KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress Chief Whip Shyam Kumar Ghimire on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and its leadership, including party chair and former Deputy Prime Minister Rabi Lamichhane, during a meeting of the House of Representatives.
Ghimire’s remarks came amid an ongoing disruption of parliamentary proceedings by the RSP, which has been demanding the formation of a high-level investigation committee to probe alleged irregularities in visit visa processing involving Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak.
Taking aim at the RSP’s leadership, Ghimire sarcastically referred to past controversies surrounding Lamichhane and former minister Sumana Shrestha. Without naming them directly, he alluded to Lamichhane’s past U.S. citizenship and Shrestha’s reported marriage to a foreign national.
“We’ve seen these kinds of practices before, traveling to the U.S. on a visit visa, acquiring foreign citizenship, starting a family, getting caught in scandals, and then returning to Nepal to start a political party,” Ghimire said in a biting tone.
He added, “Someone who returned on a visit visa has even become a minister and deputy prime minister. The current political rise of many in that party has been fueled by visit visas.”
Ghimire criticized the act of overstaying visit visas, taking foreign passports and citizenships, and then returning to engage in politics in Nepal.
“Those who leave on visit visas are supposed to return. If they don’t, the law should apply. But here, we’ve rewarded such actions by giving them high public office,” he said.
Despite allegations linking Home Minister Lekhak to the visa scandal, he remains in office. Meanwhile, RSP leader Lamichhane is currently in Bhairahawa Jail in connection with a cooperative fraud case.
Ghimire dismissed the RSP’s obstruction of parliament as politically motivated rather than a genuine concern for accountability. He argued that the visit visa issue, while serious, does not warrant the level of disruption being carried out in the federal legislature.
“Your journey here was made possible by visit visas. So perhaps there’s no need to worry about it so much,” Ghimire remarked sarcastically, targeting RSP lawmakers.
Comment