A man accused of being involved in a murder is appointed minister by a party in the ruling coalition. Challenged by public interest litigators, the Supreme Court rules that the minister has to take personal moral responsibility, and asks the police to report on progress in the murder investigation every fortnight.

A senior Maoist member was promoted by the party after being accused of masterminding the murder of Ram Hari Shrestha in 2008. A senior Maoist who doesn't deny that it is his voice in a phone tap soliciting half a billion rupees from a Chinese businessman to buy off CA members is now the Home Minister. The only opprobrium that Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ever had to bear for the Shaktikhor Video, in which he is seen laughingly admitting to lying to just about everyone, is that his interlocutors now think twice before taking him at his word.

Tycoons who also happen to be CA members pressure the new finance minister to call off an investigation against fake VAT bills in which the exchequer lost crores. An honest and efficient finance secretary resigns on moral grounds and blows the whistle, yet nothing happens to the finance minister, nor the businessmen. Politicians tainted by the APC scam are trying to pass the buck to police officers, even though everyone it seems had their hands in the honeypot.

The current epidemic of impunity in the country sets the backdrop to the case of hooligans from the UML-connected Youth Association Nepal (alias Youth Force) Morang chapter attacking a reporter and then using its connection to the ruling partner in the coalition government to get away with it.

This is no longer just an issue of press freedom, it is emblematic of a collapse of the rule of law, a breakdown of accountability that is affecting all facets of public life. It wasn't just Khilanath Dhakal of Nagarik who got beaten up last month in Biratnagar, it was violence against all Nepalis by goons in the payroll of our rulers. The attack is getting a lot of press because it was against a journalist, but it is happening all over the country all the time. Honest members of forestry user groups are beaten up by illegal loggers. Mother's committees trying to protect water sources are threatened by quarry owners. No one dares speak out against the politically-connected sand and boulder-mining mafia that are clawing down the ecologically-sensitive Chure hills.

The prime minister has to act to bring the known culprits in his party's youth wing who gave the orders to beat up Khilanath Dhakal and set an example that no one is above the law. The home minister is twiddling his thumbs because he knows arresting the Basnets will set a precedence and he will have to detain half of his own YCL.
This coalition isn't making much progress on the peace and constitution front, on governance and the economy. But one way it can redeem itself in the eyes of a thoroughly disillusioned public is by urgently catching some high profile crooks, and start due process.