By Dr. Janardan Subedi

The Great Deflection: How to Miss the Point While Sounding Serious

At a time when the entire nation is demanding accountability for the mass abuse of visit visas—used not for travel but for exploitative labor migration—Minister Ramesh Lekhak’s strategy is to pretend that critics are accusing “all travelers” of criminality. This is the oldest trick in the propaganda book: fabricate a strawman, then set it on fire to look heroic.

No, Mr. Lekhak. The people of Nepal are not fools. They are not suggesting that the family visiting their daughter in Australia is a criminal. What they are asking is:

– Who issued fraudulent recommendations from local governments and municipalities for hundreds of fake tourists?

– Who processed thousands of exit permits in a matter of hours without scrutiny?

– Who is facilitating visa appointments, cover letters, and document verification for tens of thousands of young, poor Nepalis whose only intention is to escape this mafia republic?

– And finally, who is collecting commissions, protecting agents, and enabling the trafficking syndicates?

We know the answer. And it’s not the tourists. It is your political cartel.

Minister or Mafia Mouthpiece?

Mr. Lekhak’s political record speaks volumes. He is a product of a system where loyalty to power is rewarded far more than loyalty to people. He was not appointed Home Minister for his courage or competence—he was appointed because he knows how to stay silent at the right time and bark on command.

Let us recall: when the Bhutanese refugee scam came to light, implicating top-level leaders and bureaucrats, where was Mr. Lekhak’s moral compass? Silent. When dozens of victims named powerful individuals in immigration corruption, what did he do? Nothing. But when a few doctors protested injustice, or when desperate youths fled the country due to lack of hope, he found his voice—to blame them.

This is a Home Minister who never runs out of excuses for the corrupt but always runs out of empathy for the oppressed.

He is not leading the Ministry of Home Affairs. He is defending the Ministry of Harmful Cover-ups.

Visit Visa: Nepal’s New National Shame

Let us be absolutely clear: the visit visa racket is not an immigration issue—it is a human trafficking industry. An estimated 250,000 young Nepalis have already left in the past 18 months, many through dubious “visit visas,” only to end up working in hotels, factories, or worse, undocumented and unprotected.

Every layer of this scam is soaked in bribery:

– Agents collect 5 to 12 lakhs from each youth.

– Municipality offices issue fake recommendations.

– Department of Immigration processes documents without verification.

– Politicians provide protection.

– And when the racket is exposed, they blame “external forces” or “travelers.”

This is not governance. This is organized trafficking in a government uniform.

The Doctrine of Political Slavery

There was a time when ministers in Nepal believed in public service, moral accountability, and democratic responsibility. That era is gone. What we have now is a cartel of caretakers, not of the constitution, but of party lords and business mafias.

Mr. Lekhak is a textbook case. His public persona is soft-spoken. His press briefings are full of generic patriotism. But his silence is his signature. Silence when illegal appointments are made. Silence when law enforcement is misused. Silence when immigration is turned into a bribe bazaar.

This is not leadership. This is bureaucratic bondage, servitude in the name of power, and public betrayal in the name of party loyalty.

Satire in the Time of Slavery

Let’s play a little satire, Mr. Lekhak. Let’s imagine a press conference:

Journalist: “Minister saab, why are there so many undocumented Nepalis ending up in Eastern Europe on visit visas?”

Lekhak: “Because they love Bulgarian architecture.”

Journalist: “But they’re working in slaughterhouses!”

Lekhak: “Yes, but at least they are preserving cultural diplomacy through kebab-making.”

Journalist: “What about the agents and the politicians who helped them escape?”

Lekhak: “Let’s not generalize. Not every travel agent is a criminal. Some are very patriotic.”

If it weren’t so tragic, it would be funny. But the punchline is soaked in blood.

The Real Cost: A Broken Youth and a Bankrupted Nation

While Mr. Lekhak polishes his rhetoric, Nepal continues to hemorrhage. The best and brightest youths are leaving, not because they lack qualifications, but because this regime lacks credibility. The country they’re leaving behind is one where:

– The Home Minister blames victims.

– The Immigration Department sells freedom.

– And the Parliament sits like a cemetery—silent and cold.

Nepal is not exporting labor. It is exporting broken dreams, untreated traumas, and invisible deaths.

Public Awareness: The Leopard Has Been Named

Mr. Lekhak seems to assume the public is asleep. He miscalculates. The public knows. The leopard that has feasted on this system has now been seen, studied, and named. And it is not the doctor, not the nurse, not the migrant youth. It is the mafia minister, the bureaucrat, the bossman, and their apologists.

You can’t fool the public anymore. Not with statements. Not with fake statistics. Not with ministerial suits.

When you defend the mafia, you become its spokesman.

Conclusion: From “Lekhak” to Lackey

Dear Mr. Lekhak, your name means “writer.” But history will not remember you as one who wrote justice into governance. History will remember you as the official stenographer of corruption, the man who justified trafficking with technicalities, and the minister who spoke like a lawyer when the nation needed a leader.

This visit visa scandal is not about documents—it is about the moral bankruptcy of a captured republic. And you, sir, are not just part of the system. You are its servant, its shield, its obedient foot soldier.

Nepal’s youth do not flee the country because they are criminal. They flee because people like you have made staying a criminal risk.

We are no longer in the age of soft denials. We are in the age of moral clarity. And in this clarity, the public verdict is damning:

Lekhak, you are not insane. You are just loyal—to the wrong master.

And that, in a mafia state, is more dangerous than madness.