Exactly 29 years and 2 days ago today, on April 20, 2054. At a formal program organized by the Nepal Law Campus Independent Students Union, former Speaker Damannath Dhungana asked, ‘Why couldn’t you get two MPs from your own party to be present in Parliament?’ Targeting former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was sitting on the same stage, he asked, ‘Even though he (Deuba) knows, why is he not able to speak?’ He added, ‘Why is the leader who fights against the autocratic system not able to speak today?’

Dhungana repeatedly asked Deuba, who lost the post of Prime Minister a month and a half ago after two MPs from his own party were absent from Parliament on the day of the vote of confidence. After being relieved of his post as Prime Minister, Deuba also resigned as the leader of the Nepali Congress parliamentary party, while UML chairman and parliamentary party leader Manmohan Adhikari was replaced by former RPP parliamentary party leader Lokendra Bahadur Chand. Relating to the same context, former Speaker Dhungana had said, ‘Giving up power is not a sacrifice, it is a crime.’ There is no history in the world of a single vote of confidence simultaneously upsetting the Prime Minister and the opposition leader.’

According to the tradition of the parliamentary system, the largest party forms the government, and he had said that he would wait for the second largest party to form the government. He said that the country’s parliamentary system has moved forward from the ironic situation of Deuba losing the leader of the parliamentary party and the leader of the main opposition party not being able to become the Prime Minister. Dhungana had said, ‘Main opposition party leader Manmohan Adhikari is watching with bated breath as RPP leader Chand becomes the Prime Minister.’

Deuba resigned as Prime Minister on 23 Falgun 2053 after failing to secure a majority in the vote on the motion for a vote of confidence in Parliament. Congress MPs Deepak Jung Shah and Chakra Bahadur Shahi were absent from the vote. Deuba's vote of confidence failed by two votes. He then resigned as Prime Minister on the same day. He also resigned as the leader of the party's parliamentary party. After that, the Congress unanimously made Girija Prasad Koirala the leader of the parliamentary party.

After the collapse of the Deuba government, UML, despite being the largest party, gave the Prime Ministership to Lokendra Bahadur Chand of the RPP and joined the government. The last Prime Minister of the Panchayat system got the opportunity to lead the government again after 7 years. Dhungana, however, had been expressing dissatisfaction with Chand's support for the Prime Ministership. He had said, ‘Even though Chand became the Prime Minister through the parliamentary system with the support of UML, the people are asking, how did the face before 046 rise to the leadership of the government so quickly?’

In the 18 months since Deuba became Prime Minister, UML had brought a no-confidence motion twice in Parliament. Deuba, who was saved from the no-confidence motion brought by the opposition, had to resign as Prime Minister due to the absence of his own MPs when he tried to seek a vote of confidence from Parliament. During Deuba’s 18-month tenure, activities such as buying MPs, giving MPs alcohol, beauty pageants, foreign visits, and kidnapping MPs were carried out to avoid confidence and no-confidence motions. It was defaming the government. Former Speaker Dhungana was dissatisfied with the unnatural and vile moves made for power.

That is why Dhungana, referring to the incident of former Prime Minister Deuba sending ministers to Bangkok to thwart the no-confidence motion against the government, said, ‘If the no-confidence motion had come for the third time, he would have sent the MPs to America.’ His statement was that political parties have become organizations of self-interest rather than principles. Dhungana had said, ‘Parties have become like ticket offices in cinema halls.’ He had satirized that former Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka should be given a ‘prize for preserving the multi-party system and power.’

Home Minister Khadka had admitted that during the game of preserving power, he had taken Nepal Workers and Peasants Party MP Bhakta Bahadur Rokaya to Purnia, India. In the same context, Dhungana had sarcastically assigned a prize to Home Minister Khadka. That is why Deuba, who had sent MPs to Purnia twice when the no-confidence motion came, had to face the no-confidence motion a third time and would have been sent to America. In the

program, UML MP Subash Nembang had refuted the statement of former Speaker Dhungana. Nembang said, ‘The Congress had forgotten that UML was the largest party when it was in power. It has finally found its way after it was removed from power.’ Recalling that when the UML minority government was formed after the 2051 mid-term elections, the Congress had promised to last the entire term, Nembang said that the Congress had forgotten that UML was the largest party in Parliament when it toppled the Manmohan Singh government. In the

program, Deuba had targeted Nembang's statement, saying, 'Damanji said that according to the world's practice, a leader of a big party, UML, should have become the Prime Minister, and even if Lokendraji is made the party president, we have nothing to say.' If the Congress had formed a government with the RPP, the UML would have been criticized for forming an 'unholy alliance' in the local elections,' Deuba had added, 'UML should become the tail of the RPP, but not the tail of the panchayat.'

UML MP Shankar Pokharel had argued that an invisible force was trying to weaken the multi-party system and political parties after 2045. He had claimed that a game was being played to activate the constitutional monarchy. Deuba, on the other hand, had said that the respect for the king had increased after the multi-party system. He had said, ‘During the Panchayat period, people were brought to the king’s programs by putting them in trucks, now they have come themselves.’ Responding to the accusations made against him by former Speaker Dhungana, Deuba had said, ‘Now there are ministers who go to Bangkok.’ Regarding the accusation of introducing criminalization into politics, Deuba said in the UML Central Committee meeting that Bamdev Gautam, who is accused of drug and beauty, should be considered when he is being criticized.

10 houses of customs officials: Deuba

While speaking at the program, Deuba defended the Pajero culture that he introduced when he was the Prime Minister. Dean of the Faculty of Law Shyamkant Silwal had asked Deuba a question asking how an MP who asks for donations in the election could buy a car worth lakhs. In response, Deuba had mentioned that the customs officer had 10 houses and retorted, ‘Can’t an MP elected by the people buy a car with customs facilities?’ Deuba had said that some MPs had gone to the dealer after not being able to buy a car, ‘If I had known that, I would not have given them the facility to buy a car.’ Deuba had made the decision to buy cars with customs exemptions from the Council of Ministers in a bid to preserve power. The issue was widely criticized. But Deuba had defended the decision. Even now, Deuba is talked about as a leader who introduced the Prado and Pajero culture.

Prime Minister’s ignorance of national issues

Even though Chand became Prime Minister with the support of Emaal, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam had the upper hand in all short-term and long-term tasks of the government. At that time, Chand was said to be a kind of god of skulls. Chand was silent on the issue of removing the incumbent IGP and making extensive transfers and changes of employees targeting local level elections. About a month and a half after he became Prime Minister, he expressed his ignorance of all the issues of the country in a meeting with media persons at his residence in Baluwatar. He had personally met with journalists and answered questions. He had not addressed them at once.

From the day after Chand became Prime Minister, there was talk of RPP Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa becoming the Prime Minister under the leadership of the Congress. UML Chairman Manmohan and Congress President Girija Prasad had formally started criticizing the Chand government. Chand used to say that he did not know about all the problems of the country, saying, "Is it true?"

Even after the local elections were announced, Chand did not answer questions from journalists about widespread transfers in the police and administration, the Congress wanting to call a special session, and the preparation to give a letter of intent to Enron Corporation to invest in the Karnali Chisapani project. He replied that he was not aware of all these things.

Before becoming Prime Minister, Chand had been adamant about removing the Indian Army camp from Kalapani in Darchula. But after becoming Prime Minister, he backed down, saying, ‘Things are happening.’ In the context of keeping many ministries under his control within a month and a half of the formation of the government, he had said, ‘I have not thought about it.’

Chand did not give clear answers on the Mahakali Treaty, the ordinance on local elections, the country's economy, and the Maoist insurgency. In response to questions from the media persons he had invited, Chand had given answers like ‘Yes?’, ‘Oh,...’, ‘I don’t know’, ‘I understand’, ‘Maybe not’. He had said that he felt more responsible in a multi-party system than during the Panchayat period and that he had a responsibility to reconcile everyone.