By Bishnu Gautam
Kathmandu, Dec. 21: A year has elapsed since the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli unconstitutionally dissolved the House of Representatives on December 20 last year after he failed to manage intra-party struggle in the ruling party.

Although the Constitution has no explicit provision allowing the Prime Minister of a majority government to dissolve the House, Oli dared it with a goal of suppressing the opponents within his party. As his act to dissolve the House contravened the Constitution, it was widely termed as a regressive move, while a few termed it as a ‘soft coup’.
No matter what it was termed, it came as the beginning of another round of political uncertainty in the country.

For a few weeks, the political parties, including a faction in the then ruling NCP took to the streets demanding for restoration of the parliament while another faction tried its best to prove the move was constitutional. Finally, the Supreme Court reinstated it. But Oli did not stop there. He again dissolved the House at the midnight of May 22.

But after the Supreme Court again reinstated the House terming the dissolution unconstitutional, not only Oli was ousted from the premiership, the NCP divided into three —first into UML and Maoist-Centre, the UML further divided into UML and CPN (Unified Socialist) - and the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal was also divided. Division in political parties can never be a good sign in a parliamentary system.
It was since then the political forces have been divided in two poles—with the UML led by Oli trying every act to show the parliament, which he dissolved twice, to be dysfunctional. His party has been regularly obstructing the House proceedings.

Amid this political rivalry, political leaders Monday remembered the first anniversary of the unconstitutional dissolution of the House and assured the people that there was no chance of regression.
Speaking at an interaction ‘Risk of Recession and Safeguarding Loktantra and Constitution’ organised by the Socialist Press Organisation affiliated to CPN (Unified Socialist) in Kathmandu, Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the regression staged by Oli was foiled and no one now needed to launch a new struggle for proper political system. He, however, said that everyone should be aware of any potential regression.
Likewise, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ said that Oli had dissolved the House for his personal political security.

Similarly, chairman of CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal said that Oli had dissolved the House when he was reminded of the agreement reached with Prachanda while unifying the party.
If Nepal was speaking the truth, one had to conclude that Oli dissolved the House when a situation arose for him to hand over the post of the Prime Minister to Prachanda. But for a politician like Oli, who even did not hesitate to go against the Constitution, it was not necessary to abide by the agreement reached between the two leaders.

However, the political accident was averted and the parliament reinstated. A new coalition government has been formed. Nevertheless, due to regular obstruction of the House, no bills have been passed. Many important bills are pending in the parliament.

Newly elected vice president of the Nepali Congress Dhan Raj Gurung said that the Constitution had been safeguarded with the restoration of the parliament but it was not allowed to function properly.
“The parliament has failed to make the required laws and the political parties are knowingly or unknowingly attacking the parliamentary system, which could be a game to thwart the federal democratic system,” Gurung told The Rising Nepal.