KATHMANDU: Two political leaders – Tourism Minister Prem Ale and former Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai – have gone round in circles engaging in narrative battle, not lagging in accusations, branding one another a “plunderer”.
The two leaders — who were once UML comrades — took the platform of national television to blame one another for all the ills using their own terminologies, most importantly, the latest controversy surrounding the opening of a restaurant at the Narayanhity Palace Museum.
The hateful rhetoric, for sure, might have stirred negative emotions among the target audiences, observers have to say.
Such violent rhetorics will increase the chances of political violence or an outage in social media.
Coming back to the issue, Minister Ale vowed to take action against former Tourism Minister and CPN-UML leader Yogesh Bhattarai for allowing the Batas Company to operate a restaurant there – something juicy material for the media.
“I have doubts that Bhattarai has some sort of connection with the Batas Company,” Ale quipped.
Bhattarai then challenged Minister Ale to take action against him alleging him of being a “timber smuggler”.
These two leaders grabbed the opportunity for rancor and frivolous conversation.
“Did you know that he entered politics through back door?” questioned Bhattarai hastening to add, “He isn’t a politician. He was busy smuggling timber when I was in the streets fighting against the then Panchayat regime.”
Minister Ale was no different. In response, he alleged Bhattarai of accumulating wealth and purchasing a house in Kathmandu by smuggling arms from the Tatopani border during the Maoist conflict.
“If he were into plain politics, how could Bhattarai, who came to Kathmandu from Taplejung empty-handed, accumulate such wealth?” Minister Ale asked.
Ale elaborated the story saying, “The Maoists were underground. Fighting was going on between the army and the Maoist combatants. And, taking advantage of the situation, Bhattarai smuggled arms and ammunition.”
Bhattarai, too, had to say that he did not come into politics as a “timber smuggler”. “I was active in politics while Ale was smuggling timber to India.”
Bhattarai challenged Ale, saying, “I would suggest him to stay at his own place and not intrude into my personal life. Let me work on my own.”
Ale has more to allege. “Am I not aware of the fact how he smuggled liquor, Rolex watches and other expensive items from abroad?”
Bhattarai, meanwhile, countered Minister Ale alleging him of purchasing “expensives” from abroad.
Interestingly, Bhattarai even alleged Minister Ale of having a “dozer-like body” that has the strength to dismantle the structure built for the restaurant in the Narayanhity Palace Museum.
Ale, a minister from the Madhav Nepal-led Unified Socialist Party, seems to be hell-bent on criticizing the UML party and its leader Bhattarai for all wrongdoings while Bhattarai has pointed fingers at every single decision Ale made.
Minister Ale did not lag behind to say that he can even produce the evidence that Bhattarai had demanded Rs 10 million from tourism businessmen when he was almost sure of becoming a minister.
Ale lashed out at Bhattarai, saying, “During the first wave of coronavirus pandemic, people were suffering. But in the name of rescue, he even did not hesitate to take a commission from the chartered flight of the Himalaya Airlines.”
“How could a sitting minister give business to a private airline company instead of giving business to Nepal Airlines?” he asked.
Fumed Ale responded, “While Himalayan Airlines operated 177 charter flights, Nepal Airlines operated only 140. I am investigating into this.”
The accusations on one another are not only a squabble between two ordinary citizens but those in higher positions.
Such blame games aimed at making their opponents look bad rather than finding workable solutions are sure to aggravate problems in the long run.
All these rhetorics seem to be primarily motivated to avoid blames for failure.
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