‘Parliamentarians should have freedom to speak in the House’ 

Kathmandu, Feb 5:

Lawmaker Ganga Prasad Yadav asserted that the Members of Parliament are not free to articulate their opinions on critical issues of the country in the parliament – an effective place for presenting people’s voice.

Talking to RSS, he commented that the party whips limit the lawmakers in articulating their views. “The parliamentarians cannot speak against the party whip. Such practices are prevailing in all parties”.

He shared that the parliamentarians are not provided with adequate time to express their thoughts in the parliament.

MP Yadav argued the parties should not limit lawmakers to present their ideas, opinion and thoughts on behalf of their constituency people.

“MPs are not allowed to go right and left as per the party’s policy. However, I tried to make my point clear in the House. The party whip was not imposed on me, I kept my point without fear. The way parliament is functioning now is not right. Parliament has to function independently. MPs should have the freedom to speak”, he noted.

The main responsibility of the people’s representatives is law making and at the same time there is a compulsion to focus on development works, he said, adding that no attention has been paid to the development works.

“At present, the development works have not been effective. There is chaos in almost all areas. No matter how many governments have been formed after democracy, the effectiveness of all those governments has not increased. Politics has become like a means of earning”, Yadav mentioned.

Yadav is a lawmaker from the main opposition party, CPN-UML.

Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS)