Kathmandu, November
Nepali Congress General Secretary Pradip Paudel has dismissed claims that the party paid money to secure its legal recognition, describing the allegations as fabricated and politically motivated.
Speaking at a programme organised by the Nepali Congress Regional Committee for Chitwan Constituency-1 in Ratnanagar on Friday, Paudel accused unnamed actors of deliberately targeting the party and attempting to cast doubt on its legal status.
“It is being claimed that the Nepali Congress paid money to obtain legal recognition. A particular character has been brought forward to spread this fabricated story,” Paudel said.
He argued that if the party had secured its legal recognition through such payments, it would not now be in a position to raise some of the strongest voices against the government.
Paudel said the Nepali Congress had consistently questioned what he described as excesses by those in power, with party president Gagan Thapa leading the criticism.
“If anyone in this country has spoken out against the excesses of those in power, it is the Nepali Congress and Gagan Thapa,” he said.
Paudel also suggested that the ruling side was concerned about the Nepali Congress ahead of the upcoming local elections and was therefore trying to spread confusion over the party’s legal status.
He argued that if the party had committed any wrongdoing, the government would have seized the opportunity to raise the issue politically.
Referring to an audio recording purportedly containing a statement by Inam Sapkota, who is in police custody, Paudel questioned why the police had not publicly confirmed that the recording contained Sapkota’s statement.
“If the ruling side considers the Nepali Congress a threat in the upcoming local elections, would it have allowed such a major issue to go unchallenged if we had actually done something wrong?” he asked.
Paudel alleged that the authorities were keeping the matter unclear by preventing police from issuing a statement about the recording.
He said that if the allegations in the audio were true, the government would have instructed police to promptly investigate, record a statement and present the case in court.
“If it were true, those in power would have told the police to record the statement quickly and take the case to court,” he said.
Claiming that the government exercised control over various state institutions, Paudel argued that if there were evidence to substantiate the allegations against the Nepali Congress, the authorities would not have waited this long to act.
“If there were evidence, would they have waited this long?” he asked.
