House Session

The House session has remained disrupted for over a month. As the winter session has not been prorogued yet, the budget session of the House cannot begin. In about two weeks’ time, the current fiscal year will end and the government cannot raise revenue or make any expenses unless the budget is presented before the parliament by July 15. It means time is running out for the political parties and they must find a way out to the House stalemate before it is too late.



The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) initially disrupted the House demanding rectification of a “mistake” committed by President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav in blocking the former government’s sacking of army chief Rookmangud Katawal.



Later on, it made concessions and said it just wanted to register a motion in the House against the president and was okay if the motion was defeated by a majority in the House. But 22 of 25 political parties represented in the House rejected any discussion on the motion since the case was already under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Now, according to media reports, the Maoists have shown even more flexibility and demanded a statement by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in the House expressing commitment to find a way out on the issue of the president’s move through a discussion among the major parties.



We welcome the display of flexibility by the Maoists but want to remind them that their demand was wrong in the first place. The president just took a political decision, on behalf of the 18 political parties who represented a majority in the House, and blocked the implementation of an unconstitutional move by the Maoist-led government. Therefore, there is no point dragging the president into this controversy.



That said, however, if the Maoists are looking for a face-saver, the other parties should not take it as their weakness and try to push them to the wall. Instead, the parties should also show flexibility and work to find out an amicable solution. Such a solution must be gracious enough toward the Maoists but it should also not try, in any way, to undermine the institution of the presidency. Institutions do not evolve overnight, nor do they grow on a legal or a constitutional premise alone. It’s the precedence, traditions and experience that shape up institutions over time, along with the legal and constitutional frameworks. But if we try to undermine the institution such as presidency at its infancy, it will hinder the evolution and growth of that institution. Since political differences are short-term, parties must learn to compromise on those issues and protect the sanctity of the institution that evolves over a longer period of time.

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