Kathmandu, Nepal: House Speaker Debraj Ghimire on Tuesday instructed marshals to escort Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ out of the parliamentary well, where opposition lawmakers had been staging aggressive protests for several weeks.
During Monday’s vote of confidence, Speaker Ghimire also directed marshals to escort the Prime Minister and managed the removal of protesting opposition lawmakers. On Tuesday, opposition lawmakers tried to block the Prime Minister from crossing the parliamentary well, leading to a scuffle.
In a parliamentary recording, opposition lawmakers were observed trying to obstruct the Prime Minister’s path to the rostrum by blocking the well.
The Nepal Congress opposition party has been persistently protesting in parliament, calling for the creation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the alleged embezzlement of cooperative funds by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs, Rabi Lamichhane.
The party has declared that it will not allow parliamentary proceedings to continue until an agreement is reached on the formation of the committee and its Terms of Reference.
“We are adamant on our demands, we are determined to deliver justice to thousands of people who have been scammed by the co-operatives. We want to assure all those who have been inflicted with the fraud that our fight would never end until and unless those savers get their savings back,” Badri Prasad Pandey, a lawmaker from the Nepali Congress, said on Tuesday’s meeting.
Home Minister Lamichhane faces allegations of embezzling significant funds from a cooperative during his tenure as the managing director of Gorkha Media, with several others also implicated in the scheme.
On May 16, tensions in parliament escalated into a physical altercation between lawmakers from the opposition and the ruling coalition over this issue. Since the budget session began on May 10, the main opposition has been consistently disrupting proceedings, though they permitted the President to present the government’s policies and programs.
Despite Lamichhane’s denial of any wrongdoing, claiming ignorance of the fraudulent activities, evidence suggesting his involvement has surfaced, and investigations are ongoing.
Before entering politics in the last election, Lamichhane had worked with GB Rai, one of the key figures in the fraud involving millions of rupees.
Rai is currently in hiding, and police are actively searching for him. An investigative report by Pokhara Metropolis on the alleged cooperative fraud was completed this week and handed over to the police, with hundreds of applications implicating Lamichhane in the fraud.
Additionally, Home Minister Lamichhane is accused of abusing his power by reassigning senior police officers who were investigating the case. He is also accused of exerting pressure on the Office of the Attorney General to clear him of any wrongdoing in the cooperative fraud.