From foot-path to Pajero/Prado to Royal Judicial Commission!

Gimmicks galore in Nepal. The deceit could emanate from anywhere. It could either be uttered or thrown to public consumption through lectures or at times even through ultimatums. If congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala has a gimmick to unseat his political rival through the use of his mysterious Broader Democratic Alliance then UML's Madhav Nepal has a stratagem to divert the attention of the people through the kind courtesy of his much publicized need for even more mysterious constitutional reform plans. For the lay men these were all political machinations and nothing more than that.

To counter the previous gimmicks in series, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba too has his cards under his sleeve and lo! His gimmicks have come in the form of a Royal Judicial Commission which, we have been told, would dig out the past and would in the process investigate as to which politicians, leaders, bureaucrats, ministers, prime ministers and bla! Bla! Bla of this "budding democracy" had amassed wealth illegally while being in "'moneymaking posts". In doing so Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has temporarily won the hearts of the people who day-in-day-out had been urging the establishment to initiate actions against the corrupts. In doing so Deuba has while on the one hand won the hearts of the people, then equally on the other has sent spine-chilling waves in the minds of the declared corrupts who in all reasonableness would wish to win his favor in order to keep at a distance the wrath of the said Royal Commission. This is not all. There is also a possibility that the declared corrupts would wish the summary collapse of this government to be replaced by a new set-up which would be more comfortable to them. In the process, there is also a strong likelihood that the declared corrupts could fund any amount to any potential candidate who would take up the challenge for the ouster of the incumbent regime. Apparently, bids in this regard have already been initiated.

For obvious reasons, the Royal Judicial Commission would have a very hard time in initiating its activities firstly because the area it is to cover under the mandate is so vast and wide that it might take decades and decades to compile the names of the corrupts. Secondly, the mandate awarded to the Royal Commission does not allow the Commission itself to initiate penal actions against the ascertained corrupts. Thirdly, the moment Deuba regime collapses the new government would wish that the commission did not work for obvious reasons. It could also be that all the herd of corrupts form an alliance and support the new regime and in lieu seek the fresh favors of the establishment. Possibilities galore indeed. It is here that His Majesty the King in whose name the Commission has been formed too must remain alert in order that the Commission does not die a premature death as is usual in this country.

However, the fact is that for the first time, the "nascent democracy" of this country has accepted that corruption and only corruption had derailed the entire system and in the process those who had championed the cause for the collapse of the erstwhile regime had done so only to benefit for the new system. Moreover, the very formation of the Royal Judicial Commission also testifies that even a democratic system could remain no exception to the menace of corruption and that even a declared "democratic leader or for that matter a democrat" could amass wealth illegally if he or she is allowed to run the state affairs. By the same token what could also be inferred is that for Nepali corrupts, system was not important but the lucrative posts wherefrom they could extract money for their personal ends met. For this corrupt lot, system becomes secondary.

Now that the Royal Commission is already in place, let's hope that it reaches up to those who till the advent of this new order had problems in meeting two meals a day and had been seen in rag-bag-bobby-tails conditions and now the same lot owned hectares and hectares of land, bungalow and unfailingly several luxurious vehicles. The Commission is expected to act now. The Commission is suggested to act with full force. Should the Commission face any threat from any quarter, it should invite the press men and tell the exact happenings. The press will then take up the matter.

As a matter of fact, the Royal Commission could initiate, to begin with, investigations right from the case of the "fierce tussle" that is going on in between the two congress ministers who just have resigned from their respective posts under tremendous public pressure, Gopal Man Shrestha and Surendra Hamal, fortunately both from the ministry of Forest. Later the Commission could take up the matter of most (in) famous LAUDA AIR DEAL and the CHINA SOUTHWEST AIRLINES DEAL which if taken seriously would bring about tantalizing revelations. The Dhamija scam of the Koirala regime and the most notorious fertilizer scam of the UML regime should be the next target of the Commission.

We hope that if the Royal Judicial Commission moved straight, it could happen that so many interested candidates for the impending elections would exhibit lesser interest in getting a ticket from their affiliated political parties for declared reasons.

Whether the formation of the Commission is a political gimmick of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba or otherwise, the fact is that the Commission if allowed to function would time permitting send appropriate signals to all those who wish to win the elections only to grab money for their personal benefits and thereby discredit the system.

The million-dollar question is that will the Commission dare to investigate the (mis) conducts of the high-placed "democrats"? Or would it be yet another Commission for the sake of Commission whose formation is almost a common feature in Nepal. Is it yet another ploy to divert the attention of the common men? Let's hope it is not.

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