NC accuse Defense Minister of misleading the parliament with lies

November 10, 2008
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Nepali Congress has dubbed the clarification given by Defense Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa in the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Sunday that he never met Kali Bahadur Kham, a Maoist military commander who has been charged with murder of a Kathmandu-based businessman Ram Hari Shrestha as “a pack of lies”.

Speaking in the CA meeting held in the capacity of legislative assembly, senior NC leader and lawmaker Dr Ram Sharan Mahat claimed that even though the Maoist defense minister has said he understands the “responsibility and dignity” of his ministerial position, “he has spoken a lie in the parliament” and hence tried to “mislead the parliament”.

Reminding news reports that said that journalists, who were eyewitnesses to his meeting with Kham in Chitwan on Oct 22, have expressed surprise at the defense minister’s claim, dubbing it “totally false”, Dr Mahat said that what the independent media wrote “can’t be false”.

The former finance minister demanded protection of the legislative assembly’s special right to information from the government and sought clarification from home minister Bam Dev Gautam on why the Maoist military commander charged with murder was roaming around free.

Dr Mahat was not the only NC leader who came down heavily on the government’s lackadaisical approach to the case. NC lawmaker Gagan Thapa, a youth leader who is considered to be rapidly emerging in his party ranks, claimed that the Maoist commander charged with murder of Ram Hari Shrestha is still inside the UN monitored Shaktikhor temporary cantonment in Chitwan and challenged home minister Gautam to take immediate action if he has “the guts to do it”.

Similarly, Terai Madhesh Loktantric Party lawmaker Hridayesh Tripathi also got pretty worked up at the legislative assembly session, accusing defense minister Thapa and information minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara of “tainting the nation’s pride” by going on a secret trip to Chinese border town of Khasa after the Tihar festivals. He also sought government’s clarification on this matter.

In another topic, at a time when the law and order situation in the Terai plains and eastern hills of Nepal is increasingly becoming a matter of headache for the government with armed outfits operating there, the leader of Madhes based party said that the Maoists together with the government should return the weapons they seized during the insurgency period to the rightful owners or remove taxes in the purchase of new weapons. nepalnews.com ag Nov 10 08