KATHMANDU: A press meet called by the five parties to declare Valley-wide strike on Monday was overshadowed on Sunday, as the journalists repeatedly raised objections over the presence of corruption-indicted leader Govinda Raj Joshi in the meet.
Journalists made Joshi red and pale with the rain of stiff questions such as: “Are you here to purify yourself in the eyes of people and journalists?”, “Who sent you in this press meet?” and “Do the parties’ expect people’s participation in the movement bringing a leader like Joshi to the front?”
Other questions went like: “Isn’t it the five parties’ and particularly, Nepali Congress’s lack of sensitiveness to send a corruption-charged leader like Joshi in the press meet?”, “Will the party activists be ready to become martyrs having seen Joshi as their leader?” and “Is it right on ethical grounds that Joshi should lead the movement as a leader?
In the heated atmosphere, Joshi tried to furnish replies. He said, “I am here because my party sent me.” According to him, NC Secretary General Sushil Koirala was scheduled to be there. “Since he is ill, the party told me to take part in this press meet.”
“Party activists do not need to become martyrs in my name,” he said. On the much talked-about corruption charges, the former minister said, “We cannot say one is a culprit, unless the court gives the final verdict.”
Leaders of the other parties remained silent as they could not support Joshi’s presence in the press meet; neither could they raise their voice against him.
“We will not spare any corrupt leaders from legal action after our movement against regression succeeds,” CPN-UML leaders Amrit Kumar Bohora and Subash Nembang, without mentioning the name of Joshi, told journalists in a bid to “pacify” them.
Leader of United People’s Front, Lilamani Pokhrel said he cannot comment on Joshi’s presence in the press meet. “Only the concerned party can make a statement,” he said indicating towards the NC of which Joshi is the Joint Secretary General.
Representatives of Nepal Laborers’ and Peasants’ Party and Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) also attended the press meet. They were of the same view that they cannot take responsibility for Joshi’s presence in the press meet.
Joshi was in judicial remand for more than two months. A Special Court in Kathmandu last week released him on Rs.30.5 million bail.
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has charged Joshi of accumulating property worth millions of rupees through illegal channels and hiding real sources of his earning.