Nepal, May 19 -- Considering the regular manner in which Prime Minister KP Oli defends individuals, he might be tempted to create and justify the new Ministry of Individual Defence exclusively to defend cabinet members and select party comrades in the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). Oli recently defended President Bidya Devi Bhandari when she addressed the joint parliament with a reference to "my government". A few days earlier, he had defended the NCP General-Secretary Bishnu Poudel. Previously, he absolved Rabindra Adhikary of any wrongdoing in the widebody aircraft purchase scam even before the panel he formed began its work.

Unbecoming would be an apt word to describe the disorderly manner in which some political appointees to governmen...