UML must suspend Karki

CPN-UML lawmaker DB Karki has been implicated in a case of bribery -- he was caught red-handed by police while allegedly receiving one hundred thousand rupees from a youth in return for a promise to help the latter secure appointment as a police inspector. Since the police duly carried out a raid at the behest of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and arrested Karki along with his accomplice, there is little room to believe Karki’s claim that he is innocent. We, however, understand that a verdict of the Special Court, which has sent Karki into 20 days of judicial custody as demanded by the CIAA, will be a final one.



Given the seriousness of the charge and the circumstances under which Karki was arrested, the UML should have at least suspended him immediately from party responsibilities and from the post of lawmaker. Speaker Subas Chandra Nembang was right in demanding that Karki should resign as lawmaker once he receives a letter from the CIAA formally charging him. But it appears the UML is not taking the case with the seriousness it deserves. As if just to meet formalities, the party has formed a committee to investigate the affair.



This is sad, to say the least. As precedents show, if a civil servant is implicated in similar circumstances, he/she would have been immediately suspended from all responsibilities. It is unfair and hypocritical that a different moral standard is being applied in the case of a lawmaker. As we see it, lawmakers should lead by example and when they fail to do so or become a bad example to others, they should be punished even more harshly. We urge the UML leadership to reconsider its decision and suspend lawmaker Karki at least temporarily.



Karki’s arrest also underscores two broader points. First, it shows how rife corruption is in police recruitment. Each time there is a vacancy announcement in the Nepal Police, job aspirants knock on the doors of political heavyweights and senior police and civil service officials for favors, sometimes carrying with them loads of cash as this incident has shown. Since the police are a frontline institution in maintaining law and order and fighting various kinds of social malaise, the state must take initiative to keep it free from corruption.



The second point is more complicated. Most of our lawmakers come from very humble backgrounds-- they, like common Nepalis, struggle to make a living, to send their children to decent schools, and to meet the expectations of their cadres (sometimes this includes financial support as well). We are not naïve enough to assume that had our politicians been wealthier, they would have been less corrupt. But we all must accept that an environment of poverty creates pressures of its own in breeding corruption among lawmakers. One way to address the problem is to reduce the number of lawmakers in the next parliament and increase their salaries and benefits.

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