Janardan Sharma makes a controversial comeback

Former Finance Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) leader, Janardan Sharma Prabhakar was reappointed to the post of finance minister again on Sunday.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari appointed him to the post on the recommendation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba as per Article 76(9) of the Constitution.

President Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to FM Sharma also on Sunday. He returned to the office 25 days after his resignation from the same post. FM Sharma resigned from the post on July 6 amid the controversy of inviting unauthorised persons to manipulate the tax rates at the last minutes of the finalisation of the budget for the current fiscal year 2022/23. A parliamentary committee acquitted him. He was appointed as the FM of the Deubaled government last year.

The parliamentary committee formed to investigate Sharma gave him a clean chit citing a lack of evidence. But the government denied providing the proof sought by the committee. It was not given the CCTV footage. Moreover, when the majority of members of the committee were from the ruling parties, it became easy for Sharma to escape the accusations.

Moreover, when PM Deuba tried to save Sharma, because any punishment against Sharma could expose the corrupt activities of his wife Arzoo Rana and her close aides including Minister of State Umesh Shrestha and lawmaker Binod Chaudhary because the tax rates were changed in favour of Rana, and Chaudhary. When the national economy is not in the right track and when Sharma proved to be an incompetent Finance Minister, PM Deuba could utilize the controversy by appointing a competent Finance Minister. But he did not only because Sharma had worked in favour of his spouse Arzoo Rana. Commenting on the comeback of Finance Minister Janardhan Sharma, CPN-UML chairman KP Oli on Tuesday said that it was a shameless act of the ruling coalition and was a serious attack on the conscience and moral ground of the Nepali people.

“There was a charge of corruption and an investigation committee was formed by a majority of its own members. It was not allowed to investigate properly. Call details have been removed and CCTV footage has been deleted. The restored video is also not clear. How could he get clean chit?” Oli said speaking at a programme organised by his party in memory of communist leader Tulsilal Amayta.