Nepal government to probe Chinese bribe scandal

KATHMANDU - Ahead of the seventh round of vote Tuesday to elect new premier, Nepal’s caretaker government said it would form a committee to investigate the scandal about the opposition Maoist party allegedly seeking millions of rupees from a “friend” in China to buy MPs’ votes.

In a belated reaction to media reports about an audio tape purportedly recording Maoist former minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara seeking NRS.500 million to “buy” the votes of 50 MPs from the Terai parties to shore up support to win the prime ministerial poll, the council of ministers Monday said the tape would be investigated after consultations with the chairman of parliament, Subas Nembang.

The Maoists, who have denied the allegations as “a tissue of lies” and rejected the tape as a “fake”, announced they would conduct an investigation of their own.

The government move comes after the Indian government, accused by the Maoists of having engineered the furore, said it had taken note of the bribery allegations.

Besides the bribery row, the Maoists, despite their victory in the election two years ago, are under cloud for several other reasons ahead of the election.

Another Maoist MP, Balkrishna Dhungel, has hit the headlines after being convicted of murder.

Causing major embarrassment to the former guerrilla party, Dhungel was found guilty of the murder of Ujjwal Kumar Shrestha in Okhaldhunga district during the Maoists’ “People’s War”.

Though the killing occurred nearly 12 years ago, the Supreme Court found Dhungel guilty in January, when the verdict did not get much attention.

However, the apex court Sunday released the full verdict, sentencing the Maoist MP to life imprisonment and triggering a growing public debate.

It is now being asked if Dhungel can remain an MP. There are calls for him to be stripped of his position though the Maoists are claiming immunity on the ground that the ruling parties agreed to drop most criminal cases involving Maoists when they signed a peace deal in 2006.

In addition to the bribery scandal and Dhungel’s criminal past catching up with the Maoists, the opposition party is also facing growing arrests of its members for murders and crimes.

The mounting unease about the Maoists has prevented their chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who was elected prime minister with thumping majority in 2008, from getting even simple majority in the currently 599-member parliament even after six rounds of vote.

Prachanda, who needs 60-odd votes from other parties to win a narrow victory Tuesday, is now banking on four regional parties from the Terai plains to see him through.

But the odds remain against him still.

Though the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal, led by former foreign minister Upendra Yadav, is said to be sympathetic, it could still fail to vote for Prachanda Tuesday due to the bribery scandal.

Even if the Yadav group decides to back the Maoist chief, its 25 MPs alone will not be able to help Prachanda reach the halfway mark of 300 votes unless other parties pitch in as well.

Unless there are surprise developments, the seventh round of election is likely to fail as well with an eighth session expected end of September after the Maoists’ contenders, the Nepali Congress party, concludes its general convention.