PM and Lharkyal affair

State Minister for Finance Dr Lharkyal Lama is in a serious controversy, to say the least. The controversy is related to issues as fundamental as his name, his nationality and even the doctorate title that he uses. A case filed against him and pending at the district administration office in Sindhupalchowk for the last six years accuses him of holding dual Nepali and Indian passports and an identity card as a Tibetan refugee. All photocopies of his passports and refugee ID attached with the complaint filed at the district administration office have Lama’s pictures, but the names in these documents are different. Lama has confessed that Lharkyal is his Nepali name while Khenpo Chime Tsering is his Buddhist name, which, interestingly, appears in his Indian passport. Lama has so far denied that he holds two passports or subscribes to multiple nationality and has argued that the documents were forged, using his pictures, just to discredit him.



These are allegations too serious to be ignored, but unfortunately that is exactly what Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal is doing. Khanal has neither defended his minister nor has he asked him to resign or simply sacked him. By now, the prime minister should have, at least, ordered a formal investigation into the scandal and assured the public that his government would take legal action against Lama if proven guilty. Instead, he is, as we have learned, privately grumbling that the media has “unnecessarily inflamed” the issue. He also seems to have completely absolved himself of any moral responsibility for picking a very wrong person for his cabinet. He is learnt to have argued with supporters that if Lama is found guilty, the blame should go to those who picked him as Constituent Assembly member (referring to Khanal’s predecessor who led the party during the nomination of CA members on a proportional basis). He was just appointing a minister from among “bonafide” UML lawmakers. We hadn’t expected such moral bankruptcy from Baluwatar or from the prime minister. At this rate, if Lama is found guilty, Khanal might shift the blame to the chief district officer who issued Lama his citizenship certificate, or an official at the foreign ministry who issued him a passport!



We want to make one thing absolutely clear to the prime minister: When it comes to the character flaw of a minister in your cabinet the buck stops with you. There is no one else who can or should answer the question why you chose him as a minister? More so in the case of Lama, a man with no political background and who wasn’t even a party member until recently. And also because he was given preference over hundreds of deserving UML leaders who have worked all their lives for the party. Strangely enough, Lama doesn’t even have a formal education (his claim to a doctoral degree is, therefore, bogus), let alone any knowledge of how the economy functions. Yet he was appointed state minister for finance! What is the basis for his appointment to the coveted post? Prime Minister Khanal, you owe an answer to your party cadres and to the citizens of this country.

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