By Our Reporter
The Nepali Congress has been demanding a parliament committee to investigate the alleged involvement of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane in cooperative frauds since the winter session of the parliament has been regularly obstructing the House proceedings both in the House of Representatives and the National Assembly.
Of late, other opposition parties including the Rastriya Prajatantra Party have also started obstructing the House putting forth the demand for the formation of the parliament committee on Lamichhanwe. However, the ruling parties, specially, the CPN-UML and the Rastriya Swatantra Party have been against the formation of the committee against Lamichhane. Although Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal asserted to the Nepali Congress leaders that he would form the committee, and a committee was formed accordingly. However, the committee failed to finalise the Terms of References of the committee when the RSP did not agree to mention the name of DPM Lamichhane in it. By the time this news report was prepared, the parties were unable to reach a consensus on the ToR.
When the parties were yet to finalise the ToR of the Committee and the Nepali Congress warned of obstructing the House until the TOR is finalized, the Prime Minister decided to take the vote of confidence on Monday and he took it by mobilising marshals in the sovereign House amid protest from the NC and other parties. The situation was no different on Tuesday either. The speaker continued the House proceeding amid obstruction.
The event of Sunday has further polarised the parties into two opposition directions. It means the NC will continue to obstruct the House unless its demand for the committee is addressed. This will affect the proceedings of the House. Even the government has to depend on marshals, not lawmakers, to present the budget next week, or it should bring it through ordinance if the parties do not finalise the ToR of the committee.
Although the budget could be presented through an ordinance, the obstructed parliament cannot discuss and endorse the Bills. Although the government may use marshals in the Lower House to forcefully pass the Bills, it cannot use marshals in the parliament committee as well as in the Upper House, where the bills need to be discussed. It means the House will be unable to discuss and pass any bills until the obstruction continues.
As such, the ruling parties need to address the demands of the opposition parties at any time. But now it is not easy because of the remarks of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday. While seeking the vote of confidence, Dahal said that NC would face consequences of the obstruction. The NC may ask the PM to withdraw the statement. As such, the impasse in the parliament may not end soon, and it will fail to finalise many of the pending bills.
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