Kathmandu, March 24: Two youth leaders from two different political parties continue to clash in recent days. Both of them challenged each other, and tried to resurfacing their past deeds, good and bad. And, social media including online news portals, youtubers, X, facebook have been found full of derogatory comments.
Yes, we are talking about Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) President Rabi Lamichhane and Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa. These two young leaders have tried to prove their statement. The main issue was the involvement of Rabi Lamichhane in misappropriating the fund of a cooperative in Pokhara, the Suryadarshan Saving and Credit Cooperative Ltd. Thousands of depositor have been demanding to return their money, but the Chairman of that cooperative GB Rai have been absconding.
According to reports, GB Rai withdrew millions of Rupees from that cooperative and invested in the Gorkha Media Network in a suspicious manner, in which Rabi was the Managing Director and shareholder. The issue became more complicated as Rabi have been claiming that he didn’t know much about the cooperative previously and didn’t receive any single penny from the coopeative. He has repeatedly denied any involvement with the mishandling of the money.
However, Nepali Congress leaders have raised this issue in parliament saying it is “Conflict of Interest”. According to Congress leaders, as Rabi being the head of law enforcement of country, Minister of Home Affairs, he cannot fairly investigate the issue. Congress have been demanding to form a parliamentary probe committee to look this issue. Gagan Kumar Thapa, party General Secretary Bishwoprakash Sharma, and other young parliamentarians have been raising this issue in parliament repeatedly. Even they have blocked Rabi to stand in parliament podium and clarify his statement.
Furious Rabi has demanded that he was ready to face joint live debate, better in Kathmandu constituency 4, with Gagan Thapa. He has said, “Give me 9 minutes and 18 seconds. I will clarify everything.” During an address to the party cadres in Kathmandu on Saturday, Rabi has lambasted Nepali Congress, their leaders and cadres, activities, strategies, everything. He argued that Congress was dragging him unnecessarily into the battlefield. He alleged that Gagan and his team have tried to undermine his character in many fronts, including personal and political assassination.
More interesting to watch was the bleeding on social media platforms. Followers and supporters of both side have been clashing each other. They have begun attacking each other on personal level. Free flow of their misinformative contents, graphics, videos and AI generated cartoons, among others, have made the social sites a battlefield. The pouring of comments have showed that they were not ready to accept each other in near future.
Independent observers have taken this issue not based in a political and ideological one. Mostly, Rabi’s comments and his followers have been found more aggressive, provocative. They have also repeatedly been attacking Gagan Thapa in a personal level. They allege that Gagan Thapa was involved in an unfounded corruption case, particularly of taking money from government coffer for goat farming in the past. Gagan tried to clarify this issue several times, but Rabi and his goons take this issue in an intentional way. Even Rabi raised this issue on Saturday’s party program.
Nepali people have seen and respected both Rabi, Gagan and youth leaders from across different political parties as a future leader of the country. Nepal was waiting for a long time of young dynamic leaders. Instead of clashing, they need to forge broader alliance among the youth leaders. #Nepal
