UMl and Maoist Centre defending Rabi lamichhane

At a time when the Nepali Congress in the parliament and the senior politicians outside the Parliament have been demanding that Rabi Lamichhane should not lead the Home Ministry until his case related to the cooperatives gets cleared, the CPNUML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) have been defending Rabi Lamichhane.

While CPN (Maoist Centre) chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal gave a clean chit to Lamichhane in the parliament stating that the latter was innocent and no case was registered against him, CPN-UML Chairman Oli outright rejected the NC's demand for the formation of a parliamentary commission to look into Lamichhane's case. However, NC has strongly demanded a parliamentary commission in the case. The NC has warned of obstructing the House if their demand is not addressed. Obviously, Lamichhane has been dragged into controversy for drawing money from the cooperatives without being its member and until he leads the Home

Ministry, the police will not proceed with investigation. As such, NC as an opposition party does not look wrong in demanding his resignation or formation of the commission. As ruling partners, UML and Maoist Centre have to defend Lamichhane because the continuity of the government depends on Lamichhane's party— Rastriya Swatantra Party. If RSP quits the government over the cooperatives row, the Dahal-led government will fall into the minority. As such, the leaders of the ruling parties will continue to protect him no matter how loud they make their voices for good governance.

And if the government is compelled to form a parliamentary commission to let the House do its business smoothly, Lamichhane will have no option but to quit the post for the time being like Janaradan Sharma did in the past. Meanwhile, a parliamentary committee summoned Lamichhane to discuss the issue. State Affairs Committee grilled him on Wednesday.