Finally get to hold ministers responsible in PP meeting
KATHMANDU, Jan 27: A meeting of the Parliamentary Party (PP) of the ruling coalition partner Nepali Congress held at the Parliament building on Sunday has opened the door for the party’s lawmakers to grill ministers from the party on various issues.
The party’s president Sher Bahadur Deuba had called a two-day PP meeting urging all the Members of Parliament (MP) from the party to display a united front of the party on the issue of ordinances recently brought forward by the ruling coalition. NC’s Chief Whip Shyam Ghimire informed Republica that the lawmakers were briefed on the winter session of the parliament, the government's activities and ordinances, and the strategy for a strong presence in the House.
The PP meeting was progressing under a regular routine planned by Deuba whereby the ministers from the party briefed the lawmakers on their respective ministry’s work and progress at the meeting without having to answer the queries from the lawmakers.
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However, the meeting took a sudden turn as Deuba’s move to bring three legal experts to justify the ordinances in the PP meeting courted displeasure from some of the lawmakers.
“Lawmaker Shankar Bhandari, in particular, abruptly interrupted the flow of the program and asked the top-leadership of the party for clarification on the capacity in which the legal experts were introduced to the PP meeting,” MP Ram Hari Khatiwada told Republica, “He also questioned whether the event was a PP meeting or a conference since there were experts in the meeting of the MPs.”
Nepali Congress has been embroiled in an ideological stand-off as two top-rung leaders of the party, MP Shekhar Koirala and MP Arjun Narsingh KC, have been publicly criticizing the coalition government’s move to issue ordinances when the winter session of the parliament draws close.
While Koirala is only slated to return to the capital from Biratnagar after the meeting, KC, who attended the meeting on Sunday, did not speak out against the party’s decision at the PP meeting.
MP Bhandari, who was previously close to party president Deuba, took the central stage on Sunday, even drawing comparison between the party’s recent activities to the partyless Panchayat system. “The party's activities of late have been nothing short of the autocracy in the Panchayat system,” Bhandari remarked, referring to Deuba’s directive on Saturday to the party’s lawmakers asking them to drop their personal opinion on the ordinances. “Are we reverting back?”
MP Khatiwada dealt the defining blow to the party’s leadership as he spoke out of turn after Energy Minister Deepak Khadka briefed the lawmakers of his ministry’s recent works and demanded a change in format of PP meetings.
“We need to get the opportunity to speak first, only then will the ministers be held responsible,” MP Khatiwada reportedly said.
As per chief whip Ghimire, after listening to the views of the lawmakers on the ordinance and the format of the PP meeting, the party leadership decided to let the lawmakers speak first on the second day of the PP meeting. He added that the change in format will stretch the meeting further.
