Action against top leaders can have negative impacts in society. At times, it can cause polarisation and increase partisanship at the expense of commitments to values and ideas
The Patanjali land case has again come to the limelight after being in hibernation for some time. It is because of the order of the Special Court towards the release of former prime minister and CPN (Unified Socialist) chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal on a bail of Rs 3.5 million last Wednesday. Thiswas in response to the case filed by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on June 5 against Nepal along with 92 other persons. The CIAA has alleged thatthe aforementioned persons engaged in corrupt activities like the sale and purchase of land registered in the name of Patanjali Yogpeeth and Ayurveda Company in Kavre district which was exempted from land ceiling.
Consequently, Nepal has been suspended as a Member of Parliament following the filing of the case by the CIAA. Though he continues to head the CPN (Unified Socialist), voices are already being raised against him with Indra Kumari Jhakri, a former minister and prominent member of his party, calling for a meeting soon citing the inconvenience of carrying the carcass on the back for a long time. Nepal has described it as political revenge by K P Oli, the incumbent Prime Minister.
Several former prime ministers of Nepal have been alleged to be neck dip in corruption. Whilst Sher Bahadur Deuba is said to be involved in the wide body aircraft procurement scam, Oli is often said to be involved in the Giribandhu Tea Estate scandal. The other former prime minister, Prachanda, is said to have amassed a huge fortune through the misappropriation of cantonment funds. People fed up with the pervasive corruption in the country are hopeful that a window will open to interrogate the aforementioned and other political leaders in due course of time.
Corruption has been the root cause of underdevelopment in this part of the world since time immemorial. Chanakya, a fourth century BC polymath, had said that it is more difficult to know when a corrupt official siphons away public money than knowing when the bee eats the honey or the fish drinks the water. He was such a clean personality that he had two lamps, one filled with government oil, which he would use while discharging his official duty and the other fueled by himself while attending to his private work.
Back in Nepal, the father of the nation, Prithvi Narayan Shaha, who integrated feuding minnow states into what is Nepal today, could not bear corrupt officials. He said in his notable Divine teachings that both the giver and taker in a corrupt case are the enemies of the country, and it will not be sinful even if they are given capital punishment. The network of corruption has survived to this day with Nepal ranking 107th among 180 nations of the world, according to the 2024 report of Transparency International. This is in stark contrast of neighbouring China and India, which rank much higher at 76th and 96th position, respectively.
Such incidents of persecuting senior politicians lead to a very uncomfortable situation. On the one hand, it is said that it creates division among citizens in a way that is unhealthy for a democratic process. That is why in Belgium, politicians cannot be summoned to a court or arrested without indication of having committed a flagrant offence and without authorisation from the government body. Similar are the cases in Norway, Finland and France. On the other hand, the principle that everyone is equal before the law also has to be upheld.
Action against top leaders can have negative impacts in society. At times, it can cause polarisation and increase partisanship at the expense of commitments to values and ideas. It can also lead to political impasse. But it is not to say that it will not have a positive side at all. It can also increase the political participation of the general public, which is also called those of diffuse interests. This can be clear from the three cases, firstly, of the prosecution of Netanyahu in Israel, the cases against Bill Clinton in the United States and against President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil.
Though Netanyahu is the longest serving Prime Minister, he is also alleged to have engaged in bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Several protests were held in the streets, and he was indicted by the court but continued to serve as the Prime Minister. Again, Bill Clinton was accused on more than one occasion of being involved in sexual abuse, first with Jones and later with Monica Lewinsky. He was to be impeached, but it could not happen because no article received the two-thirds majority of senators required to convict him. Dilima Rousseff, the Brazilian President, was also alleged to have engaged in corruption and economic recession,butshe was cleared by the court on the ground that the accusation involved actions taken before the assumption of her Presidentship. It triggered massive protests in the street following which she was removed from the office by the senate.
It has been found from the aforementioned three cases that the interest of the public in politics has increased after the trial of senior politicians. People who were otherwise disinterested got involved. The media coverage of the trial and the following demonstrations and protests polarised society as stated earlier.
What will happen in Nepal due to the trial of Madhav Nepal remains to be seen. Though it has created some ripples in his own party, it has not yet spilled over to the streets. Given that Nepal is not in power as were Netanyahu, Clinton or Rousseff, his trial may not attract as much attention. But if the resonance heard in the hallowed public cloisters are true, people appear to be expecting this event to lead to similar trials of political leaders of similar stature.
