OFF THE RECORD (Spotlight Weekly)

Feudal Tamrakar

When Minister for Industry and Commerce Ram Krishna Tamrakar arrived at Bhairahawa Airport last week, he received a warm welcome in his home town from civil servants of the district offices. The crowd of the sycophants even stalled the traffic at the airport for few minutes. Tamrakar seemed to be quite content at staring at the long queue of high-level officers from the district. After he landed at the airport, Minister Tamrakar waved his hands at the party workers and officials who gathered there to welcome him. Tamrakar's behavior indicated that he was quite feudal in character.

Power Of MPs

Not only ministers, even a small fish like an MP can wield a lot of power in districts. When this scribe was in Jhapa last week, the flight of the aircraft was delayed for half an hour to wait for one of the members of parliament. It seems that this is an era of party workers, ministers and MPs but what about the common people?

Bhattarai Overjoyed

As soon as the news regarding the morning walk of former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai was released, hundreds of Bhattarai's fans heaved a sigh of relief. The number of visitors to Bhainsepati durbar has also increased by two folds. Even some of the loyal followers of Prime Minister Koirala are said to be frequenting Bhattarai's place these days. For Bhattarai, it is extremely joyful to see the crowds returning once again to his place.

Revelation
‘Political Parties And Leaders Are Not Working Properly’

— Laxman Prasad Aryal

Senior justice of Supreme Court Laxman Prasad Aryal is known as a frank person in the judiciary. A former member of present constitution drafting council, justice Aryal seems to be frustrated with the present functioning of the state. Justice Aryal revealed some important issues while addressing an interaction program organized to collect opinions regarding the number of appellate courts. Excerpts of his Sunday's speech.

How do you justify the number of appellate court?

There are no reasons to justify them. The number of appellate courts is so high that keeping courts have become much expensive now. In some courts the government spends more than 2 million rupees to deal with just 16 cases. In fact, it could be better deal if we distributed Rs. 100,000 each to the plaintiffs.

Then, who is responsible for opening such a large number of courts?

It is the pressure of political parties who want to make people happy. If the judiciary was given such authority, the situation would not be like the present one. We have formulated the constitutions hoping that the leaders will behave like democrats. But everyone seems to be Jung Bahadur now.

What about judiciary then?

Many appellate courts have been added through the executive orders in different parts of the country. If we knew that the politicians will wrongly interpret the constitution, we would have fixed the number of courts in it. Unfortunately, we expected that new breed of politicians under the multi-party democracy would be reasonable and different. Political parties and leaders are not working properly.

Then, what needs to be done?

We must have a courage to confess our mistakes and weaknesses. Only then, we will able to bring the change. Political parties must respect the wishes of the people.

How do you see the functioning of political system?

It is not working as per the wishes of the people expressed during the struggle against the autocratic system. People have not seen any difference among the politicians of old system and the present new one.