Former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana has reached 68 years of age. Our Prime Minister Balendra Shah has reached 36 years of age. There is widespread market talk that a young Prime Minister of about half his age feels a security threat from a retired former Chief Justice. The act of sending police to the former Chief Justice's home at midnight to take him into control and releasing him under the pretext of 'protective custody' after widespread opposition clearly exposes the narrow mindset and fear of the current state power.
After all, who obeys Mr. Cholendra? Who is he capable of influencing? At most, they might be those same judges, employees, or leaders of some party. But there is a famous proverb— 'Tie your own bag properly, do not accuse others of theft.' Today, all state bodies, power, and mechanisms are inside the Prime Minister's bag. The Prime Minister should be able to tighten his bag properly, rather than accusing former Chief Justice Cholendra of theft without reason. Cholendra is not a thief.
Even in an ordinary person's house, many friends and relatives come and go in times of joy and sorrow. Mr. Cholendra was the country's former Chief Justice. In Nepal, it is an old custom to visit somewhat influential people when facing hardship or injustice. People coming to meet him is nothing unusual. On the other hand, our Prime Minister has his own nature— he hardly meets the public and journalists, and rumor has it that after 5 PM, he spends time playing with his daughter at home. I also do not have a nature to meet many people, but not everyone's style is the same.
Arresting Mr. Cholendra simply because friends and relatives came to visit him at his house, and troubling his relatives, is completely wrong. Such actions of causing unnecessary harassment and trouble to retired officials must stop. The current governance should be run like 'Ram Rajya' as spoken in speeches by Prime Minister Balendra Shah and Rastriya Swatantra Party Chairman Rabi Lamichhane before the election. Is this the dream of good governance shown during the election?
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Right now, talk is peaking in the market that leaders of his own party and judges themselves will be arrested. If any political move is made, even Rabi Lamichhane is reportedly not safe! What will ultimately be the consequence of such terror?
Sending police at midnight to arrest someone without a warrant and later making the pretext of 'protective custody' is the style of old autocratic rulers, which has raised serious questions about the moral ground of the new government.
Can any government trample on constitutional values and principles, misuse administrative measures, and sideline figures in the political or judicial spheres in this manner?
If former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana was truly interfering in court cases or hatching a conspiracy against the state, formal legal charges should have been filed against him. This practice of keeping someone in illegal and informal custody poses a major threat to civil liberty itself.
