KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa has strongly rejected accusations made against him by party leader and former minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet, calling them “filthy, undignified, and politically inappropriate.”
Responding during the party’s Central Committee meeting, Thapa said, “I won’t dirty myself by engaging with filth. I choose not to be dragged down.”
“My father used to say — always respond to accusations. But my mother would say — never stir filth, or you’ll be covered in it. Today, I’m listening to my mother.”
Basnet, who is currently out on bail in the Teramocs procurement case, had accused Thapa of influencing the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to launch a probe against him.
Thapa dismissed the claim as a breach of political decorum. Without naming Basnet directly, he criticized what he described as “threatening language and uncivil behavior” displayed during his absence from the meeting.
“I was in talks addressing demands of Tarun Dal hunger strikers. But I heard that in my absence, a central member hurled threats inside the meeting room. That’s moral decay,” he told party President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Basnet had earlier accused Thapa of being directly responsible for the CIAA’s investigation into his alleged role in the Teramax case, telling the committee:
“You openly acted against me in Parliament, outside Parliament. The CIAA acted because of you.”
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