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Kathmandu Friday February 16, 2001 Falgun 05, 2057.
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House furore only a sideshow Big test for Koirala is CIAA
By Damakant Jayshi
KATHMANDU, Feb 15 – The smug smile
on the faces of executives of Royal Nepal Airlines Corp. (RNAC) on December 1 last year
was understandable. Despite a heated battle in parliament’s Public Accounts Committee
(PAC), and in the realm of public opinion, the national carrier had finally been
successful in flying in a Boeing B-767 wide-body jet from Lauda Air for an 18-month lease
agreement.
The smiles, however, soon turned sour when,
first, the chief executive of RNAC Hari Bhakta Shrestha and then the Minister for Culture,
Tourism and Civil Aviation Tarinee Dutta Chataut both lost their jobs because of the
controversial aircraft leasing deal.
Now, as the Lauda Air jet enters its third
month of somewhat haphazard service with RNAC, it is threatening to take a higher toll. In
what some analysts believe, the heat generated by Lauda Air is threatening the very
position of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
This past week, what has happened inside
parliament is just a small indication of things to come. Armed with reams of documents
collected by PAC, and independent investigations being continued by the Commission for
Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Prime Minister Koirala is facing the first
real challenge to his power.
And all because, the Cabinet, which is
chaired by the Prime Minister, approved the Lauda Air lease in spite of its own prior
recommendations. The question "why" is already moot. What matters now more than
ever is: Where will all this lead to?
The biggest threat to Prime Minister Girija
Prasad Koirala is not from the rabble-rousing opposition lawmakers who have been claiming
the support of some rebel Nepali Congress MPs, but from the CIAA.
It is to be remembered here that ex-Civil
Aviation Minister Chataut, under whose watch the deal was finalized, resigned to
facilitate an unhindered probe only after CIAA summoned him for interrogations. That has
created a sort of precedent for Koirala to follow if the CIAA eventually summons him, say
analysts. Ex-RNAC boss Shrestha was also suspended upon the recommendation of the CIAA.
Now, the more-than-million-dollar-question
is: Will the CIAA summon Koirala? As the chief of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister bears
equal, if not more responsibility for the actions of his subordinates, say his critics.
Moreover, the final decision to send over US 2 million dollars to Lauda Air as advance
payment and bank guarantee were both done through Cabinet approval. So will the PM be
summoned?
There are already rumours that Koirala has
been trying to contact the CIAA Chief Commissioner Surya Nath Upadhyay. But Upadhyay
denied to The Kathmandu Post that he had met Koirala recently. When asked whether the
Commission would summon the PM, Chief Commissioner Upadhyay declined to comment.
"What question are you asking? I will not comment on this."
Under this backdrop, would the Prime Minister
tender his resignation if summoned by the CIAA as his subordinate did, and thereby hand
over a major victory to the opposition parties? The Commission’s next step, so keenly
watched and awaited, has now become the proverbial Damocles’ Sword hanging over the
head of Prime Minister Koirala.
In the end, it must be questioned whether the
powers-that-be foresaw what the Lauda Air lease would lead to? Not at all, at least from
the public statements of RNAC officials.
"We never imagined that it would come to
this (the standoff in parliament)," Tirtha Lal Shrestha, who as member of RNAC’s
Board of Directors actively lobbied for the deal, told The Kathmandu Post today. "A
small issue has been blown out of proportion." When asked if the deal was being used
as a political weapon to oust the PM, Shrestha replied "no comment".
Had the Lauda jet performed according to
expectations, the controversy could have quieted down. But no such luck here too.
According to RNAC estimates, since the jet began operations with the airline on December
1, 2000, the national carrier has lost tens of millions of rupees.
When pointed out, RNAC’s Shrestha had
this to offer: "With all this adverse attention, we are not able to concentrate on
our work...In business, there will be losses."
The government could withstand the monetary
losses, but not what it has already lost and may yet lose – its own head.
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