Ruling side understands Nepali Congress’s stance to include name of Home Minister TOR as “a game to bring down government”

Kathmandu: The ruling parties agreed to form a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate the involvement of Deputy Prime Minister Rabi Lamichhane in the cooperative embezzlement case as per the demand of the major political party Nepali Congress.

Then, a task force was formed, under the coordination of the Minister for Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs to determine the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the committee. The task force has held various rounds of meetings but the meeting has not been able to reach an agreement.

Law Minister Giri, CPN (UML) Chief Whip Mahesh Bartaula, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Shishir Khanal, and Nepali Congress Lawmaker Jeewan Pariyar. They have gone through various stages of the meeting. However, the repeated stand of the ruling and opposition parties is affecting the concluding process of the formation of the TOR.

The ruling parties are not agreeing to mention the name of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane in the TOR. However, the Nepali Congress has kept it as the first criterion. That’s why the task force is failing to reach an agreement. Earlier, the parliament was also in the phase of discussion.

The meeting is scheduled for 3 a.m. even today. But, the parties are showing firmness in their stand. That’s why, the probability of the agreement is almost nil even today. But, the members said that they would try their best in the meeting.

Representatives of the Nepali Congress Jeewan Pariyar have proposed to the ruling side to come up with a solid proposal, which will guide further discussion.

Pariyar informed Nepal Views, ‘They have been asked to come up with a solid proposal. The discussion will move ahead as per the nature of the proposal with which they come up. Their proposal will determine the fate of the agreement. But, we are in the favor of reaching an agreement.’

He said that the Nepali Congress is firm regarding its demands. Upon the curiosity of how will an agreement be reached if both parties are not ready to equally compromise? To which, he replied-We have compromised a lot. We asked for a resignation, but as it was not possible we asked for a parliamentary inquiry committee, isn’t it?

He said they would be continuing to present their previous demand in the meeting. That means, the demand is to mention the name of Home Minister Lamichanne. But, the ruling side does not agree with it. They are showing a stance to include the name of the cooperative but not the name of Home Minister Lamichhane.

Likewise, Mahesh Kumar Bartaula from CPN (UML) informed Nepal Views,’ We proposed mentioning the name of the Cooperative they want to mention the name of the Rabi Lamichhane. All of us are ready to mention the name of the cooperative. Supreme, Suryadarshan, and others. But, they are not leaving their stance to include the name of Rabi Lamichhane. How will we conclude in this manner?’

Bartaula said the Nepali Congress’s stance to include the name of Rabi Lamichhane is ‘a game to bring down the government.’ He said, ‘Their stance reflects their intention of bringing down the government rather than providing justice to the cooperative victims. And we would not agree upon it.’

He said that they must propose Nepali Congress to come up with a solid proposal as well. ‘We even asked the Nepali Congress to come up with a solid proposal. The discussion will be derived from the nature of their proposal, ‘said Bartaula, ‘Their proposal will determine the fate of the agreement.’

Upon the queries of whether the stance of both sides will result in an agreement, he said, ‘We have compromised a lot, we did not want to make even a parliamentary inquiry committee, but we made an agreement over it. But, the Nepali Congress is not moving. This will make the agreement difficult.’

Nepali version of the news article