End practice of protesting by disrupting parliament: MP Neupane

Nepali Congress Member of Parliament Ishwari Devi Neupane has stressed the need to end the practice of protesting by disrupting the parliament. However, criticism and questioning from both sides in the house while maintaining parliamentary supremacy and dignity is a beautiful aspect of democracy.

In a dialogue with RSS, she said that it is important to raise voice in the parliament because if a mistake has been committed then it can be corrected. "We must ask legitimate questions," she said while narrating her experience of having to face pressure outside the parliament after she called for a fair investigation into the fake Bhutanese refugees scam.

"We should all be aware of the conspiracy to hold the Parliament hostage under this or that pretext," she added.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the work of the parliament so far, MP Neupane said even just looking at the number of laws formulated there is plenty of room to question the effectiveness of the Parliament. And every parliamentarian should share the blame for the parliament not being able to fulfill its responsibilities. "As an MP, I also consider myself responsible for this," she said, "The first responsibility is to fulfill the duty that we have come with."

 MP Neupane says that political parties should not always protest when they are in the opposition and not always become defensive when they are in the ruling side. "The mindset that the opposition must oppose the work done by the ruling party is wrong. There are also examples of support for the policies and programs brought by the government when the Nepali Congress was in the opposition."

Stating that there are huge expectations from the MPs even though many powers have gone to the local level, she said many dreams shown during the elections is also a reason for it. People believe that even small development infrastructures such as roads, streams and canals will be built by the MPs.

MP Neupane also Constituency Infrastructure Development Program is necessary for the implementation of the concept of inclusive development and fulfill the development aspirations of the citizens. "People have expectations from MPs as they will have made promises during the elections," she said.