KATHMANDU, August 18: Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Ashika Tamang has objected to the Speaker telling her to “maintain decorum,” saying it is her responsibility to demand answers from the government on issues affecting the public.
Speaking during Monday’s House of Representatives meeting, Tamang raised the issue of bringing home the bodies of Nepalis who died abroad. She said she had exercised patience and restraint for 37 days while repeatedly seeking the repatriation of Santosh Rai’s body from Cambodia, but the problem had still not been resolved.
“The Speaker tells me to maintain decorum. Do the patience and restraint I have shown for 37 days not count as maintaining decorum?” she asked.
Life and patience
Tamang said she had repeatedly visited government offices with members of the victim’s family in an effort to resolve the matter.
“Didn’t I go to ministries, the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and the counsellor’s office, sometimes with the victim’s wife and sometimes with his father?” she said.
She said simply nodding and saying “yes” to whatever the Speaker says does not constitute decorum for her. When delays prevent the resolution of people’s problems, she said, it is her responsibility to seek answers from the government through Parliament.
“Yesterday, when the opposition criticised the Speaker without reason, I was among the first to raise a point of order. Today, when there has been a delay in addressing a public issue, I have only sought an answer through the Speaker in Parliament,” she wrote on social media.
Tamang stressed that the government must remain accountable for every issue affecting the public.
She has repeatedly raised in Parliament the problem of repatriating the bodies of Nepalis stranded abroad. Although the Finance Ministry has allocated funds for bringing home the bodies, the money has not been implemented because the necessary procedures have not yet been established.
Following her continued pressure, Speaker Dol Prasad Aryal has directed the government to respond within three days to the issues raised by lawmakers Tamang and Gopal Sharma.
