Shankar Pokharel Strongly Criticizes the Working Style of the Rastriya Swatantra Party

May 10, Kathmandu – Shankar Pokharel, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), has expressed strong criticism towards the working style of the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party. On Friday, through his Facebook post, without directly naming the party, he reacted to the slogan “Select the knowledgeable,” sharply criticizing the working methods of new political parties and their leaders. Pokharel described these emerging forces’ practices as “hypocrisy” and an “institutionalized form of corruption.” He emphasized that while it is essential to eliminate the weaknesses of old parties and leadership for good governance and rapid development, it is utterly unacceptable for new parties to forget these past shortcomings and perpetuate misconduct.

In his Facebook post titled “The Corruption Behind ‘Selecting the Knowledgeable’,” Pokharel claimed that the true nature of the slogans used by new parties, including the Rastriya Swatantra Party, is gradually becoming apparent. He accused these so-called new powers of normalizing acts hostile to the country and treating destructive crimes against the state as acts of bravery. “If this is what ‘selecting the knowledgeable’ means, then it is not meritocracy but hypocrisy. It is an institutionalized form of arbitrariness, bias, and corruption,” he wrote. This strong response from the General Secretary comes amid reported amendments in the budget bill and recent controversies linked to new political parties.

Pokharel elaborated, “The revelation behind ‘selecting the knowledgeable’ is that the slogan’s reality is gradually surfacing. There is a tendency to normalize actions harmful to the country, view destructive crimes against the state as courageous acts, legalize self-interested arrangements, unlawfully tamper with sensitive documents such as the budget bill, attribute illegal sources of wealth to systemic weaknesses, excuse their people through flimsy justifications, and try to blame others.” He added, “If this is what ‘selecting the knowledgeable’ represents, it is not ability but hypocrisy—an institutionalized form of arbitrariness, bias, and corruption. While it is essential to remove the past deficiencies for good governance and rapid development, the wrongdoings done under new names, causing those past lapses to be overlooked, are completely unacceptable.”