Agreed, parliament is not the perfect place to solve each and every difference among the parties. Also, it is true parliamentary business can sometimes be messy and frustrating. But there can be no denying that it´s the most legitimate and representative body. If parliament is not the place to debate and resolve the pressing issues in the country, then there is no other place either. One of the problems of our democratic exercise has been our failure to uphold parliamentary supremacy. Either we have tried to bypass parliament over the most fundamental issues facing the country or a minority in the House has held parliament hostage for weeks on end. In the past too, when the UML was in the opposition it once obstructed the House for 57 days. Even the NC and other parties have done likewise for weeks. To obstruct the House for a few days to register a symbolic protest is one thing but to argue that a minority can legitimately block House proceeding indefinitely is to render the parliamentary system dysfunctional. This may sound like supporting a tyranny of the majority but we must accept that only the people have the right to punish the majority at the next general election.
Now that parliament has resumed, the parties should take all outstanding issues to the House floor and seek to resolve them there. The Constituent Assembly (CA) should also take up its business with urgency and sort out the differences over writing the constitution. We want to see the parties taking their proposals to the House or the CA on key issues such as integration/rehabilitation of combatants and the modality of the federation, among others. Trying to find solutions out of parliament or even outside the country, as suggested by the Maoists, will only undermine the sovereignty of the people and of the nation.
Related story
Desperate search for missing girls as nearly 80 dead in Texas f...
