It seems like just yesterday that the momentous story broke. Police started investigating the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">fake Bhutanese refugee scandal</a>, and Nepalis held their breath. At last it looked like justice would be done.&nbsp;
Police followed the digital trail from middlemen who hoodwinked hundreds of Nepalis to part with millions of rupees. Phone records and text messages led them to the highest people in the land. Former ministers and secretaries were tracked down and arrested.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass">The story</a> was first broken in a piece commissioned by the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal, and written by Devendra Bhattarai for Kantipur daily in June. Despite state malfunction, it finally looked like press freedom, democracy and the rule of law were intact in Nepal after all.&nbsp;
Morale in the police and investigation agencies went up, journalists were encouraged that coverage had impact. After all, previous police inspectors and even the Commission on Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had received the complaints about being swindled by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">fake refugee middlemen and their political patrons</a>, but had filed them away.&nbsp;
But it was all too good to last. SSP Manoj KC and AIG Shyam Gyawali, the two police inspectors leading the team investigating the refugee scam, were transferred.&nbsp;
We have since learnt that the Maoist Home Minister was under pressure to do so from topmost Nepali Congress (NC) leaders and their consorts of whom police had evidence of collusion. Not surprisingly, KC was replaced by Basanta Kunwar, the same police inspector who had earlier buried the complaint.
More scandals then erupted, including those involving the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/crime-and-or-punishment-in-nepal">sale of Baluwatar real estate</a> and gold ornaments at Pashupati.&nbsp;
In none of these were Maoist officials involved.&nbsp;
Then, as if on cue, 100kg of gold was found being smuggled from Hong Kong concealed as motorcycle brake pads. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-gets-gold-medal-for-corruption">Investigations led to senior Maoists and their progeny</a>, and it emerged that the organised criminals has used brake pads and vapes numerous times before.&nbsp;
Now, with all three of Nepal’s main parties neck-deep in muck, the scandals cancelled each other out. Backroom deals ensured ‘I will not probe your scandal if you don’t probe mine’.
Fast forward two months: none of these monsoon scandals have come to anything. Some small fish have been netted, other bigger fish are out on bail, but the cases are not going anywhere. This week, the CIAA made a show of framing a sitting Commerce Secretary on an unrelated budget allocation. Its chief is clearly trying to distract us from his earlier cover-up of the Bhutan refugee case.
The media has moved on, social media is captivated by the viral video of the day, and the three main parties are glad Nepalis suffer collective amnesia. Mainstream politicians are back to impunity as usual, using the Constitution Day pardon list to get President Ram Chandra Poudel to release a notorious gangster serving a 20-year jail term for murder.&nbsp;
They are playing politics with rising <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/east-is-east">ethno-religious tensions in Kosi Province</a> and across the Tarai where social networking sites have been weaponised with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/crimson-saffron-and-green">Hindutva hate speech</a>. Throughout all this, the prime minister disappeared for nearly three weeks on a round the world photo-op.
It does not look like the gerontocracy of the NC, the Maoists or the UML have seen the writing on the wall. They were up on the balcony of Gaddi Baithak on Indra Jatra on 28 September (pictured) and must have witnessed the frenzied welcome for Mayor Balen Shah. Still stuck in partisan power struggles, they underestimate the anti-establishment public mood.&nbsp;
Independents and alternative parties are riding a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-populist-party-balenist">populist anti-incumbent wave </a>among Nepali youth. The dinosaurs of Nepali politics are oblivious to the approaching asteroid.&nbsp;

original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

1250x600

1084x550

State malfunction

On 18 July, the Department of Revenue raided the cargo terminal at Kathmandu airport and seized 61kg of gold being smuggled in from Hong Kong hidden inside brake shoes of two-wheelers. Although this was the biggest haul of contraband gold in the country’s sordid history, it emerged that the smugglers had already carried out similar jobs dozens of times before.
In the days following the raid, Nepal Police arrested 21 individuals involved, including customs officials, Chinese and Indian nationals, and middlemen. Top politicians and their cronies who were the alleged masterminds were not touched.
The names included former Maoist minister Barshaman Pun, former speaker Onsari Gharti Magar, the family of former vice-president Nanda Kishor Pun, and Maoist Centre vice-chair Krishna Bahadur Mahara and his son.
Mahara was also said to be involved in another gold smuggling operation in December 2022 in which a Chinese national was found to have brought in gold concealed inside e-cigarettes at the airport
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/crime-and-or-punishment-in-nepal">Crime and/or Punishment in Nepal</a>, Sonia Awale
Investigative journalists then uncovered Mahara &amp; Son trying to pressure officials to release the gold for auction. The Maoist leader has denied being involved, but police have phone records to prove otherwise. Meantime, the gold itself has vanished from storage.&nbsp;
The stench from scam after scam this year has become unbearable. If this was an international tournament, Nepal should get the Gold Medal for corruption. And these are just the scandals that we know about, away from the spotlight there is rampant extortion by politicians and bureaucrats of businesses throughout the land.
Interestingly, not a single politician from the Maoist party of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha is behind bars. Nepali Congress (NC), opposition UML and Maoist defectors are in jail for the fake Bhutanese refugee scandal. The Lalita Niwas real estate scam has implicated just about everyone, even those who bought the property. But no Maoists.&nbsp;
Since senior figures from all three main parties are now entangled in one scandal or the other, a devious effort is afoot to protect each other from prosecution. It seems Nepal’s feuding politicians can only agree to scratching each other’s backs during their three-party meetings to discuss the UML obstruction of the house over the gold smuggling case.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">In a Federal Kleptocratic Republic of Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki
NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba has continuously and blatantly blocked attempts to investigate his wife Arzoo Rana in the refugee scam, and pressured Prime Minister Dahal this week to transfer Kathmandu Valley police chief AIG Shyam Gyawali, SSP Manoj KC of the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office, and Chief of Kathmandu Police SSP Dan Bahadur Karki. Dahal was only too happy to oblige since his comrades were also knee-deep in scandals.
The move has blindsided Home Minister Shrestha and brought into question his public commitment to rid the country of corruption.&nbsp;
As it stands, Nepal’s jumbo coalition government is held together only by mutual distrust. Deuba and other parties of the coalition are keeping close watch so Dahal does not direct ongoing investigations towards their own leadership in retaliation. And Dahal needs Deuba so he can remain in power to continue to loot in cahoots with cronies.
Nepal’s Supreme Court also ordered investigations into CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Kumar Nepal and Nepal Socialist Party head Baburam Bhattarai in the Lalita Niwas scam, but that has not gone anywhere. Both parties are in the coalition.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass">Losing our moral compass</a>, Editorial
Meanwhile, the government has concluded that the Gaur Massacre does not need an investigation. Dozens of Maoist cadres were brutally massacred in a 2007 confrontation. But since Upendra Yadav who was said to have masterminded it is now a key member of the ruling coalition, Dahal is willing to let bygones be bygones.
While scandals are erupting thick and fast, the Maoists are mum about their own embezzlement 15 years ago of billions meant for their former guerrillas in UN-supervised demobilisation camps whose numbers they have admitted to inflating.
Even as the Prime Minister and the Home Minister keep giving speeches saying the rule of law applies to all equally, it looks like some are more equal than others. With a few exceptions, none of the big fish have been netted, and even those who have could now be let go because investigating officers have been removed and replaced with yes men.&nbsp;
Early on, it really did look like Home Minister Shrestha, the CIB and the Police were going after the big crooks, and that this would deter thievery. Alas, that was wishful thinking. The politicisation of crime and criminalisation of politics is now complete.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/political-trash">Political trash</a>, Shristi Karki

Nepal gets Gold Medal for corruption

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101136/636a233e9c7e80680e0417d8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="1026"/><figcaption>Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption></figure>Charles Shobhraj once claimed that he could pass an elephant through Nepal’s customs, and that is still true at Kathmandu airport, where inadequate facilities are compounded by what insiders say are wide-open loopholes for big-time smugglers while innocent passengers are hassled.After outrage from passengers, Tribhuvan Airport is getting a facelift, but most of it superficial. As a $100 million upgrade lies in limbo, Nepal’s only international air gateway gives a poor impression to passengers.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=20463&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kathmandu Airport is Nepal in a microcosm</a>, Anil ChitrakarTourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari says not everything at the airport is under his ministry, and it is difficult to coordinate between the 171 government, security and private entities there. His effort to turn TIA into a ‘boutique airport’ is being ridiculed as it takes hours to get through visa lines, customs x-ray bottleneck, and luggage carousel. Then passengers are forced to negotiate an obstacle course to a new parking lot 200m down without trolleys, and a tourist broke his leg last month after slipping in the dark.Chief of airport customs Gajendra Kumar Thakur passes the buck to the ministry: “We have only half the staff we need, and that means we are overwhelmed when many planes land together.”Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/incompetence-of-kathmandu-airport-magnified-during-shutdown,2086" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bad just got worse</a>, Om Astha RaiOne afternoon last week, angry passengers muttered profanities as they waited for 45 minutes to be checked if they were ‘metal free’ at the arrival x-ray (photo, above) supposed to detect passengers bringing in more than the allowable 1 litre of liquor, or 50g of gold ornaments. Two passengers are apprehended every week, but the x-rays do not seem to have deterred smugglers who pass gold by the kilogram.The airport’s reputation as a den of smugglers was spotlighted anew after the scandal involving 33kg of seized gold that went missing last year. A Parliamentary committee recommended plugging loopholes, but the passenger bottleneck remains, inconveniencing passengers ahead of Visit Nepal Year 2020 by when the country hopes to bring in 2 million tourists.“We found that the biggest problem lay in the customs mechanism,” Janakraj Joshi of the parliamentary sub-committee revealed. The report was presented to Parliament’s Good Governance and Monitoring Committee last year, but Joshi says nothing happened.Airport officials promise the arrival concourse will have two more conveyor belts by May. Spokesman Pratap Babu Tiwari says the runway and apron expansion will resume soon, the terminal will have free WiFi and “soothing music.”After waiting hours at immigration and customs, the last thing passengers want to hear is blaring muzak.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/sick-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sick Airport</a>, Nepali Times<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/does-nepal-need-a-4th-international-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Does Nepal need a 4th international airport?</a>, Om Astha Rai

Try Visiting Nepal

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171152/636937c29c7e80680e03fe5ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="793"/>After ten years of blood and 12 years of trying to come to terms with why it was shed, Nepalis had great hopes for 2018.Last year this time, there was a sense of achievement and optimism. The first <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/the-election-fever-federal-and-parliamentary-election,3982" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elections for three levels of government</a> under the new Federal Constitution had been held. The UML <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/show-stopper-headline,4101" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maoist alliance swept the elections</a>, and the expected unification of the two <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/a-two-party-state,3968" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parties</a> was supposed to mark the end of unstable coalition politics, and finally deliver development. We had a straight-shooting <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/oli-here-for-good/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">can-do prime minister</a>, who despite failing health, had shown gumption and promise during campaigning.One year later, much of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/let-a-thousand-flowers-bloom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">euphoria has evaporated</a>. The past year has been one of missed opportunities, miscues, inaction and blatant blunders. Two months after the election results became clear, the lameduck Nepali Congress prime minister finally stepped down and the two communist alpha males K P Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal decided to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/one-body-two-heads/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">co-chair their united party</a>, and rotate the prime ministership.Formal party unification took another month. Still, there was hope that Oli would hit the ground running, even if it was through showcase development, cleaning up the roads of the capital and launching major projects.Alas. It may have been unrealistic of us to expect the same septuagenarians from the same parties to suddenly govern with accountability and efficiency. The Nepali people did not expect much, so they were not surprised to see no improvement in their lives. The roads were still dug up, the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/public-transport-syndicate,3531" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bus syndicates</a> that Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa promised to eradicate were still around, tanker operators were still striking for the right to steal oil, the culprits who absconded with 33 kg of smuggled gold were never caught, nor those responsible for the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/justice-for-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rape-murder of Nirmala Panta in Kanchanpur</a>.There were some bright spots, and these were mostly in sectors led by efficient and relatively young former UML ministers in the Cabinet like <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/does-nepal-need-a-4th-international-airport/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rabindra Adhikari</a> (Tourism), <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/win-win-migration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gokarna Bista</a> (Labour) or <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/calendar-of-economic-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yubaraj Khatiwada</a> (Finance). But even they are finding it difficult within their ministries to get the wheels of government to turn.The rent-seeking state is so habituated to extortion and extraction that Bista has run into a wall in implementing his ground-breaking accord with the new regime in Malaysia to remove <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/kleptocrats-of-kathmandu-and-kualalampur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exploitation and costs for Nepali migrant workers</a>. Adhikari, despite all his efforts, cannot go beyond cosmetic improvements at Kathmandu airport. Khatiwada’s valiant efforts at fiscal discipline and capital spending are not yielding results, and this has resulted in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/banking-on-a-course-correction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liquidity crisis that threatens the banking sector</a>.If that is how honest politicians are prevented from delivering, one can imagine what is happening in the ones led by corrupt and ruthless ministers lining their pockets as if there was no tomorrow. The sordid list of impunity and abuse of authority is long and makes for thoroughly depressing reading every morning: ambassadors on the take from traffickers, justices who hurriedly clear criminals ahead of their imminent retirement, absconding multiple-murderers appearing on stage with the CDO and police, and a ministerial secretary demanding a Rs250 million bribe to release funds for the much-delayed Melamchi water project.What is worse is that the public is now so cynical about officials plundering the state that these investigative reports do not even raise eyebrows anymore. Media exposes cause a brief flutter before society shrugs, and moves on.We hoped to be able to wish our readers a happy new year 2019. But Nepal and Nepalis will probably just muddle through another 52 weeks.

A year wasted

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110714114/636902a39c7e80680e037c76jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>Bikram Rai</figcaption></figure>Despite its two-thirds majority, and after getting off to a flying start, the government is digging itself into an ever deeper hole.In the first three months of his tenure, Prime Minister K P Oli focused on just three tasks: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-modi-fied-oli/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">improving political ties with India</a>, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/what-china-really-wants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">building on economic cooperation with China</a>, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/one-body-two-heads/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uniting with the Maoists to form the monolithic Nepal Communist Party</a>. That seems to have sapped all his energy.He did try to address the people’s concerns by ordering his ministers to dismantle <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/cartel-carnage-highway,3233" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transport cartels</a>, go after gold smugglers, punish those responsible for delays in road repairs. But all these moves fizzled out. The <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/public-transport-syndicate,3531" target="_blank" rel="noopener">horrific road conditions</a> this monsoon are emblematic of the national political quagmire.Read also: '<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=10589&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Doublespeak</a>' The people are running out of patience. In Boudha, monks took to the streets to repair craters themselves. Even former UML politicians close to Oli are worried about his tarnished image. “He is being heaped all the blame, he has become the lightning rod,” said one close aide in frustration.Indeed, PM-in-waiting and party co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal is conspicuous by his silence. Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, who once threatened to break cartels and the bones of errant contractors, has not been heard from recently.The government is BUSY firefighting and too distracted to address long-term crises. This week’s delay in confirmation of Deepak Raj Joshi as Chief Justice by the Parliamentary Hearings Special Committee is because he is being punished for his interim order overturning the Prime Minister’s sacking of officials appointment by the NC government. If true, this would represent gross interference by the executive on the independent judiciary.“If you do not follow the rule of law, there can be difficult days ahead,” warns advocate Radheshyam Adhikari.Public disenchantment is also growing. There is open ridicule of Prime Minister promising ocean-going ships and railroads when nothing is done to repair roads and deliver better services. The opposition NC, after being trammeled in elections, smells blood. Prime Minister Oli’s window of opportunity for damage control is narrowing.

gold-smuggling

State malfunction

Nepal gets Gold Medal for corruption

Try Visiting Nepal

A year wasted

Muddling along