Preparations were underway to register a no-confidence motion against the first communist government formed in Nepal under the leadership of UML Chairman Manmohan Adhikari in a special session of the House of Representatives (22 Bhadra, 2052). In line with the plan to send Adhikari out of power through a no-confidence motion within nine months of the government being formed, opposition parties including the Nepali Congress had secured the signatures of a majority of MPs in the House of Representatives.

After the Supreme Court ruled to restore the parliament, a special session was called in preparation for forming a new government. The king had announced mid-term elections on Adhikari's request. But the Supreme Court had restored the dissolved House of Representatives on Bhadra 12. When Congress parliamentary party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba was preparing to file a no-confidence motion, ruling party lawmakers tried to create obstacles in the House of Representatives by putting forward their demands.

UML lawmakers were making noise while reading the motion against Prime Minister Adhikari. Amidst the noise, Deuba read the no-confidence motion. While UML lawmakers were making noise for about two and a half hours in the House of Representatives meeting, no one heard the no-confidence motion read by Deuba.

UML seemed to be very aggressive towards the no-confidence motion brought against the Adhikari-led government formed in Mangsir 2051. The no-confidence motion was tabled while the UML was conducting nationwide protests against the Supreme Court's decision to restore the House of Representatives through its sister organization. At that time, Prime Minister Adhikari, who was injured in a helicopter crash, was receiving treatment at the Maharajgunj Teaching Hospital. UML lawmakers were demanding that the no-confidence motion be stopped as Prime Minister Adhikari was undergoing treatment.

UML lawmakers had also demanded that the letter sent by Adhikari to the House of Representatives be read out and kept on record. As soon as the meeting began, UML lawmaker and whip Rajendra Pandey demanded that the Prime Minister's letter be kept in the parliament's records. He had said, 'The Prime Minister's letter should not be ignored.' Opposition lawmakers, including the Congress, accused Prime Minister Adhikari of not receiving special treatment and keeping him in the hospital to prolong his rule and not providing information about his health.

Congress MP Amarraj Kaini had accused the UML of conspiring to prolong its rule by showing the Prime Minister's health condition. After his statement, there was a commotion in the House of Representatives meeting for almost three minutes. Kaini had accused the Prime Minister of not making proper arrangements for his treatment, not taking him to a convenient hospital, and not providing specialist facilities.

UML Chief Whip Devi Prasad Ojha had countered Kaini's statement and said that the UML was not involved in a conspiracy to save the government. He had maintained that the parliament would not be allowed to function unless the opposition withdrew the allegations. When the UML started talking about the detention of opposition MPs, Congress and RPP MPs also protested. After the controversy dragged on, RPP's Kamal Thapa, Prakash Chandra Lohani, Padmasundar Lawati, UML's Bishnu Bahadur Raut, JP Bhetwal, Guru Prasad Baral, Raghuji Pant and Congress's Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat spoke about the controversy. Mahat had questioned why the Prime Minister, who could have read and analyzed the 51-page decision on the restoration of the House of Representatives, could not come to Parliament and respond. After his statement, UML's Keshav Badal said that the meeting could not proceed.

Speaker Ram Chandra Poudel had informed that there was no provision to submit the Prime Minister's letter to Parliament and had kept it in a pigeon hole for the study of the MPs. Ojha, however, had not given up his stance on the letter being introduced in Parliament. Congress MP Arjun Narsingh KC, however, had said that the Prime Minister's letter could not be proposed for discussion according to any rules. UML MP Birodh Khatiwada had argued that the Prime Minister's letter should be introduced in Parliament even if it means removing obstacles. RPP MP Lohani had asserted that no one except His Majesty can send any message to Parliament. UML's Raghuji Pant, Bishnu Bahadur Raut, Khagraj Adhikari, Bhojraj Joshi had said that the special session was unconstitutional, insisting that the meeting would not proceed. 

Congress MP Bimalendra Nidhi had said that the special session would not be held due to the will and reluctance of the executive and that it was the Prime Minister's duty to answer in the House of Representatives.  When it came to the Prime Minister's health, the ruling party MPs would object, while the opposition would object when the MP was detained. 

Speaker Poudel had said that although he met Prime Minister Adhikari at the hospital on the morning of the session, he had not received accurate information about his health from the doctor. Speaker Poudel had informed the House that a definite decision had not been made on whether the doctor would show the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister would show the doctor and bring the Prime Minister to the House of Representatives. Poudel had said that no one had given him any further information about the Prime Minister and that discussions on the no-confidence motion would continue.

There was a ruckus in Parliament after Deuba was allowed to table a no-confidence motion, saying that the Prime Minister's letter was not a way to enter Parliament. For the first time, an unnatural scene was seen in the parliamentary system during the preparation for tabling the no-confidence motion in the House of Representatives meeting. Before tabling the no-confidence motion, ruling party MPs surrounded Speaker Poudel's chair and shouted slogans. The leader of the main opposition party demolished the rostrum on which Deuba was standing when he tried to table the no-confidence motion. Before demolishing the rostrum, MPs gathered in an empty space next to the Speaker under the leadership of UML MP and Organization Department Head Amrit Kumar Bohara and chanted slogans for two minutes. UML MP Krishna Gopal Shrestha, who was sitting in front of the ruling party bench, got angry and went to the front and along with UML MP Mitharam Sharma from Lalitpur demolished the rostrum. After the opposition MPs who had been sitting quietly demolished the rostrum, Bal Bahadur KC and Kamal Thapa stepped forward to protect Deuba. Speaker Poudel adjourned the meeting for half an hour at 12.45 to avoid any untoward incident after the two sides clashed.

In the meeting that began after the adjournment, the then Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Subash Chandra Nembang, presented a letter written by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the Speaker and MPs in Parliament. Nembang read the letter as agreed to make a statement on urgent public matters at the all-party meeting held at the time the meeting was adjourned. While speaking, Nembang said that UML was not in favor of extending its rule. He had said, 'Going to the people is not cowardice and it is not totalitarianism.' Rather, being afraid to go to the people (not trying to go to the mid-term) is cowardice.' He had said that the government had taken the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister as a matter of course. Earlier, it was said that the Prime Minister's letter would be kept in the pigeon hole of Parliament. In that context, there was a dispute and unnatural activities were seen in Parliament. Deputy Prime Minister and UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal had informed that the UML parliamentary party meeting held on the first day of the special session had decided to transfer power peacefully.

In the meeting on the second day of the special session, Congress parliamentary party leader Deuba had presented a no-confidence motion and accused the Manmohan Singh-led government of pushing the country into serious political instability, economic crisis, directionlessness, communal strife and hatred day after day since its formation. Deuba had made eight allegations and said that the parliamentary system and constitutional provisions had been violated repeatedly. He had mentioned in the 7-page no-confidence motion that the Adhikari government had been gradually mocking the dignity and constitutional status of the judiciary.

Talk of Congress MPs being detained!

There were rumors that opposition MPs were being detained in hotels during the second day of the special session of the House of Representatives. In particular, UML MPs had repeatedly raised the issue. But the ruling party MPs seemed to be violating the rules. In particular, all 80 MPs, except for top Congress leaders, were provided with food and accommodation at the Shankar Hotel in Kathmandu a few days before the no-confidence motion was tabled. Except for leaders such as Girija Prasad Koirala, Ramchandra Poudel, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Shailaja Acharya, Pradeep Giri, all MPs stayed in the hotel. The Congress, on the other hand, had said that the MPs had to stay in the hotel to train them on justice, law, finance, water resources and other subjects.

In the political market and media, there was talk that the MPs were locked up in the hotel to avoid the possibility of being bought and sold in complex situations. The news written by Sunil Adhikari on this subject was published in the Kantipur Daily on Bhadra 22, 2052 under the title ‘Nepali Congress MPs are bored in a safe Gurukul’. As mentioned in the news, the Congress MPs said that they had been trained on current affairs. MP Kamala Panta, on the other hand, said that it was necessary for MPs to be vigilant from a security perspective during sensitive times. She countered by saying what should we do when the government could not provide security. She refuted the opposition’s allegations by saying that they had learned a lot at the seminar held at the hotel. Information was being made public that the MPs spent their days chatting in the hotel courtyard, going for sightseeing and shopping.

The issue of MPs staying in the hotel was raised repeatedly in the special session. UML MPs had said in the meeting, ‘MPs are being detained. They are not allowed to play with children. They have been subjected to inhuman torture.’ As soon as the opposition raised the issue, Congress MPs would raise the issue. The House would shake from time to time with the sound of the objections. When RPP MP Kamal Thapa, one of the protesters, said that the MPs are being detained, I also have an objection, the ruling party MPs banged the table. Thapa corrected his statement and said that the opposition MPs are not being detained, but the Home Minister should answer if they are from the ruling party, the ruling party MPs laughed. Regarding the detention of MPs in the hotel, RPP MP Lohani had said, ‘It seems that tears have started flowing from their (UML MPs) eyes saying that the ruling party MPs are being detained.’ But don't cry.'

After the ruling party broke the rules while the opposition was speaking...

An interesting incident was witnessed in Parliament on the second day of the special session. Initially, the uproar in Parliament started with the breaking of rules by UML MP Rajendra Pandey. When the opposition raised the issue of the Prime Minister's health, the ruling party got angry, and when the ruling party raised the issue of the MPs being confined in the hotel, the opposition Congress MPs got angry. When these two issues became the main issues, the House had to be adjourned for some time. As soon as the opposition made some comments about the Prime Minister's health, Raghu Pant, the Prime Minister's press advisor and the editor-in-chief of Drishti Weekly, started breaking the rules. Pant had broken the rules on as many opposition MPs as he made comments about the Prime Minister's health. The journalists who went to report in the House commented, ‘Journalist and MP Raghuji Pant has dared to beat up Krishnagopal Shrestha.’ UML MP Khagraj Adhikari was also at the forefront of breaking the rules. He would say a break as soon as every MP spoke. Khagraj, who used to break the rules when his own party spoke, would shout ‘break the rules, break the rules’ even when the opposition spoke. MP Mitharam Sharma, on the other hand, would not break the rules. But he would loudly shout yes, no, okay, they should be allowed to speak as soon as the MPs of his own party spoke.

The MP who wanted to speak the most in the House was Bishnu Bahadur Raut. When the Speaker asked him what rules he was speaking under, he said, ‘I am an MP, I am speaking under the rules of an MP.’ MP Narayanman Bijukchhe, who was sitting in the corner of the opposition party where the Speaker could not see him, had a different rule. He had asked, ‘What is the use of this microphone if only those who speak loudly are allowed to speak?’ MP Krishnagopal had pulled down the rostrum while Deuba was speaking. MP Raghuji Pant had made fun of the pulled down rostrum by playing the tabla on it. UML MP Jhalanath Khanal, who was sitting at the end of the parliament meeting, came to the middle and was watching his colleagues’ antics. The ministers, on the other hand, were sitting in their own chairs and watching the activities of their colleagues. When almost all the UML MPs broke the rules at once, the parliament meeting would occasionally turn into a ruckus.