Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota has said that the government will take firm stance to maintain rule of law in the country. Speaking at a function in Kavre the other day, Baskota, who is also the spokesperson of the government, said that the government wouldn’t tolerate wrongdoing from anyone, in apparent reference to a street protest by Nepali Congress cadres against the arrest of parliament member and former minister Mohamad Aftab Alam.

Minister Baskota’s statement is well testified by the steps the government has taken against wrongdoers in the recent weeks. Two weeks ago the police arrested former Speaker of House of Representatives Krishna Bahadur Mahara on charge of attempting to rape a Parliament Secretariat employee. Last week alone Pramod Shah, lawmaker elected from Sarlahi-1, was detained and later released on bail on charge of vandalising Buddha Air’s counter at Janakpur Airport while NC lawmaker from Rautahat-2 Alam was arrested on charge of an explosion and subsequent murder of 22 people by tossing them into a brick kiln ahead of first Constituent Assembly elections in 2008.

It has come to light that Alam had employed people to make bombs for creating terror and seizing the polling booths to secure victory in the election. Unfortunately, there was a sudden explosion which claimed the lives of two people and left many around the site injured. To destroy evidence of his illegal act, Alam reportedly got hold of the injured and threw them into the furnace of the brick kiln owned by one of his relatives. Two months after the incident Alam turned himself into police when a complaint was registered accusing him of the crime. But the District Attorney Office (DAO) Rautahat closed the case citing lack of evidence of the blast and the Office of Attorney General upheld the same decision. In May 2012, four years after the incident, responding to a writ petition on behalf of the victims the Supreme Court revoked the decision of the Attorney General and the DOA, and ordered to investigate the case anew. Still, there was no progress in investigation for years; it gained momentum only after the apex court, in last June, sought detailed information about the case after the petitioners filed a complaint with the Judgment Execution Directorate in March this year.

The arrest of a powerful Nepali Congress leader 12 years after the dreadful incident has raised hopes among the common people that the victims will ultimately get justice. However, they have been dismayed by the unseemly stance of NC leadership which initially attempted to politicise the issue. On Friday, party president Sher Bahadur Deuba had termed the government action a conspiracy against his party. But the next day he made a U-turn and promised to cooperate with the government to carry out fair investigation into the case following widespread criticism of what he had said earlier. Party spokesperson Bishwo Parkash Sharma has said that NC Rautahat will also act in line with the view of the central leadership.

Minister Baskota has maintained that the government won’t be deterred from its goal of enforcing the rule of law even if some forces blame the government of dictatorship or authoritarianism over its action on the wrongdoers. In fact it is everyone’s duty to support the government in its mission to maintain law and order in the country.