Looking ominous

Public anger over the co-operatives crisis could soon boil over. Political parties must act now to avert a disaster.

The winter session of the Parliament has ended with effect from midnight Sunday amid tussles between ruling and opposition parties. The government opted to end the bill session at a time when the main opposition Nepali Congress had been asking for a parliamentary probe into Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, who is accused of embezzling millions of rupees of public deposits in cooperatives. (On Monday, new details emerged of Lamichhane’s misappropriation of Rs20 million from a Butwal-based cooperative.) Congress leaders in and outside the Parliament have been coming up with different reports and details to back their claim for a House panel. Those from the ruling coalition including Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli however have been trying to brush aside the matter as nothing more than Congress leaders’ knee-jerk reaction after they were kicked out of the government. Lamichhane’s party Rastriya Swatantra Party is naturally dismissive of the demand.