The parliamentary meeting on Thursday that was expected to end the ongoing impasse ended up in a scuffle between the ruling and opposition lawmakers.

The House meeting called for 11 in the morning was postponed until 4 pm in an attempt to find a meeting point among the parties over the formation of a parliamentary panel to probe Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane’s embezzlement of cooperatives funds.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal himself had held meetings with ruling parties and also the main opposition Nepali Congress to find a way out. However, the ruling parties and the Congress couldn’t agree on terms of reference of the parliamentary probe committee.

The ruling parties agreed to constitute the parliamentary panel to investigate the embezzlement of savings in the cooperatives and recommend action against the individuals, institutions and companies benefited illegally. However, the Congress wanted the probe focused on Rabi Lamichhane, erstwhile managing director at the Gorkha Media Network, and others who illegally benefited from Supreme, Suryadarshan, and Swarnalaxmi, among other cooperatives.

The ruling parties, particularly Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), did not agree to the proposal to focus only on the cooperatives where Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Lamichhane is allegedly involved.

“Our demand is to constitute a parliamentary committee to investigate the problems facing the cooperative sector, including Rabi Lamichhane’s involvement in the alleged fraud. The ruling alliance is not ready for it. It wants a panel that will broadly investigate the problems in the sector without addressing our concerns. The alliance is trying to divert attention from the main issue,” said Prakash Sharan Mahat, the Nepali Congress spokesperson explaining why there could be no agreement.

The ruling parties, however, say the Congress, guided by a mala fide intent, has been insisting on an investigation committee focusing on three or four cooperatives. “We had just demands: first, our chairperson must be allowed to clarify on the allegations in Parliament. Second, as problems have been seen in several cooperatives, there must be a broader investigation,” said Manish Jha, an RSP lawmaker. “Why just focus on three or four cooperatives? Why not probe the cooperatives that are led by Congress leaders?”

The meeting of the House of Representatives postponed for 4 pm was held two hours later. No sooner had the meeting commenced, the Congress started chanting slogans. Amid the obstruction, Speaker Devraj Ghimire read out the letters from the President’s Office regarding the authentication of a bill and addition of ministers from the newly formed Janata Samajbadi Party.

The situation got tense when Ghimire asked Lamichhane to go to the rostrum and address the meeting amid the protest of the main opposition.

The Congress lawmakers had already gathered at the well and were raising slogans demanding a parliamentary probe into Lamichhane, who is accused of embezzling funds of several credit cooperatives.

After the Speaker allowed the minister to go to the rostrum, the Congress lawmakers and senior CPN-UML leaders, who were on the front row of the ruling bench, engaged in heated verbal exchanges. The situation escalated after UML chair KP Sharma Oli and Congress vice president Dhanraj Gurung engaged in an intense argument.

Other lawmakers from the two sides subsequently joined the resulting scuffle. Even Prime Minister Dahal and Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma engaged in an argument with the Congress lawmakers.

Both sides have pointed fingers at each other for the tensions.

“The situation escalated after the Congress lawmakers tried to stand in front of the rows designated for the ruling parties in order to prevent Home Minister Lamichhane from heading to the rostrum,” said Sharma. “The Congress is responsible for the unparliamentary behaviour.” The UML has demanded an apology from the Congress, claiming its lawmakers misbehaved with Oli.

The Congress, however, said the Speaker’s irresponsible move [of inviting the home minister to the rostrum] was responsible for the unpleasant incident in the House. “The Speaker is guided by partisan interests. It was wrong of him to invite the home minister to address the House when the opposition was obstructing the House,” said Mahat.

The next House meeting has been called for 11 am Friday.

Earlier, the meeting of the National Assembly was also adjourned until 1:15 pm on Friday following obstruction from the Nepali Congress.

The main opposition has been obstructing the budget session of Parliament since the first day of the session that commenced on May 10. However, the opposition parties had allowed the President to table the government’s policies and programmes.

The RSP has said they will not agree to any probe panel targeting its chairperson. “The probe panel will be formed only if there is an agreement to investigate the Congress President [Sher Bahadur Deuba] and his son,” said Jha. “To challenge our party, those who have been in power for decades need to come clean.”