In the berating of CIAA officials, another example of executive excess

The practice of intimidating state institutions will destroy the delicate system of checks and balances—the lifeblood of democracy.

Ever since Balendra Shah assumed the prime minister’s office on March 27, there has been one incident after another of executive overreach. To kick things off, opposition political leaders were arrested without due process. Riverside squatters were then forcibly removed, without any plan for their resettlement. Seldom does the prime minister attend parliament, and when Shah does, he openly violates its norms and sanctity. Now another troubling example of overreach by his office is emerging. Last week, the prime minister’s advisors summoned the office-bearers of the CIAA, the constitutional anti-graft body, and gave them a dressing down over a delay in the investigation of anomalies in the procurement process for passport booklets from abroad. On the same day the CIAA officials were summoned, Prime Minister Shah’s advisors berated German ambassador to Nepal, Udo Volz—after making him wait for three hours—for coming to see the prime minister without an appointment. Many Nepalis seem pleased at how the prime minister has been able to wield the whip to speed up service delivery, to crack down on corruption and to keep foreign envoys ‘in their place’. He and his government are only following the public’s wishes.