OBSERVATION

UML must answer queries of the people

Once more arch rivals the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) seem to be heading for a confrontation. This time the UML has made what its leaders call the “irregularities” in the last General Election as its main issue to start protests in the House and probably in the streets too.

Last week House proceedings were stopped for three days in a row. First the UML MPs did not allow any others to speak and then they walked out en masse. The other opposition parties followed suit. And even on Sunday (yesterday), the UML MPs once more boycotted the meeting when the special session was about to start. Before that, the Zero Hour was smoothly conducted and most of the time during this period was spent in discussing whether the action of the opposition MPs was correct or not.        For the past couple of days, the UML and other opposition legislators have been demanding a Parliamentary Investigation Committee to look into what they claim to be the unfair means that were resorted to during the election.

It may be mentioned that just a few days before the shouting match and then the boycotts started, UML General Secretary Madhav Nepal had given a moving speech and reminded everyone not to undermine the dignity of the Parliament. He had sternly said the Parliament is no place to crack jokes and discuss matters lightly. If readers remember, just a few days before Mr. Nepal made such a righteous speech, Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai had made some funny remarks in the House and once he was also virtually booed  out when he appeared in a casual Indian type attire while discussion was going on.

So what Madhav Nepal said made sense.  Also, observers were feeling nothing constructive was being done by the newly elected MPs, on whom the people had pinned so much faith. Apart from regular business, that also completed in the presence of very little MPs, pressing matters were not being discussed.

But even at that time some political analysts had wondered whether the righteous speech of the UML General Secretary meant that the House was going to see some tumultuous scenes in the near future. If one looks at the history of the Parliament in the last ten years since multi-party democracy was re-established in the country, then it can be seen that the UML MPs have been the most boisterous lot and they have even resorted to violence in the House premises.

Last week the scene was virtually repeated with no other than UML leader Madhav Nepal starting the hot discussion regarding the Parliamentary Investigation Committee. Vernacular Gorkhapatra daily reported that Madhav Nepal himself broke the mike at the rostrum. But the UML MPs protested strongly the next day and none less than the Minister for Information and Communication Purna Bahadur Khadka, who also holds the powerful Home Ministry portfolio, came and apologised in the House for the news, as Gorkhapatra belongs to the government.

There have been no House proceedings after that. Newspaper reports say that if the Government does not agree to the demand of the UML, which has been supported by the other smaller opposition parties, then the party will take the protest to the streets also.

It can be seen that the UML is spoiling for a fight with the government. It probably has realised that it simply cannot sit back and play the role of a docile opposition party even as its supporters expect something concrete from it.

To remind readers, the three year old Girija Prasad Koirala government which had taken over after the first General Election way back in 1991, had been troubled right from the beginning by the UML, which at that time was also the main opposition party. There were many violent strikes including the one questioning the death of the then UML General Secretary Madan Bhandari and Jeev Raj Ashrit who died in a jeep mishap. A lot of lives and property were lost and the country was pulled towards confusion and fear. But years later, now it can be realised that the UML leaders had gone off half cocked and incited their supporters without much basis. For the very same leaders who said in their speeches at the Open Air Theatre in Tundikhel in front of thousands of supporters that they knew who killed Madan Bhandari, could do nothing and not produce the killers when they were in power not once but twice.

Are the people being duped again with the election irregularity slogan? This observation cannot be shrugged off, as everyone knows that the UML itself was in the government which conducted the election. Then its own leaders congratulated the government for carrying out the election successfully. International and local observers said by and large the election was fair and peaceful. Also, the UML has already called itself the main opposition party after the result of the very election they are questioning. And lastly, why this sort of a demand some three months after the election has been over? The UML cannot escape from answering these queries of the people.

There is no time, for both the government and the opposition to indulge in immature and irresponsible activities like that were seen in the past. The nation just can’t afford such things. After a great set back, there finally is a majority government and it must be allowed to function smoothly without silly interruptions.  Yes, the opposition can play a constructive role by pointing out the faults of the government when it makes one, but by digging up an incident in which it itself was a party, the nation will not move ahead. Let us hope the government and the main opposition party will thrash out the differences between them as responsible parties and not bring obstacles in the development efforts of the country.