruption and mismanagement saying the current republican political set-up for failing to provide good governance, and the political parties for being swamped in corruption and corrupt practices.

The UML has denied Oli's involvement in the Cambodian company however, several senior members of the UML making a trip to Cambodia soon after the paper was made public, albeit in the name of attending a conference, have raised several eyebrows.

There have been calls for a thorough investigation on the issue and a general consent that instead of arresting and accusing Prasai prior to any investigation,  it would be rationale to conduct a fair and full investigation on the allegation, and if the allegation is found wrong punish Prasai to the full extent of the law.  There is no denying that this, and many other accusations of corruption, has tarnished the country's image internationally.

Likewise, there are rumours that Prasai will likely be burdened with additional charges like criminal conspiracy, organized crime and collusion with criminal gangs. It will not be surprising if the government starts opening files of previous allegations against Prasai like his medical college and other businesses to finish him off completely.

The big question is, whether the three big political parties –Nepali Congress, UML and Maoist Center - that have been at the helm of power for the last thirty years will ever be serious about fighting corruption. Sadly, the answer is a big NO.

They know that if one, just one, case of corruption at the highest level of the government is honestly opened and investigated, that will open the floodgate of investigation and that will swamp the top leaders in the party and top bureaucrats, just like the current Cambodian connection, Giribandu Tea Estate, Omni case, Baluwatar land scam, Bhutanese refugee case, alleged corruption in the Maoist cantonment, wide-body case and many more.

On the contrary, the government, both present and previous, even tried to give immunity to corruption and impunity to the corrupt ones through a bill that would invalidate all cases of corruption that are over five years old. This bill was presented and discussed in the parliamentary committee. It has not been furthered further amidst huge public outcry.

One thing is for sure, the Nepali Congress and the UML, parties in the government at present, will not have any inclination to press ahead with the investigations, and the apathy of Prachanda and his party's whimper, at best, is not surprising at all.

Instead, recent expressions by Prachanda indicate there might yet be another reshuffle of the coalition. The question that looms large now is, will it be another alliance of Prachanda's Maoist party and the Nepali Congress?  Nepali Congress General Secretary, Gagan Thapa publicly said last week that Prachanda has been calling his party almost every week and offering them to head the government if their two parties ally again. So, another round of political musical chairs in the offing cannot be ruled out.