Rabi’s detention churns Nepali politics

After the relative serenity of the Dasain break, Nepali politics is in turmoil once more with the detention of the leader of the fourth largest party in Parliament.

The RSP fashioned itself as an alternative to the three main parties that have taken turns to rule Nepal for the past 18 years, the NC, UML and the Maoists. 

It was going to show integrity, a vision for the future and do things differently. But RSP supporters took the streets of Pokhara and elsewhere on Monday to protest their leader’s arrest by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) in Kathmandu last week.

On Sunday, the RSP leader and former home minister Rabi Lamichhane was remanded in custody for six days while investigations continue into charges of involvement in organised crime and siphoning off the savings of depositors in several cooperatives.

A multi-partisan Parliamentary investigation committee last week found evidence linking the transfer of nearly Rs650 million from two cooperatives in Butwal and Pokhara to Lamichhane’s Gorkha Media Network where he was managing director and a populist talk show host before he launched the RSP. 

Lamichhane’s supporters are convinced that the current NC UML coalition is framing him for investigations into two scandals in which the top leaders of both parties were implicated. In fact, Lamichhane himself has said the Maoist-NC coalition in which RSP was a member was dismantled in June because his investigation was getting close to leaders in the NC and UML.

After his arrest in Kathmandu on orders from the Kaski District Court, Lamichhane was taken to Pokhara overnight. Senior leaders of the RSP followed the convoy, and Lamichhane’s supporters greeted him along the highway.

There were parallel protests in Pokhara against Lamichhane by depositors of Suryadarshan Cooperative who lost their savings to the scam. 

If found guilty, Lamichhane will not just face a jail term of up to ten years, but also be suspended from his Parliament seat and will be unable to contest the next election.

Lamichhane has not presented any facts to defend himself, and has denied involvement in the cooperatives scam accusing political rivals of feeling threatened by an emergent alternative party.

“Rabi Lamichhane cashed in on populism, and public frustration with establishment parties to become politically successful,” explains political commentator Indra Adhikari. “But he has never been a particularly moral politician.”

Lamichhane is not a stranger to controversy. Besides his citizenship caper, even before he joined politics in 2020 he was charged with abetting the suicide of a journalist by hounding him on his tv channel. He was acquitted.

In early 2023, Nepal’s Supreme Court ruled that Rabi Lamichhane, who was Home Minister in the NC-Maoist coalition at the time, was not eligible to hold political position because he had failed to reacquire his Nepali citizenship after renouncing his American one. 

Lamichhane subsequently got a new Nepali citizenship and contested the by-elections, which he won by an even bigger margin than his first time at the polls. Later that year, the Office of the Attorney General exonerated him in the case of possession of an active US passport.

If found guilty in the cooperatives scam, it will be the second time that he will have to renounce his Parliament seat. Earlier, Lamichhane used his party’s strength in the House to be a kingmaker and bargained for a powerful role in coalition governments.

This time, such tactics will not work since the current governing alliance is made up of the two largest parties which do not see any political advantage to supporting him. Indeed, they do not seem interested in rescuing him this time around. 

Says Adhikari: “The RSP is a personality cut around Rabi Lamichhane. It is not a political party, it functions more like a private company. Without Lamichhane, the party could just wither.”

The Kaski District Administration Office has issued a prohibitory order in parts of Pokhara on Sunday. Riot police used water cannons and tear gas during protests by Lamichhane’s supporters.

Even though many in Nepal's cybersphere question Lamichhane’s integrity, they see leaders of the three main parties as being as corrupt, if not more. They cite Prime Minister K P Oli accepting the donation of land and building from supermarket tycoon Min Bahadur Gurung to house the headquarters of the UML in Kathmandu.

Even as the police investigate Lamichhane and former associates police DIG Chabilal Joshi, Gorkha Media Network chair G B Rai, and others, critics have pointed out that NC and UML leaders also involved in scamming depositors of cooperatives have got away scot free. 

The NC’s Dhanaraj Gurung and UML’s Rishikesh Pokharel, have also been implicated in the cooperatives scam, but have not been investigated even while their wives are at large. 

“We are only just beginning the process of investigating the individuals mentioned by the report of the all-party inquiry committee,” said Communication Minister Prithivi Subba Gurung on Sunday. “There is no need to create confusion by singling out names of the other people involved.”

Popular RSP technocrats like economist Swarnim Wagle and IT expert Sumana Shrestha have taken a risk by backing Lamichhane to the hilt. Analysts say there is a danger that their image could also be tarred.

RSP leaders have resorted to inflammatory and populist rhetoric to rile up supporters in the wake of Lamichhane’s arrest. MP Manish Jha said Monday he was ready to “spill his own blood and become a martyr in the fight against the country’s corrupt”. 

Those with inside knowledge, however, say that for all this bluster, it has no solid plans to maintain its leadership in the event of Lamichhane’s long absence from political activities. 

Indeed, the party has yet to appoint an acting chair in the aftermath of Lamichhane’s arrest. Senior RSP leaders and lawmakers Dol Prasad Aryal and Swarnim Wagle are the vice-chairs of the party.   

There is also question as to the future of RSP’s leadership and the party as a whole if Lamichhane is found guilty of his charges by the court, which will cut his political career short. 

Says Adhikari: “It is useless to hope that the RSP will be any kind of an alternative party and work for good governance. A political party that is relying on incendiary rhetoric to rile up crowds to impede investigation into their leader cannot be considered democratic."