Nepal's New Era Home Minister: Ravi Lamichhane

A young controversial figure but may just be the man for job at hand

Home Minister of a nation is responsible for Law and order, policing, internal security and stability. Includes modernizing police forces with weaponry and border security. Ministry of Home Affairs in Nepal is responsible for the following seven departments per wiki article :

• District Administration Office

• Immigration Department

• Prison Management Department¹

• Police Record Management Department

• National ID and Registration Department

• Armed Police Force

• Nepal Police

Nepal’s recent HM Ravi Lamichhane, personally a controversial figure, had his first shot to fame as the Guinness World Record holder of the longest news talk show on TV in Y2013. Since then, as a journalist he has often raised his vocal pitch against the establishment and inherent corruption—his staple course. Expect him to slowly come out of the perennial role. Therefore, a beginners’ remark of taking up an opposition role while in the cabinet. Just minor rookie mistakes first day on the job of a respectable position in a nation.

Some of us at NI did not think he was going to change and was merely posturing for his shot at fame, but maybe we were wrong. He’s now showing flickering signs of growing wiser, escaping the original slingshot pod with cartel claws all over it that brought him to fame in Nepal. Perhaps, a necessary step to climb up power corridors in Nepal, who knows. The fact that he’s left his past behind, in better hands now and moved on to serving nation in an official role is what interests us. His past association, a familiar territory, should also help him know what he has to guard Nepal against.

For now, we will leave out his typical job success KPIs since there’s pertinent Citizenship Law bill drafted that hasn’t been debated thoroughly to quench public’s thirst and therefore never fit to pass. Gauging his performance on tackling corruption by past personnel within his ministry’s ambit may help him score some political points and make some more enemies, but that will not be his true indicator since he may end up doing the dirty work of past politicians who were hesitant to bell the cat.

International cartel’s direct powers in Nepal are waning and their deep teeth in security establishment slowly blunted. He has to make sure their ugly heads don’t get a chance to rear or nourished under his tutelage and cut off any remaining tentacles within the organization. Only time will tell. For now, the servers have changed aprons, masked their faces and perhaps even adorned cold weather hats(monkey cap ) to let the cloud pass and strike when the time’s right. The bosses will be coming after their investments and change of hands could be obfuscated to slip under the radar . Protecting Nepal-ese/i citizens inside and outside is his primary role. Secondary role could be to make sure the nation’s soil is not used to cause harm to other nations. The plans hatched in Nepal could be both short term and long term. Keeping vigilance on the chameleons under whose directions Nepal almost had a close impact is paramount during his term.

His multiple marriages have been the talking point for his critics to bring him down and preach moral sanctity. The fact that he chose to get out of relationships that were not working instead of pretending to be in a relationship for papers only (assumption: he did not have dalliances outside marriage) is something we should credit him for his strong belief in an institution called marriage. By having multiple marriages he has not broken any prescribed rule—moral or official. Human moral rules of marriage prescribe not having an affair outside the marriage (duly found in the laws of most nations) but nothing about remaining in a single marriage for the rest of your life. Anyways, it’s his personal choice and we’re happy he’s not in a position to plaster marriage’s moral sanctity in public’s face.

People have found loopholes in marriage rules and developed nations have had to bear the most brunt for easy passage into their citizenship fold if not via asylum. Marriages are faked in Nepal openly in papers to travel abroad and there are household agencies finding partners, arranging wedding pictures and papers without qualms. In developed nations there are stories of immigrant non-homosexual people faking kiss in states where same sex marriage is allowed during visit by immigration officer for citizenship. This is how far it’s gone. This is not to take anything away from the genuine cases on all ends of relationship spectrum. We understand it’s not possible to inspect and snoop on bedrooms to verify. So, there you have it. The nuances! We hope citizenship issue is thoroughly debated inspecting all angles of marriage in Nepal instead of gauging from a narrow prism.

We don’t believe public will doubt his multiple marriages would hamper carrying out his official duties. He’s chosen by people in his constituency and come out a winner in the mudslinging fest during elections. So, the case can finally rest. That he has to deal with pressing Nepali Internal issues, modernized criminals and protect public from harms way in a critical modern history juncture is where our eyes will be set at.

The HM has East Nepal connections and hopefully understands how things work. We’ve spoken at length on East Nepal on our post here. His career background as a business owner and management in a corporate environment will come in handy to deal with some pressing issues. The location where he operated his business is close to the place where an incident made National Security a household name globally. So, he should be familiar with the Ops climate and everything that pertained to the incident. Again, a territory he should be familiar from Nepal’s perspective and may even help speed up Nepal agency investigation in that direction, make sure there’s no one using Nepali soil to project harm elsewhere—either in process or almost to a boiling point. We wouldn’t be too far away, if we declare him to be both, a victim and beneficiary, at various times. Just hope that the hearsay stories on wooden/bamboo dhat days of East Nepal borders help him with some inspiration.

Nepal Home Ministry’s past corruption was mainly in areas of personnel recruitment, under duress from bad politicians and agencies being run directly by handful of businessmen and their aides with cross border connections to silence competitors. This was rampant earlier but has waned in the last few years which is a promising sign. Corruption along border areas were on a totally different level. Border security has since tightened a lot and there are clearly visible processes in place to nab culprits and discourage border peddlers. However, border criminals have now diversified their skillset, made progress in the use of technology for reconnaissance, generational ground human informers have changed, informers now reside well outside the border perimeter or in a distant nation, have abandoned the usual currency exchange shops and added stealth humane layers to slip under the radar.

The hardest thing for an incumbent HM is to get the police fraternity talk against bad ex-bosses hand in glove with cartels. Their fear is understandably many fold. From fearing civil/intelligentsia stronghold, potential backlash from within the fraternity in sensitive matters during investigation, future missions abroad, inconvenient retirement and mostly the fear of record zero indictment in recent times by courts even when handful of cases made it that far. To add to that, most personnel have chosen to settle abroad in recent times making investigations difficult. Unless foreign agencies actively aid locale probes, coordinate foreign witnesses and furtherance, the cases won’t get far. Maybe it’s already in the works and those abroad are singing, who knows! You may likely hear murmurs and hearsay in public sphere and nothing more.

Metaverse Exhibit @ Interpol Conference

When public see corruption around them, especially from authorities, in the form of huge bungalows, multiple houses and huge land parcel, is when a nation’s corruption susceptibility and acceptability among her people increase. Apparently, the HM is in a position to run through a top-down model to root out corruption from the nation. A once in a lifetime chance to eradicate corruption and we can only hope he grabs it with both hands and makes optimal use. The best part, he only has to start with cases pertaining to the retired ones, not any of his making, and use his current staff as informers and encourage them to come forward to build a tight knit case that stands a chance in the court of law. Goes without saying that the first move should be a clarion call to return all illicit properties/wealth back to GoN just like requesting extra staff recall. Explanations such as offspring overseas sent money, ancestral wealth etc., are ancient eyewash reasons for disproportionate asset cases used by over 99% government employees in Nepal. Don’t take our word, just look it up. Back of the envelope calculation should provide the HM answers to why this is the most stupid reason and why this has stuck for so long. Anyways, we’ll leave the nitty gritty of investigation & indictment details to the capable agencies.

Nepal & South Asian politics have been playing in the streets of foreign shores for over two decades now. It was only a matter of time before it took an ominous form. We will do a detailed post on all forms once we collect more hard facts from victims all over and that may be a while. Meanwhile, Nepal embassy staffs in other nations are proactively touring with a secured computer system in a briefcase to collect information on citizens of Nepali/ese origin. So, there’s proactive steps being taken at the moment to gather detailed information on citizens and not just head count. Important to note that before Citizenship Bill discussions start at home there’s work being carried out on all immigration fronts.

With over 30% of the population temporarily/permanently residing overseas, Nepal’s already global and people’s reaction to events here as foreign nation directed has been overplayed almost every time. The fact is, every indicator of this nation is foreign, including finance, people, food, culture and anything you can think of. We don’t know how else to put it! Anything that happens here has global implications and vice-versa. It’s imperative for the HM of this nation to be very well versed in the type of actions carried out in Nepal soil for global incidents. More true for modern digital era when criminals are actively looking for safer jurisdiction for human pawns & physical server implant.

Expect there to be some turbulence in some quarters of the media, ill-intentioned INGOs, entertainment and a few other cover fire experts using service as obfuscator for a different end in cahoots with police fraternity of the past.

The climate man, Mr. Arnico Pandey, is apparently a guiding figure of the party the HM (The Weather Man ⬇️) belongs to and understands the geo-political climate. We suspect the party to be a bucket for Nepali diaspora, those returning back after their sojourn overseas and rendered politically independent. So, HM’s in good hands. Dr. Pandey can make up for loose talk volleys HM may deliver at times since he has a voracious appetite for verbal volleys and could easily slip.

It’s in his party’s interest to go hammer and tongs on all sides of the isle and have the climate man stand with an oversized fishing net. Sounds like he already has multiple nets handy including a baseball catchers glove( In cricket: Wicket Keeper Gloves) and have quietly netted some already. Should keep other mainstream political parties on their toes which is good for Nepal’s political climate and an interesting time for social media in Nepal. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for drama in disguise from a closed door session ready made for viewers delight.

Nepal’s citizenship bill debates in the parliament should be an interesting one with the HM at the center of it. Birthright citizenship prevails anytime one gives up his/her naturalized citizenship. One doesn’t become citizenship-less in the middle of a process. So the technicality for his disqualification will likely not hold ground in this case either. The moment he gives up his US citizenship, he automatically becomes sole Nepali citizen holder by birth with no conflicts to current Nepal dual citizenship clause. Also, there’s no retrospect angle on citizenship rules. Regardless, the issue should be thoroughly debated to include all use cases and see which ones are likely to be misused to harm Nepal. The sword of scrutiny will be constantly hanging over his head, so he has all the incentives to do good for the nation. We wish him and his party all the best!

PS : The thumbnail image of the HM in this post is from Online Khabar.

1. Two notable releases from Nepal’s prisons for context before HM Lamichhane took over: Charles Shobraj and Resham Chaudhary