President Ramchandra Paudel delivered the government's policies and programmes on Tuesday after the Nepali Congress lifted the obstruction in the House of Representatives. However, the disruption continued afterwards.

President Paudel read out the policies and programmes of the government in the joint sitting of the federal parliament.

The Congress then blocked the proceedings of both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly and did not let the assembly table a motion of expressing gratitude to the President for delivering the government’s annual paper.

It is customary for Parliament to thank the President for reading out the annual policies and programmes. The parliamentary party meeting of the Congress on Tuesday morning, however, had decided not to allow Parliament to proceed after the head of state wraps up his presentation.

The Congress later responded that the policies and programmes fail to address the problems of cooperatives’ victims. The main opposition has been protesting in Parliament, demanding a parliamentary probe into the issue of cooperatives around the country embezzling the deposits of hundreds of thousands of depositors. Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane is the focus of the largest party’s fury for his alleged involvement in the cooperative scam.

“Our position that the government has protected the people who have swindled cooperatives victims has been reconfirmed,” said Ramesh Lekhak, the chief whip of the Congress party, while talking to the media after the policies and programmes had been read out.

The main opposition party was initially not ready to allow the smooth operation of the Parliament’s proceedings. The party even warned the government and the ruling partners that it would prevent President Paudel from presenting the government's policies and programmes should its demand go unheeded.

The Congress has been disrupting Parliament, demanding a parliamentary committee to investigate Lamichhane over allegations of cooperative funds embezzlement. Lamichhane has publicly refuted the charges and asked for a chance to make his case clear in Parliament.

But the Congress has been preventing Lamichhane from speaking in the House.

The Congress, which appeared tough against the resumption of parliamentary business, even the presidential appearance, had relented and agreed to let the President present the programmes. But it resorted to the obstruction soon after.

In 2017, the CPN-UML, while in the opposition, had been obstructing parliamentary proceedings. It allowed then-President Bidya Devi Bhandari to present the annual policies. The opposition then protested the Cabinet’s decision to increase the number of local federal units in the Tarai in the midst of the elections. The party later obstructed the motion of thanks to the President.

During Speaker Devraj Ghimire’s meeting with the party chief whips on Tuesday afternoon, before the President read out the government’s annual document, the Congress had announced its plan to continue to disrupt the House after the policies had been presented.

“We will continue to interrupt the House until our demand is addressed,” Congress whip Sushila Thing told the Post. “As there is no parliamentary practice of barring the head of state to present policies and programmes, we too didn’t go that uncharted route.”

The party will not allow other proceedings of the two houses for as long as it takes in order to get its demands addressed, Thing said.

On Tuesday morning, Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa and the party’s Chief Whip Lekhak met Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to discuss the issue of parliamentary obstruction. Dahal had requested the Congress leaders to allow a smooth functioning of the legislature. The Congress leaders also claimed that the prime minister seemed positive about addressing their demand.

“While meeting our leaders, the prime minister seemed positive but he has not taken the necessary steps to honour the call of the main opposition,” Congress whip Thing said. Dahal’s openness to the formation of the probe committee was one of the reasons the Congress became ready to allow the President to present the policies and programmes.

Shakti Basnet, the minister of energy, water resources and irrigation, claimed that the discussion between the government and Congress was headed in a positive direction.

“Until late Monday night, the Congress was adamant on barring the President from presenting the policies and programmes. But on Tuesday, we reached an agreement to allow the President to do so,” Basnet, a Maoist Centre deputy general secretary, told the Post. “The government will similarly reach an agreement with the Congress on its demand for the probe committee.”

According to the Congress leaders, Sunday's meeting between the prime minister and Congress leaders also concluded positively to address the party's demand.

After the Congress leaders met Prime Minister Dahal, the party held the parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday morning. The same meeting allowed President Paudel to confer the government's annual policies and programmes.

The ruling parties and the main opposition have been discussing smooth operation of Parliament for the past few days. However, given the inflexible positions of both sides, Tuesday’s session was expected to face trouble.

“The ruling parties and the opposition need to come to a logical conclusion to open the parliamentary business,” UML whip Sunita Baral told the Post. “It looks like both sides only have discussed the issue at their ease. What we need is negotiation to resolve the issues of both Parliament and the cooperative scam.”

The constitution mandates the government to present its annual budget on Jestha 15 (May 28 this year). For this reason also, the ruling and opposition parties need to close their ranks, Baral added.

The ruling parties are ready to form a parliamentary committee to investigate the issues plaguing the cooperative sector. However, they are reluctant to constitute a committee with the mandate to probe Lamichhane. The Congress, too, is positive about a broad inquiry into the cooperatives, but it deems investigating Lamichhane in particular a necessity after various probes by police and other government bodies established his involvement in the scams.

The Congress had disrupted the winter session of Parliament before it was prorogued on April 14, with the same demand. The party has also been obstructing the new session of Parliament that commenced on May 10.