LETTERS OF DISCREDIT

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When smart-talking Ram Sharan Mahat finally quit on 31 July, with some opposition prodding, he became Nepal´s first-ever Finance Minister to resign over allegations of "financial irregularity". Mr Mahat had failed to notify Nepal´s central bank of a New York bank account which contained his earnings (USD 46,846) from a stint with the United Nations.

While this "irregularity" bore no resemblance to the ill-gotten amassing of wealth of many a Nepali "power centre", it was the appearance of impropriety—a finance minister flouting the very regulations he is supposed to uphold—which proved the ambitious Mr Mahat´s undoing. It did not matter, in this instance, that the Foreign Currency Regulations Act 1962 is an anachronistic law from a different era, meant to keep hard currency within the country back when no one believed that Nepalis were capable of earning money abroad.

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Himal Southasian
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