The controversy surrounding Chair of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and former Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane's dual passport case is unlikely to die down anytime soon despite being cleared by the Office of the Attorney General. The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to the defendants on the writ petition filed by Yubbaraj Paudel 'Safal' at the apex court on Sunday challenging the decision of the Attorney General not to proceed with the case against Rabi under the Passport Act. Now Lamichhane and his defendants must submit proof within 15 days that Rabi renounced his American citizenship and submitted the evidence to the Kathmandu District Administration Office (DAO), which restored his Nepali citizenship recently. The show cause notice comes at a time when Lamicchane has just filed his nomination from Chitwan-2 to contest the by-election to be held on April 23 to regain his lost seat in the House of Representatives (HoR).

The passport controversy has already cost Lamicchane very dear. He has had to relinquish his HoR membership and Home portfolio in the Pushpa Kamal Dahal Cabinet after Safal filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court in December that Lamicchane had failed to fulfill the legal procedures to get his citizenship restored to form a party and contest the November 20 polls. Lamichhane had obtained Nepali citizenship in 1994, became a U.S. citizen in 2014 andrenounced his American passport in June 2018.

There is no doubt that he had renounced his U.S. citizenship to become a Nepali citizen once again.

But he had failed to complete the procedure, which requires submitting all the details to the Kathmandu DAO, andcontested the federal elections when his citizenship was not valid. Also, according to the FIR lodged by Safal against Lamicchane under the Passport Act, Lamicchane had obtained Nepali passport on May 27, 2015 when he was still an American citizen and his Nepali citizenship had been annulled. Only a travel history of Lamicchane from the Department of Immigration will reveal if he had used dual passports to enter and exit the country.

Although highly popular among the electorate in Chitwan, the passport controversy has dented his appeal among the people. A former TV anchor, he formed a party just months before the November general elections to win a whopping 20 seats in the HoR. But his rise to the post of Home Minister was short-lived when he had to forego both the HoR seat and the ministerial portfolio. Lamichhane's political career hangs in the balance, and it is widely speculated that the Prime Minister is using the passport case to his advantage as the RSP's support is crucial to keep his government afloat. Which way the SC verdict will go is hard to predict, but the controversy would not have surfaced if Lamicchane had followed the laws of the land. There is a tendency to take things for granted because of the lax rules in Nepal.

On the other hand, had the Election Commission done a thorough job of checking the citizenship papers, as it is required to do, Lamichhane would have been spared the trauma of losing his HoR seat and then having to contest the elections afresh, which is also a heavy drain on the country's resources.

Airfares reduced

Private companies and Nepal Airlines have slashed their airfares for all sectors after the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). The decision to cut the airfares came into force from April 4. The NOC decided to reduce the price of ATF in the domestic sector by Rs 10 per litre. As per the decision of Airlines Operators Association of Nepal, airfares have been slashed on 13 trunk destinations, 40 short take off and landing (SLOT) destinations as well as mountain flights. As per the new arrangement, domestic airlines have reduced the airfares by a minimum of Rs 90 to a maximum of Rs 405 on trunk routes and a minimum of Rs 45 to a maximum of Rs 430 on STOL routes.

The airfare from Kathmandu to Dhangadhi has been reduced by Rs 440 while the airfare from Kathmandu to Simara by Rs 90, which is the lowest reduction.

The airfares were brought down as per the provision of revising the fuel surcharges based on the ATF price. Still, the country's domestic airfares are very expensive. One has to pay almost an equal amount of money to fly to Dhangadhi from Kathmandu as a passenger pays while flying to New Delhi, which is double the distance between Kathmandu and Dhangadhi.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 7, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.