All-party corruption

Local leaders of the major political parties in Dang have shown a rare unity but for a wrong cause: Swindling public money. Leaders of Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal–Unified Marxist-Leninist, Madhesi Peoples´ Rights Forum and Rastriya Janamorcha Party divided 750 thousand rupees of public money among themselves. The local leaders had sold three plots of land belonging to Bhalubang Municipality Development Committee to send an all-party delegation to Kathmandu to demand land ownership certificates for locals who had settled along the highway some four decades ago.



The delegation members, after returning from Kathmandu, decided to share the unspent sum of 750 thousand rupees among themselves. The matter came into public after a leader of Rastriya Janamorcha Party organized a press conference to expose the loot and also announced that his party would return the money accepted by its leader.



Since the news became public neither the concerned local leaders have denied the wrongdoing nor have they conceded it. They are behaving as if nothing happened; as if they don´t owe a clarification or an apology to the people they purportedly represent. The district and central leadership of the respective political parties have also kept quiet so far on the issue. They have neither sought a clarification from their party members nor have they launched an investigation into the matter, let alone taking action against them. The political parties should immediately suspend the implicated local leaders from their party membership and launch a thorough investigation. Probity in public life is the central pillar of a democratic, accountable system and it should be upheld from the bottom.



What happened in Dang is, however, symptomatic of a larger problem that grips our political parties. How many of our political parties emphasize on a correct moral behavior, especially on the issues of accountability and transparency? Just think of this: None of the political parties have ever indicted any of their central leaders on the issue of corruption and none of them have maintained transparency about their party´s income and expenses.



Democracy is, theoretically, supposed to invite competition among the parties for a positive change. Not in our case. These parties seem to be in a quiet competition for opaqueness. So long as the parties ignore corruption and practice impunity at the top, it´s difficult – and perhaps unfair as well – to take action against the cadres at the bottom. The parties should take the issue of moral conduct seriously or else they will be seen as diverse groups of self-serving opportunists.

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