Prime Minister Balendra Shah has decided not to personally respond to parliament’s debate on the government’s annual policies and programmes, breaking with a long-standing convention in Nepal’s parliamentary practice. Finance Minister Dr Swarnim Wagle will deliver the government’s reply in his place.
It is customary for the prime minister to appear in the House of Representatives to address questions and observations raised during the debate on the government’s policy document, which was presented by President Ramchandra Paudel on 12 May. The parliament secretariat had listed Shah as the respondent in the day’s agenda.
The decision is the latest in a pattern of disengagement from parliamentary process since Shah took office in late March. He walked out of the joint sitting of Parliament while President Paudel was still reading out the policy address. He has not spoken a single word on the floor of the House since assuming office. He also failed to appear before the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee on two consecutive occasions, prompting the main opposition Nepali Congress to boycott the committee session earlier this week.
The opposition has been sharply critical of the government’s conduct in Parliament. Nepali Congress parliamentary party leader Bhishmaraj Angdembe said the government had introduced a series of ordinances by bypassing Parliament and had failed to deliver on any of the commitments it made in its own 30-day action plan. UML parliamentary party leader Ram Bahadur Thapa called the government’s policy and programme entirely unacceptable, describing it as a continuation of previous administrations’ approaches. The Rastriya Prajatantra Party accused the government of submitting a document that was nearly identical to its predecessor’s, with party parliamentarian Gyanendra Shahi saying only around ten per cent of the content differed.
Finance Minister Wagle, who has increasingly become the government’s public face in economic and parliamentary matters, is expected to address these concerns during the session on Wednesday afternoon.