Pressure is mounting in the House of Representatives to investigate the decision taken by the KP Sharma Oli government to permit the Giri Bandhu tea estate in Jhapa to swap its land with plots elsewhere in the province. Many political parties in Parliament are zeroing in on the idea that the multi-billion-rupee scam must be probed.

The Supreme Court on February 7 overturned the erstwhile Oli government’s decision on the tea estate land swap. On April 26, 2021, a government led by Oli, the CPN-UML chairman, allowed the tea estate to reap benefits from land holdings above the legal ceiling. The constitutional bench, headed by Chief Justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha, ruled that Oli Cabinet’s decision contravened Section 23 (C) of the Land Act 1964 and was immature.

The court also ruled against the permit for the tea estate to swap land exceeding the legal ownership ceiling in any other place within the Koshi Province, highlighting such deal’s legal implications on land reforms.

The Supreme Court’s full verdict on the tea estate, issued on May 12, has sparked political and legal debates. The main opposition Nepali Congress has demanded an investigation into the decision-making process of the land swap permit.

The parliamentary party meeting of the Congress on May 14 officially made its position clear.

On Tuesday, Gyanendra Bahadur Shahi, a lawmaker from Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), another opposition party, urged Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane to launch an inquiry into the matter. Speaking in Parliament, Shahi asked when the government would open the files of various high-profile cases.

“When will the government open files on Giri Bandhu Tea Estate and other big scams?” Shahi, also the chief whip of the RPP, questioned.

On the campaign trail for the 2022 elections, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) leaders, mainly its chair Lamichhane, had fiercely criticised leaders of traditional political forces and sought public support to remove them from power.

However, the RSP leaders are now accused of colluding with the same old parties and their leaders, especially the UML. The RSP is being criticised for supposedly trying to cover up the wrongdoings of their party president, Lamichhane, in lieu of covering up the UML’s wrongs over the tea estate.

Despite this allegation, some RSP lawmakers have been demanding an investigation into the tea estate scam. Manish Jha, the RSP joint spokesperson, has demanded an investigation on the matter.

“Though I only spoke as a lawmaker in Parliament, investigating the Giri Bandhu Tea Estate scam is our party’s official stance,” Jha told the Post.

Along with the RSP, a ruling partner in the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government of which the UML is the biggest constituent party, the CPN (Unified Socialist) has also demanded an inquiry into the scam.

“The party’s central committee has called for an inquiry into the tea estate scam,” Jagannath Khatiwada, the Unified Socialist spokesperson, told the Post. “An investigation must clarify whether this is a case of policy corruption.”

The UML legislators and leaders have been defending their leadership in the Giri Bandhu land swap scam even as the issue is being frequently raised in Parliament.

Speaking during the special time of the House of Representatives on June 4, lawmaker and UML Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai defended Oli, questioning what other parties’ lawmakers were doing while Parliament passed a bill related to the land swap.

“Parliament, in its previous term, enacted the law on the land swap following a Supreme Court order,” Bhattarai said. “While the law was being enacted, there was no opposition from any political party, not even the Congress.”

Bhattarai’s claim was challenged by Congress General Secretary Bishwa Parkash Sharma.

Sharma, addressing the House on June 6, spoke of how former Congress National Assembly member Radheshyam Adhikari had demanded that the provision related to land swap be amended, but how the bill nonetheless was passed by a majority.

Before that, when the same bill was introduced to the House of Representatives in 2018, Congress lawmakers including Dila Sangraula and Laxmi Pariyar had opposed it as well, Sharma added.

“I would like to remind you of this history… if you again claim that the Congress did not oppose the bill related to land swap,” Sharma said.

Earlier, when the Congress parliamentary party demanded an investigation into the decision-making related to the tea estate, the UML chair Oli had tried to deflect the blame on the Congress.

Addressing a parliamentary party meeting of the UML on May 15, Oli accused the Congress of selling 70 bigha of the tea estate in return for hefty commissions.

But as per the full verdict of the Supreme Court on the tea estate, the permission to sell 51 bigha of land was given a Cabinet decision on May 22, 1995 when then-UML chair Manmohan Adhikari led the government. The remaining 19 bigha was sold following a June 11, 2003 decision by the Surya Bahadur Thapa-led Cabinet that worked under the watch of King Gyanendra Shah.

The UML appears unable to provide a coherent response whenever the issue of Giri Bandhu tea estate comes up in Parliament. The opposition has presented factual challenges to attempts at refutation.

When questioned if the UML lawmakers and leaders have failed to defend the Oli-led government’s decision on the land swap, the party’s whip Sunita Baral said they have ample facts to present on the matter.

“Currently, we are discussing the budget in Parliament. We don’t want to distract the House by bringing up this issue now,” Baral told the Post. “But then, our party chair and other leaders have time and again spoken on this, and offered their clarifications. So we don’t understand why the issue continues to be raised in Parliament.”

Even the Congress, which has been vocal with its demand for an investigation into the tea estate scam, has not tried to strongly raise the issue of the erstwhile Oli government’s supposed complicity in the scam.

But Sushila Thing, the party’s whip, said that the matter has become a public issue following the Supreme Court’s verdict. “Therefore, it should not be only the Congress that should be raising the issue in Parliament,” Thing told the Post.

Gagan Thapa, the Congress’s other general secretary, has also called for patience. Speaking in Parliament on June 2, Thapa requested his party’s lawmakers to exercise restraint on the matter of Giri Bandhu tea estate.

“For the time being, let us remain silent on the issue as the Supreme Court has given a clear mandate to the government on the matter,” Thapa said. “Let us wait and see how the government implements the court’s decision.”