On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
The winter session of Parliament ended following continuous obstruction of the House meetings. The present budget session, also known as the spring session of the Federal Parliament, is also being obstructed by the Nepali Congress. The MPs are regularly receiving their salaries, allowances and other facilities but the PMs are found doing no job at all.
Above two dozen important bills are waiting for approval from the House. Just two or three bills have been endorsed by the House. The NC has obstructed the House meeting demanding a parliamentarian probe committee. The NC wants to topple the government and form another coalition government led by the party. If a parliamentary probe committee is formed by naming DPM and Home Minister, Rabi Lamichhane, for his involvement in the cooperative fraud case, he should quit the present post until finalization of the case. The NC believes that if Lamichhane is compelled to quit the post, the party led by him will also quit the government, and as a result, the present government will fail.
K.P. Oli and Pushpakamal Dahal want to save the present coalition government in any case and defend Lamichhane. The government side has agreed to form a parliamentary probe committee without mentioning the name of Rabi Lamichhane. In such a case, Lamichhane will not be compelled to quit the post. Even if Lamichhane is involved in the cooperative fraud case, by abusing his authority in the capacity of a home minister, he can get a clean chit. As the issue is related to the existence of the present coalition government, the tussle continues in the Federal Parliament. This is no more than a struggle to enjoy power. The political parties, by discarding important issues, have made the House of Representatives a hostage. At the time of writing this column, reports appeared that both sides finally agreed to form a parliamentary probe committee without naming Lamichhane. Be that as it may, this scribe believes that the MPs should work honestly on behalf of the nation and people.
Above half a dozen commissions related to the cooperatives’ fraud have been formed at different times and these commissions have submitted reports to address the problems that surfaced in the cooperatives. If those reports are implemented properly, overnight, the cooperatives’ problem will be resolved. Of late, a commission comprised of a team of experts in the cooperative field has submitted a report to Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal also. In the report, the constitution of three major organs has been recommended. They include a strong monitoring mechanism, the establishment of a savings and loan security fund and a debt recovery organ. If the government will form the three organs and blacklist those loan defaulters including the cooperative’s officials misusing the cooperatives fund, above 90 percent of the problems they have seen in cooperatives can be resolved. The government is reluctant to constitute such organs as many political leaders and influential cooperative operators will be eligible for punishment for misusing the cooperatives’ funds. There is a need for a strong and practical law instead of the formation of one after the commission and a parliamentary probe committee. The MPs should introduce a strong law by studying the past reports submitted by different commissions comprised of experts instead of obstructing the House meetings.
In all the seven provinces the game of toppling the government is on. Some chief ministers are assigning more ministers just to save their posts by neglecting the directives. Such chief ministers should get punished for violating and misusing the directives.
The main issue is that the House should function and the MPs should work for the nation and the people as they have been paid to work by the government. Either they should not take salaries and allowances if they don’t work, or they must work if they receive salaries and allowances. We don’t talk about any particular political party but if a party disturbs or obstructs the House meeting, the MPs belonging to the party should not get salaries and allowances. The industrial sector has introduced the policy of “no work, no pay”, which should be applied to the parliamentarians also.
The parliamentarians should not forget that their voters have elected them as their representatives to serve the people. The people’s representatives should not think that they are the boss but realize that they are the representatives elected by the people to serve the people and the nation. The people’s representatives should never think they are the boss but the servant.
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