Regal justice

The pardon of a murder convict hints at how little our political class cares about people’s concerns.

For all of the past two decades, as his attempts to rise to the top of political echelons within the Nepali Congress got crushed by Sher Bahadur Deuba, Ramchandra Paudel whined about not getting his dues. When his plans to launch an offensive against Deuba in the last party general convention failed, he even chose to stay home in a show of timidity in lieu of the courage to take his opponent head-on. But then the lowly equations of arithmetic-based power politics changed in March this year as parties and politicians shifted loyalties overnight—and Paudel secured for himself the position of the third President of federal Nepal. Now was his last chance to change his image from an eternal whiner to a bold defender of Nepal’s constitution. But he does not seem to think of himself more than a rubber stamp.