When the police issued an arrest warrant against Maoist leader Prabhu Sah in connection with the murder of Hindu Yuba Sangh Chairman Kashinath Tiwari, the UCPN (Maoist) immediately termed it a “conspiracy to damage Sah´s character” and publicly defended him. [break]
Surprisingly, the party is silent about Siyaram Kushwaha, a party cadre who is also an aide to Sah. In its charge-sheet against Kushwaha, the district public prosecutor´s office, which refused to file a case against Sah, has demanded life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
Maoist Spokesperson Dinanath Sharma was not available for comment. But party leader Khagraj Bhatta said jokingly: “Yes, the party gave importance to Prabhu. Perhaps leaders should be prioritized!”
Similar was the case with the infamous abduction and subsequent murder by the Maoists in 2008 of Kathmandu-based businessman Ram Hari Shrestha. The party did not take any action against Kali Bahadur Kham, chief of the Shaktikhor cantonment where Shrestha was murdered. But Govinda Bahadur Batala, an ordinary commander at the cantonment, was made the scapegoat.
The party took action against neither Kham nor PLA Division In-charge Janardan Sharma. “Batala was only one of the commanders there, and his name would not have figured had Kham been brought to book,” says one PLA commander. Batala was recently released after serving a three-year jail term.
It is not only with the UCPN (Maoist), but also in the CPN-UML that some are more equal. Only recently, when police issued an arrest warrant against Morang Youth Force leader Parshuram Basnet for masterminding a physical assault on journalist Khilanath Dhakal in Biratanagar, senior UML leaders including KP Oli publicly defended Basnet and dismissed the incident as a “brawl in a tavern”.
But the UML was conspicuously silent in the case of Manoj Rai and Rohit Koirala, two local cadres involved in the same incident. Basnet is at large, but Koirala and Rai are in custody. In its charge-sheet, the district prosecutor´s office has demanded 10-year jail terms for each. Why such discrimination?
“This is how it is not only with communist parties but all other institutions including the bureaucracy, police and army,” said Jagannath Khatiwada, a leader of the Nepal-Oli camp in the UML. Khatiwada defended Basnet as innocent, and quipped: “Sacrificing scapegoats is an old tradition.”
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