From the Nepali Press
Editorial in Kantipur, 27 September
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has once more overstepped its mandate, this time to smear Social Science Baha and the Alliance for Social Dialogue (ASD) with unsubstantiated charges of ‘irregularities’. This fits the pattern with which the CIAA has been hounding other institutions and individuals in the past the purpose of which seems to be to harm their credibility and the respect they have gained in intellectual circles.
The CIAA is not sanctioned to investigate private or non-government institutions, the Constitution only gives it the right to look into corruption by public officials. If there is a need to investigate an NGO, the right body to do that is the Social Welfare Council. But in clear violation of the Constitution the CIAA has been looking into the activities of NGOs, banks and private sector entities which, just like the accusations against Social Science Baha and the ASD, are prejudiced. The CIAA has no business interfering with academic institutions whose job it is to use donor support to fund research and in academic exercise and to foster debate on public policy.
The CIAA has selectively used details contained in documents furnished by the ASD and Baha itself, and pretending that they were uncovered during investigations made the charges through a public statement. The CIAA has thus violated laws of protection of privacy with the intention to defame them. The role of thinktanks like ASD and the Baha in supporting pluralism and generating ideas is important to address some of the distortions during this political transition to support democratic process.
It is unfortunate that a responsible state institution like the CIAA is seen to be against the values of democracy. The Commission should now apologise to the ASD, Baha and other organisations that it has been targeting, and to desist from repeating such activities in future.
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I am sure in other countries these bodies have flaws…Here however the culture of patronizing basically ignorant people obviously does not work for those who practice their hard earned democratic talents. Rights but here no one has rights or money or a good job.
30 000 deaths is over 3 times the Earthquake by mao and military together.
That weak institutions with incompetent people or puppet governments arise makes sense. In my opinion you are in for a journalism prize, prophets are never applauded at home. These will be the years of fed up and truth, it gets to a point where we ask to be jailed for THEIR IDIOCY.
Make the Ministry of Peace better Pacification. If this is Peace I am Supergirl. Seeing Prachandra visitin Xi and Modi dressing up for the same, makes the stomach turn around, Modi shot Naxalites, yet they all have faith in chinese money which is already less and less….the real people need brave journalists. Keep it up, there is something rotten in the state of Nepal.