After UML suffered an unexpected defeat in the Constituent Assembly elections of 2064, the then General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned on the grounds of ethics, but he is still the party's head even when the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority registered a corruption case against Nepal.
The two parties that have raised the issue of good governance and alternative politics are sharing the dream of enriching the future of the party and the country by keeping the leader accused of corruption and fraud as the leader. While both of them have been suspended as MPs.
Even when the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority registered a corruption case in the Patanjali land irregularities, Madhav Kumar Nepal, president of the United Samajwadi Party, is sitting in the same role. Similarly, Ravi Lamichhane, President of RSVP, has not resigned as the party president even though he is in jail for co-operative fraud, money laundering and organized crime cases. Moreover, the party vice-president Swarnim Wag has publicly announced that even if Ravi remains in jail until the party convention scheduled to be held in February, he will remain the president.
Madhav Kumar Nepal, the then general secretary of CPN (UML), resigned on moral grounds after he was defeated in both constituencies in the 2064 Constituent Assembly election and the party also lost in many places.
After the party suffered an unexpected defeat in the Constituent Assembly elections in 2064, he resigned citing moral reasons. Due to suspension, he cannot go to Parliament. However, he is active in the leadership of the party. Dinesh Thapalia, the former chief commissioner of the Election Commission, says that a person who has been tried for criminal offenses and corruption should not hold office morally.
'No agency caught a person walking on the road and tried a case. It cannot be said that it is not accepted after conducting the investigation and conducting the case. In such a situation, the leader himself should pave the way, after being acquitted, he will be allowed to enter politics,'' says Thapalia, 'because the current law does not force him to step down until the final decision is made, there is a trend of not leaving office suddenly. However, it is better for a leader who says that he will change the country through politics to demonstrate morality.'
Since questions about morality are always raised, the Election Commission has proposed a provision in the law that will be made to prevent such persons from being candidates in the elections. Rebelling against the style of
leadership, on August 2, 2078, Nepal's CPN (UML) was divided and formed a unified socialist. Although the party has not achieved national status, it has 10 seats in the House of Representatives. The senior vice-president of the party, Rajendra Prasad Pandey, said that the authority will call a secretariat meeting and decide how to proceed after filing the case in the special court.
Similarly, RASWPA was formed 6 months before the 2079 election by raising the issue of good governance. The question of ethics against Chairman Lamichhane is now unimportant within the party which considers itself as a new and alternative force saying that good governance cannot be maintained by the old parties and there will be no reform in politics. But Raswapa is the same party which stripped Dhakaram Shrestha's MP post based on the release of an audio related to financial transactions. But the RSVP is silent on the issue of ethics when the case involving cooperative fraud is pending against the party president in Kaski, Kathmandu, Chitwan, Rupandehi and Parsa and even the Supreme Court upheld the decision to send him to jail.
When an employee is sued, he is relieved of responsibility. But the people who have become the prime minister and deputy prime minister of the country are teaching moral lessons with corruption and fraud cases.
'An employee gets suspended the day he goes to jail. He has to leave everything behind. Like an office, a party is a public institution, a party is not a private company. It is a constitutional and registered organization according to the law,' says Thapalia, 'The tendency of an organization's peon to be suspended on the basis of ethics but the head of the party to remain in office is incompatible with itself.'
Lamichhane's MP position has been under suspension since he was arrested on November 2, 2081 in the cooperative fraud case. Lamichhane, who was in custody at the time, gave Aryal the role of Acting Chairman two months later. However, after paying the bail and being released from custody, he resumed the responsibility of the chairman. While he was not acquitted in the case. He returned to the party president on 17th Chait 2081 and was sent to Bhairahawa Jail on 22nd Chait according to the order of Tulsipur High Court. Since then, Lamichhane has given the acting post to Dolprasad Aryal while remaining the party chairman.
"On the same day the court ordered to send me to prison, he has given me the responsibility of acting chairman in writing," he said. Raswapa has set the date of the convention on February 7-9. Vice President Wagle had said at the party event held in Syangja last Saturday, "Lamichhane is the chairman of RSVP, whether he is in jail or out." Even if he is in jail, we will make him president from there. In 2084, if our party gets the majority or becomes the largest party, he will also be the prime minister's candidate.'
On the other hand, the former president of Transparency International, Nepal, Padmini Pradhanang, also says that those who question others should first show the courage to establish good governance within their own party. "In order to maintain good governance in the country, there should be a system that does not give responsibility to those who are accused of corruption and other criminal offenses from within the party. He should be able to leave his post when such charges are registered against him,' she says.
