Deputy Speaker's Letter Incident: Actions Tarnishing the Dignity of Parliament and Position

Santosh Acharya

The time was around 3 PM. The date was the 30th of Asar. I received a letter from an acquaintance. Upon studying the letter, I was startled. It was sensitive as well, as it pertained to the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Indira Rana.

The letter was written by Deputy Speaker Rana to the Counselor General of the American Embassy, requesting to advance the interview dates for visas for herself and six other individuals, for an upcoming event in the United States.

The context was that from March 6 to March 17, 2023 (Fagun 22 to Chait 3, 2079), the United Nations mechanism 'Commission on the Status of Women, NGO CSW-67' was scheduled to be held in New York, USA. Deputy Speaker Rana had received an invitation to participate in the event.

It was not unusual for her to request an advancement of the visa interview date to attend the scheduled program she was invited to. However, her intentions were questionable—using her office's letterhead, she recommended five unrelated individuals for visa interview advancements.

Although the event was related to women's rights activism, she recommended one woman and four men who had no connection to the program. Her intention to take these five individuals to the United States by communicating with the embassy through an official letter indicated her wrongful intent. It was not difficult to understand that these five individuals intended to overstay in the United States. Perhaps the American Embassy also sensed something suspicious in this recommendation, as they neither provided interview dates nor visas for these five individuals. While she mentioned in the letter that the program was extremely important for all six individuals, only Deputy Speaker Rana received a visa.

On February 26, 2023 (Fagun 14, 2079), Deputy Speaker Rana sent the letter to the embassy. Although the five recommended individuals did not receive interview dates, Deputy Speaker Rana did get her visa and traveled to the United States on March 10 via Qatar Airways. After a week-long visit, she returned to Nepal.

Deputy Speaker Rana wrote the letter to the embassy recommending Upendra Gautam, Sushma Lama, Rajesh Lama Tamang, Sujan Gharti Magar, and Dhanprasad Gurung to attend the program. The passport numbers of these five individuals are secured with Farakdhar.

The visa process for parliament officials, members, and staff is usually handled by the International Contact and Coordination Division of the Parliament Secretariat through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is the tradition. However, it was inappropriate for Deputy Speaker Rana to write the letter herself to advance the visa process for unrelated individuals. This clearly shows her ill intention.

On Asar 30, when Farakdhar contacted Deputy Speaker Rana to confirm the authenticity of the letter, her secretariat promised to verify and inform. When no response came, Farakdhar sent a message to her mobile, to which she replied, "I have been traveling to the USA since 2007. I have never recommended anyone. If someone wants to follow me without any reason, I have nothing to say."

The news published by Farakdhar on Asar 30 created a stir. After verifying that the letter was indeed written by Deputy Speaker Rana, various media outlets began publishing the news three days later. Four days after Farakdhar's publication, on Sawan 4, Deputy Speaker Rana issued a press release. In the release, she claimed that she had not done anything to tarnish the dignity of the Federal Parliament and her position as Deputy Speaker.

Despite her emotional defense, she admitted to writing the letter. Initially, she denied recommending anyone in her response to Farakdhar. There were already rumors within the Rastriya Swatantra Party (Raswapa) that she had taken money to facilitate the travel of those five individuals to the United States. The individuals concerned had made verbal complaints to Raswapa, stating that they had paid 900,000 NPR per person but did not receive visas.

Party leaders, including Chairman Ravi Lamichhane, were aware of Deputy Speaker Rana's inappropriate actions. However, Raswapa chose to keep the matter confidential. To this day, Raswapa has dismissed the issue as a conspiracy by old parties and political revenge, continuing to defend itself with such clichéd comments.

Deputy Speaker Rana, elected from the proportional representation of Raswapa from Shanishchare, Jhapa, had written the letter to the embassy a month after being elected as Deputy Speaker on Magh 7, 2079.

Initially, Deputy Speaker Rana denied to the party apparatus, including the Speaker, that she had recommended anyone to the embassy. But after Farakdhar published the letter with no discrepancies, she admitted to writing it.

The question arises, isn't this an abuse of the Deputy Speaker's position? Wasn't she attempting human trafficking by playing with the dreams of those hoping to go to the USA and taking substantial amounts of money? The letter itself reveals the truth, which she has admitted. It is hard to believe that Deputy Speaker Rana did not know it was inappropriate to recommend unrelated individuals using the office letterhead.

Deputy Speaker Rana is implicated in an unsuccessful human trafficking attempt. How can she enter Parliament with such a record? She has lost the moral ground to instruct other members to maintain decorum. In this situation, the best option for Deputy Speaker Rana is to resign on moral grounds.