Unruly scenes in House; budget shelved

KATHMANDU: The greatest ever parliamentary drama was staged in the House today, to say the least, while the finance minister was on his way to table the long overdue budget for this fiscal.

Unified CPN-Maoist lawmakers not only obstructed him from getting to the rostrum but also snatched the briefcase containing copies of the annual budget Finance Minister Surendra Pandey was carrying.

Rajkaji Maharjan, Chandra Bahadur Thapa and Lekhraj Bhatta of the UCPN-Maoist snatched the briefcase just as Speaker Subas Nembang gave a nod to Pandey to table the budget late midnight.

The Maoist lawmakers returned the ‘damaged briefcase’ later to Pandey, who levelled charges against the Maoists, saying, “They committed a crime by disclosing the secret document of the state before it could be presented.”

Pandey said disclosure of the unpublished budget estimates could have serious implications in revenue collection as all the customs points had been sealed today in the wake of scheduled budget presentation.

What was a bit shameless on the part of lawmakers of ruling and opposition parties, they engaged in a scuffle for about six minutes before the Speaker adjourned the House till December 2. The 17th prime ministerial run-off is scheduled for the same day.

A few lawmakers and ministers, including Pandey and Energy Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat, sustained minor injuries in the scuffle.

Today’s House session was delayed by almost nine hours, as leaders from the ruling and main opposition parties kept struggling to reach an understating on tabling the budget. But, it still seems that they made a complete mockery of ‘understanding’ on November 15.

In a briefly-held press conference after today’s House pandemonium, ministers termed the Maoist behaviour ‘barbaric’ and said the Maoists ‘were hell-bent on making the mockery of democracy, peace process and the constitution’.

The government also drew Speaker Nembang’s attention towards his failure to issue a ruling to the marshals to control the Maoist lawmakers, who went unruly. However, the ministers present at the press meet said the Speaker was ‘saddened’ by the incident.

The political parties backing the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government issued a statement condemning the Maoists’ boisterous behaviour. An emergency Cabinet meeting was also held to take stock of the situation immediately late in the night. The ministers said the government would bring the budget at any cost but did not say how and when.

Earlier on November 15, top leaders of the three major parties had agreed to bring the budget on consensus basis and the parties had assigned three former finance ministers — Baburam Bhattarai, Ram Sharan Mahat and Bharat Mohan Adhikari — to do the groundwork on tabling the budget.

They had agreed not to bring any new programme apart from regular expenditures, the ongoing programmes and new programmes to be signed with donor agencies. An agreement to make some changes in revenue collection was also reached.

The former finance ministers had also agreed to amend the interim constitution by adding a new clause in the Article 96 (a), allowing the government to present a full budget.

The Maoists had also agreed to let the President remove ‘constitutional difficulties’ — cutting short the time required to approve the amendment Bill — paving the way for tabling the budget the same day the amendment Bill is approved. “But the Maoist leaders later chickened out,” said NC leader Ram Mahat, also a former finance minister.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nepal had held five rounds of talks with Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who, according to Minister Pandey, had given a nod to present the budget under Article 93 of the constitution, but said, ‘UCPN-M lawmakers would launch a symbolic protest’.

But Dahal, Narayankaji Shrestha and Bhattarai were nowhere to be seen by the time House went into today’s regular business.

What is more interesting is, the government earlier today had dropped the idea of tabling the amendment Bill after the Maoists objected to it saying ‘they had made a mistake by agreeing to the idea’.

“The Maoists’ behaviour in the House today clearly indicates that they don’t believe in democratic process and they want to destroy the whole system,” said Energy Minister Mahat.

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