Rabi Lamichhane’s Political Fate At Stake?

As soon as a Parliamentary Special Probe Committee, constituted to investigate into the cooperatives problems, submitted its report to the government, a debate whether the panel implicated Rabi Lamichhane, chairman of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) in cooperatives fraud or gave him a clean chit rages on. The partisan discussions are underway from streets to party meetings to television talk shows. Leaders, lawyers and civil society members are butting heads in support or protest of Lamichhane, puzzling the common people. This is really a bizarre situation when the committee’s report provides room for the dual interpretations of its content.

In fact, the report states that the committee did not find any evidence that shows Lamichhane’s involvement in abuse of cooperatives funds. He was not even a member of any cooperatives either. But he was found guilty of abusing Rs. 230 million which he spent in his capacity of managing director (MD) of now defunct Gorkha Media Network that operated Galaxy 4K Television, which was shut down last year. Network chairman GB (Gitendra Babu) Rai, who is now on the run, had diverted more than Rs. 650 million from various cooperatives into the media company. Rai has been a part of altogether seven cooperatives across the country, most of them are now in crisis. He had invited Lamichhane, who had already become a popular host of television show, to jointly set up the Network. Lamichhane was offered 15 per cent share in the company.    

Liability  

While in opposition Nepali Congress had disrupted the parliament for more than two months, demanding a probe panel be formed to investigate Lamichhane’s hand behind the embezzlement of various cooperatives funds. Then, Lamichhane was Home Minister under the coalition government of CPN-UML and CPN- Maoist Centre. NC general secretary Gagan Thapa was vocal in raising the matter in the House. Thapa had claimed that there were numerous evidences that justified Lamichhane siphoned off millions of rupees from cooperatives. Thapa and co. even called Rabi a sahakari thug (cooperatives fraudster). But now it has become clear that he is not a cooperatives swindler. In an interview with a television channel, Committee’s chairman Surya Thapa said it had not traced any facts showing Lamichhane as a cooperatives fraud. “Lamichhane was not involved in any process of illegally diverting the cooperatives money into the media company but he is liable for the money he spent for running the Network as he was one of its owners,” said Thapa.

Now the report is open to multiple explanations. As Lamichhane had no role in bringing the cooperatives money into the very media company, RSP leaders and cadres became satisfied with the committee findings and claimed that it has finally cleared him of main allegation levelled against him, hence the clean chit. They have taken the charges of ‘abuse’ of Network’s money lightly. In his capacity of MD, he wrote 23 cheques for Rs. 230 million to pay salary and other operational costs of the Network, according to the report. The committee has recommended the government to take action against him for spending this illegally funnelled cooperatives depositors’ savings. It has been assumed that Lamichhane must have been aware of the sources of investment in the media company.    

Briefing the party central leaders recently, NC general secretary Thapa claimed that as Lamichhane ‘misused’ the money that came from various cooperatives, the RSP chief was still a ‘cooperatives fraud.’ “It does not matter how the cooperatives money was deposited into the Network’s account, it was illegitimate capital and Lamichhane was involved in misappropriating it,” he argued. There appears to be a tinge of bias in Thapa’s logic as he wants to prove Lamichhane as a fraudster at all cost by decoding the committee’s report with his own lens.      

Though it appears that the enquiry of embezzling cooperatives funds was Lamichhane-centred, the more than 800-page report has also indicted other figures including NC vice-president Dhan Raj Gurung for cooperatives deceit. It is imperative to see this issue in broader political context. For all his ‘misdeeds’ and controversies in which Lamichhane was dragged, he dramatically rose to Nepali politics within a short span of time, challenging the established parties. Riding on the people’s growing frustrations with the old parties, the RSP emerged as the fourth force in the federal parliament. At times, Lamichhane’s party was a decisive force in making and breaking the government in the hung parliament. Lamichhane became deputy prime minister and home minister twice. And rise of Lamichhane may pose a threat to many party-affiliated youth leaders like Gagan Thapa, who is still seen as the future party president and even prime minister if the NC maintains its current position in the parliament.

Reactions 

Chhabi Lal Joshi, one of the shareholders of the Network, and Galaxy television manager Kumar Ramtel are now in a judicial custody for further investigation. There is high probability that police might file a charge-sheet against Lamichhane in the way it hauled Joshi and Ramtel into court. This might also decide the political fate of Lamichhane. It is yet to see how his party will react to the police action against its head. There is a possibility that RSP will hit the street and disrupt the parliament business, terming the arrest of Lamichhane as blatant instance of political unfairness. It might demand action against high profile individuals implicated in other scams and frauds. 

The RSP and its ally Maoist Centre have already developed a narrative that their previous coalition government collapsed for it swung into action against the persons involved in big scandals such as fake Bhutanese refugee case. Recently the House was prorogued amidst the deadlock over Maoist Centre’s objection to the word ‘violence,’ which a UML lawmaker used in the parliament, referring to the Maoist insurgency. If the RSP vents ire into the parliament, the government with two-thirds majority might face difficulty in settling and endorsing the vital Bills essential to implement federalism and handle the affair of the state. 

(The author is Deputy Executive Editor of this daily.)