Socialist Leader to Await Court Verdict on Party Leadership

Kathmandu, June 8 — The CPN (Unified Socialist) has started consultations with lawyers on how to move forward in the context of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filing a corruption case against party chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal on a land scam.

Former prime minister Nepal was suspended as lawmaker immediately after the anti-graft body filed the corruption case against him at the Special Court on Thursday accusing him of involvement in the Patanjali land scam.

His suspension as an MP means he can no longer hold the parliamentary party leader position.

Many people were wondering if Nepal would voluntarily leave the party chair until the court verdict on moral grounds as he has been chargesheeted in a corruption case. There is, however, no obstruction for him to hold on to the chair until the court delivers its verdict.

Nepal’s past record also made the people think so.

In 2008, then-chief of the CPN-UML party, Nepal quit the position after he lost from both constituencies (in Kathmandu and Rautahat) he fought for the Constituent Assembly seats and his party suffered a humiliating loss. Later he was nominated as CA member and even became prime minister during the same tenure.

However, this time around, Nepal and his party appear to be adopting a different approach.

“We are currently engaged in consultations about the legal aspects of the case against the party chair, and the party is yet to sit for a discussion on its future leadership,” Prakash Jwala, the party spokesperson, said. “As of now, nothing has been discussed in the party-neither as party chair nor the parliamentary leader.”

Jwala said a party secretariat meeting will be held within a week to look into the issues.

A central secretariat meeting will be held in a few days, according to leaders. “The party chair will express his views there, all the leaders will share their opinions, and a decision will be made based on that,” Jwala said. They would also study documents related to the case before drawing up a conclusion.

One of the vice-chairs of the party states that no leader has raised the issue of future leadership in view of the current crisis, as of now.

“We are awaiting the secretariat meeting, expecting a proposal to come directly from Madhav Comrade himself,” the leader said. “If he suggests a way forward, it will be easier for us to discuss the matter further.”

He said they were mindful of the current crisis and “the fact that opponents have launched attacks” against the party and its leadership. It means they are not for putting the party chief in further trouble.

Leaders said Unified Socialist senior vice-chair Rajendra Pandey, who is also its deputy parliamentary party leader, will lead its lawmakers in the House in Nepal’s absence. However, the leaders ruled out the possibility of promoting him to the post of parliamentary party leader immediately.

They said Pandey will automatically lead the party’s parliamentary team in the House in the capacity of deputy leader.

Conversations with many leaders of the party show that the Unified Socialist leadership appears resolute to defend the party chair and not to take any decision until the Special Court gives a verdict in the corruption case.

“If the case is proven, the judicial decision must be respected, but until a verdict is reached, Chairman Nepal will not step down from the party chair,” said party secretary Som Prasad Pandey.

He clarified that they would take no decision in haste also because the CIAA’s move to file a case against a Cabinet decision itself is being debated. “Before the court verdict there are no chances for him to leave the party leadership,” the secretary clarified.

This is the first time that the anti-corruption body has filed a case against a former prime minister on a decision taken from a Cabinet meeting. Prior to the 1990 constitution, however, a corruption case had been filed against Tulsi Giri, a prime minister in the Panchayat era.

The commission has primarily accused Nepal of facilitating Patanjali Yogpeeth and Ayurveda Company Nepal to purchase land beyond the legal ceiling in Nasikasthan Sanga, Mahendrajyoti of Kavrepalanchok district for company operations. He is next charged for giving the Cabinet approval-two months after the purchase permit-to sell the land, which under the Land Act should have been confiscated and maintained as government or public property.

When the opposition parties view it as a political vendetta against Nepal, ruling party leaders, particularly from Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s CPN-UML, defend it as a regular process of the anti-graft body.

Experts have hailed the CIAA’s move for taking up the issue even as it concerned a Cabinet decision.

Former prime minister Nepal himself has tried to present it as a politically motivated move orchestrated by his rivals. Addressing a meeting of the party’s Madhes provincial chapter in Kathmandu on Saturday, Nepal claimed that ‘a section of individuals’ had taken revenge against him and his party “as they were being alarmed by his party’s growing role” in national politics.

“Our party has been playing an important role in Nepal’s politics, and some individuals are worried about that influence,” he said. “They are driven by prejudice and a sense of vengeance. The initiation of a corruption case against me is a clear example of this.”

Although he did not mention any names, Nepal hinted at Prime Minister Oli. Previously too, Nepal has stated clearly that Oli conspired to end his political career.

Nepal asserted that he was not afraid of his rivals’ moves and that he would face the case resolutely. “All the friends be assured that I will get justice from the court because I have done nothing wrong,” he told the Saturday gathering.

Other leaders too appear to be in a mood to defend their chairman instead of raising a moral question against him.

Unified Socialist General Secretary Ghanashyam Bhusal claimed that the case was registered in the court under a conspiracy plotted by Prime Minister and UML chair Oli.

“Oli ji wants to ‘finish the political career’ of all his rival leaders by the next general election. This case came under the same game plan,” Bhusal told a political gathering in Rupandehi on Saturday.

Leaders from the UML and the Unified Socialist still have an acrimonious relationship since a dozen senior leaders under Nepal split the UML and formed the Unified Socialist in 2021.

Later the new party won 10 seats in the House of Representatives, though it did not win enough proportional representation votes to become a national party in the federal parliament.

Prakash Jwala, a Unified Socialist lawmaker, said the party’s organisational strength wouldn’t be affected by a case against the chairman.