The UML holds the ironic record of disrupting the Parliament for the longest period in Nepal's history
Scuffles broke out in the Parliament on that unfortunate Thursday afternoon last week when the parliamentarians of the Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML), the dominant member of the governing coalition led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal of Maoist Centre (MC), created a rather unpleasant scene by resorting to pull and push behaviour against the Nepali Congress (NC). The NC was stalling the House demanding the creation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the alleged involvement of the Home Minister and President of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Rabi Lamicchane on the cooperative scam. The general practice is that the opposing group sits quietly during such disruptions until the issue is solved through mutual agreement.
Similar events had also occurred in the past when they were resolved through the formation of such a committee in two cases. Firstly, Ram Sharan Mahat, then the finance minister in 1997, was suspected of owning an illegal foreign exchange account in a New York bank. Secondly, former finance minister Janardan Sharma was accused of permitting an outsider during the highly confidential budget preparation in 2023. Both the ministers had resigned to facilitate the investigation. They were reinstated to their former posts after being found innocent. The steadfast reluctance of Lamichhane in a similar, if not identical, case had forced the NC to go for this undesirable step of disrupting the Parliament.
That the event will lead to this alarming end was widely speculated after the former prime minister and UML President K P Sharma Oli had virtually instigated his party parliamentarians a day before not to remain a mere spectator should a similar event occur in the Parliament. What was suspected came to be true due to his mobilisation of UML parliamentarians by standing from his seat when such a revered politician is expected to diffuse such conflicting events.
Stalling of the Parliament has been a regular phenomenon in this part of the world. India is said to have wasted one third of the time by meeting for only 70 days in 2012. However, there are some good examples, such as the UK House of Commons which generally ensures that the debate goes underway for a full 140 days. The Nepali Parliament has been almost imitating its southern neighbour than emulating the United Kingdom acknowledged as the mother of parliamentary democracy.
The reasons behind the disruptions are believed to be many, and they consist of discussion on matters of controversy, grandstanding by the leaders and members of the opposition, evasion of responsibility by the ruling party as disruptions sometimes help towards this end, lack of dedicated time for unlisted discussion and scarce resort to disciplinary powers. Several measures have been recommended, for example, stopping the live telecast at such times as the parliamentarians try to make a show to their voters about their active dealing in the Parliament. The recording of the Parliamentary Disturbance Index and the Productivity Meter are some other suggestions made to minimise such incidents.
The disruptions at times lead to scuffles as could be seen last Thursday, and its history goes back to a long time in the past. In 1856, when we in Nepal had just established one of the early schools of Nepal, Durbar School, Perston Brooks of Carolina attacked Charles Summar of Massachusetts, US, who was almost done to death. Taiwan is said to be the most notorious country in terms of such incidents occurring every now and then for being more visible among the voters for more votes in the future.
In Nepal, the briefcase of Surendra Pandey, then the finance minister, was broken while he was on his way to present the annual budget in 2009. Similarly, violence broke out in the Parliament when the government led by the NC was out to pass the constitution on January 20, 2015. This is the third instance of its kind in the history of post-1990 democracy era in Nepal.
Such incidents are liable to be investigated as per the regulation entitled Parliamentary Behaviour. There is a provision of a Parliamentary Monitoring Committee to look after the undesirable behaviour of the parliamentarians under the Speaker of the Parliament as its chair along with the leader of the Opposition and the parliamentarians in para 220 of the Parliament Regulations. However, this paragraph has been ignored, encouraging impunity even after the occurrence of such stigmatic incidents.
Both the parties have agreed to form a committee as it invariably happens after the occurrence of such unwarranted events. But the bone of contention has been the disagreement of the UML and the RSP to name the Home Minister as against the steadfast standing of the NC to do the same. It may be remembered that several people have lost the earning of their life time due to some cooperatives' office bearers like Mr. G. B. Rai and Lamicchane allegedly siphoning money to their pocket. It is strange that Lamichhane pleaded innocence in the face of several authenticated documents to the contrary during his address in the Parliament.
The UML holds the ironic record of disrupting the Parliament for the longest period in Nepal's history. Firstly, it stalled the parliament for 57 days in 2001 demanding the resignation of then prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Secondly, it obstructed the Parliament for eight months between September 2021 and May 2022, protesting against then Speaker Agni Sapkota for not expelling 14 of its legislators who had defected to the Madhav Kumar Nepal group. Moreover, it had protested for the formation of the Parliamentary Committee to look into such episodes in the past, which the NC had willingly done. The UML and consequently the RSP and MC have thus been caught in an uneasy soup for condemning the NC for something that it itself had done in the past thereby hilariously seeking to use one rule for oneself and another for others.
