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Kathmandu Friday April 06, 2001 Chaitra 24, 2057.
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19th session prorogued Parliament ends sans a single ‘working day’
By Damakant Jayshi
KATHMANDU, April 5 – The Nepali
parliament set history today with the curtain coming down on the 19th Session of the
parliament, billed as the "working session" but without a single "working
day", during the last 57 days since it convened on February 8.
Even as the opposition members once again
walked out today with yet another boycott, Speaker Taranath Ranabhat, read out His Majesty
the King’s letter that effectively prorogued the House from today.
Ranabhat also had his own written speech to
read out to the House completely left vacant by the opposition lawmakers.
Repeated efforts notwithstanding, said the
Speaker, the disruption could not be avoided. He termed the disruption as unfortunate and
left it to be judged by history.
Criticizing the lawmakers vaguely, Speaker
Ranabhat said that the House and the lawmakers failed to realize the pain and frustration
afflicted to the people due to lack of any discussion on so many pending issues of public
interest.
He expressed hope that this situation
(prolonged disruption) would not arise in future.
Similarly, the Upper House too was prorogued
today. Chairman Dr Mohammad Mohsin called upon both the government and the opposition to
follow a minimum code of conduct as far as their actions in the House were concerned.
This Winter Session came a cropper with the
opposition parties disrupting both the Houses of the parliament, demanding Prime Minister
Girija Prasad Koirala’s resignation for his alleged complicity in the infamous
RNAC-Lauda Air jet lease deal.
Barring the inaugural day on February 8, the
session was marred either by sloganeering or boycott by the opposition parties. Many Bills
and ordinances, some of them of far-reaching consequences, could not be taken up for
discussion.
Former Prime Minister and veteran Nepali
Congress leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai sarcastically remarked today that it was an
achievement of sorts that the House "functioned" for so long despite the
opposition’s united disruption.
After the proroguement, came the usual
trading of charges on the workless working session. Deputy Prime Minister and Home
Minister Ram Chandra Poudel squarely blamed the opposition for the parliament’s
failed business. "Anywhere in the parliamentary system, we do not find such a
situation. History has been created with not a single day devoted to regular
business," said Poudel.
The DPM added that the parliament failed to
live upto its expectation with so many important legislations pending in the House.
"While the opposition disrupted the House by raising the issue of corruption, they
did not cooperate with the government in passing a Bill dealing with corruption."
He also said that it was essential to pass
the two ordinances on APF and regional administrators mainly aimed at maintaining law and
order in the country. Asked about the fate of the ordinances that are about to lapse on
April 8, the DPM said they had life until Sunday and declined to spell out the
government’s next move.
Leader of the opposition and General
Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), Madhav Kumar Nepal
criticized the government for proroguing the House. "If they had to prorogue the
House without conducting any regular business, why did not they do it so one and a half
month earlier?" When asked whether the opposition’s disruption had made the
session unproductive, the General Secretary replied: "We had never said that we would
not allow taking up of regular business. If the PM had resigned, the House could have
functioned normally."
However, Badri Prasad Mandal, parliamentary
party leader of Nepal Sadbhawana Party accused the UML of disrupting the House for so long
and unproductively. "We too had boycotted the House as we did not want the ordinances
to be passed. But we did not want the House to be stalled on the issue of corruption as
there are bodies to deal with it." Regarding PM’s resignation, he said that the
opposition should have taken recourse to constitutional means to oust the PM Koirala.
Justifying the opposition’s disruption
of the House, General Secretary of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Pashupati SJB Rana remarked
that the opposition resorted to extraordinary form of protest since the ordinary protests
failed to yield any result. Assessing the opposition’s "achievements", Rana
said that the government’s failure on fulfilling its commitments was highlighted and
the government was forced to listen to the opposition.
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