Former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister and current chair of the Rastriya Swatantra Party Rabi Lamichhane has desperately tried to evade responsibility for his role in the misappropriation of cooperatives funds. Yet the mounting pile of evidence suggests his clear culpability. The parliamentary special probe committee was specifically formed to look into his involvement in the siphoning of money from various cooperatives into the Gorkha Media Network, of which he was the Managing Director. If the feelers coming from the committee members are any sign, Lamichhane will be held accountable for his crime. Yet corruption in Nepal is not limited to Lamichhane or his party. If Lamichhane deserves to be investigated and, if found guilty, punished, so should members of any other political party, irrespective of the positions they occupy. Credible evidence has emerged of the involvement of Dhan Raj Gurung, the Nepali Congress Vice-president, in the embezzlement of funds from a Lalitpur-based cooperative. Gurung reportedly helped his ex-wife, Joyti Gurung, embezzle around Rs12.5 million. Similarly, there are accusations that Risikesh Pokharel, the CPN-UML leader who is also the chair of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee also helped his wife, Anjala Koirala, embezzle as much as Rs120 million from a Morang-based cooperative.

What is interesting about the cases against the senior Congress and the UML leaders is the state’s apparent collusion in shielding the two. For instance, the operators of Miteri Savings and Loan Cooperative had filed complaints against 11 people, including Gurung, for misappropriating funds. But the Bagmati Province government has excluded his name in the list of the possible culprits it has sent to the Central Bureau of Investigation of Nepal Police. (The province has Bahadur Singh Lama of the Congress as its chief minister.) Likewise, the Cooperative Registrar Office of the Koshi Province has excluded the name of Anjala Koirala in the list it has forwarded to the police. This is even though the victims of the cooperative had flagged her as one of the operators involved in fund embezzlement. (Koshi province has Hikmat Kumar Karki of the UML as its chief minister.) How seemingly the whole state apparatus is being employed to shield the political leaders from the two ruling parties is shocking. No wonder the government is facing allegations of bias and vindictiveness.

On Saturday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli spent much time fulminating against the Maoist Centre, new political forces, the royalists of various hues as well as Kathmandu's mayor. Yet there was little in terms of introspection. How does he expect people to take either him or his government seriously when it is seen as protecting the corrupt and the compromised people? Rather than making big promises, Oli and his government would be better served if they are seen to be fairly applying the rule of the land and working in public interest. The cooperatives crisis is assuming alarming proportions. It has the potential to do serious damage to the national economy—besides adding untold miseries to hundreds of thousands of poor cooperatives victims who stand to lose everything if prompt measures are not taken to bring fraudulent cooperatives operators to book. If the Oli government plays with the cooperatives’ fire, it could find itself engulfed in the inferno.