How deep is the rot?

The CIAA would do well to widen the scope of its investigation into Dhaka Kumar Shrestha.

The swift action of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) to strip its controversial leader Dhaka Kumar Shrestha of party membership for an alleged case of corruption is appreciable. Days after the publication of an audio record, in which he is purportedly seeking financial help from a businessman to purchase a ministership, the party completed its internal inquiry and took disciplinary action, a rarity in the Nepali politics where parties routinely shield their corrupt members. Kudos. But the rest of the messaging in the whole affair was more muddied. RSP chair Rabi Lamichhane, adept at hitting the right emotional notes of populism, covered two opposite ends of the same emotional spectrum on Wednesday at a press conference to announce the party’s verdict. He was at once boastful and pitiable, ready to play the strongman and the victim in alternate sentences in his speech. And with the campaigning for by-elections in three constituencies well underway, he knew what works to elicit public sympathy and votes.