29 years ago, the issue of broadcasting Parliament meetings live on television was unimaginable. The general public would know about the audio recordings of MPs speaking in Parliament after Radio Nepal broadcasted them as Parliament bulletins.

It was not customary for MPs to directly narrate the exact audio of what they said in the meeting. However, photographs of Parliament meetings were taken. The issues that MPs spoke about their constituencies were known after they were broadcast by Radio Nepal and Nepal Television and printed by the government media Gorkhapatra. Weekly newspapers used to print the issues spoken by MPs close to their respective parties.

Kantipur Daily started publishing from Falgun 2049. Collecting news from Parliament was not as easy as it is now. According to journalist Hari Bahadur Thapa, who wrote about parliamentary affairs at that time, reporting from inside Parliament was allowed since the time of the Rastriya Panchayat in 2039 BS. According to Thapa, in the post-multi-party parliament, a place for journalists to sit was arranged near the seats of the ruling party MPs. Reporting had to be done with difficulty.

Thapa recalls, ‘Private print media used to publish the issues raised by MPs as news. But Gorkhapatra used to publish a bulletin covering all the issues raised by MPs.’ However, newspapers and magazines that printed news were not able to reach many people. Many hilly districts of the country did not have transportation facilities. Therefore, Radio Nepal was an effective means for MPs to convey the issues raised in Parliament to their voters.

Nepal Television was out of reach of many ordinary people. In the 1950s, having a television in one’s home was considered a very rich and prosperous person. Therefore, MPs did not have the means to convey their views to the public as easily as they do now.

In urban areas, the influence of Kantipur Daily was increasing. Some MPs would speak in Parliament after reading the news published in Kantipur. At that time, the faces of MPs could only be seen when they were published in newspapers or sometimes interviewed by Nepal Television.

On 26th July 2054, the then Speaker Ram Chandra Poudel decided to allow Nepal Television to participate in the Question and Answer Program in Parliament for the first time as a trial to make the Parliament meeting more effective. MPs were surprised by his decision and said, ‘What did this magic do?’ Seeing that the television was recording audio and video in Parliament that day, the MPs started talking privately to each other.

In the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam, Finance Minister Rabindranath Sharma, in the National Assembly, Minister for Population and Environment Bidya Devi Bhandari and Minister of State for Agriculture Prem Bahadur Bhandari answered the oral questions of the MPs in front of the television camera. As the television was recording the audio and video, Speaker Poudel had a hard time managing his time.

The MPs, who were usually lazy at other times, appeared very lively that day. The question and answer session, which was supposed to end in an hour, was prolonged. Because the MPs wanted to speak for a long time in their roles. The Speaker had to stop many MPs from asking questions. Speaker Poudel used to say, ‘Honorable MPs! Ask your questions directly, don’t take roles.’

When MP Shivraj Subedi started questioning Home Minister Gautam by describing Nepal's prisons and saying that prisoners have to live in chicken coops, the Speaker stopped him and said, "The Honorable Home Minister knows what it is like inside the prisons since he has been there. Let him ask what improvements need to be made in the prisons." When another MP Pushpa Pokharel tried to make suggestions regarding water, the Speaker interrupted him and asked him to ask a direct question instead of a suggestion.

The MPs did not make noise and break the rules in between because of television. When the camera lens was turned towards them, the MPs pretended to be studying and taking notes on paper. Compared to other days, the MPs presented themselves as agile and disciplined representatives of the people.

Experts used to say that the introduction of television cameras into the British Parliament had a very good effect. The MPs seemed to be afraid that they would have a negative impact on the public after they were seen live on television.

Home Minister Gautam also answered the question calmly that day due to the fear of being seen and heard on television. At other times, he would make loud speeches in Parliament. The questioning MPs also presented themselves naturally. When MP Naresh Bahadur Singh asked what form the Honorable Minister took of the unbridled political interference in a sensitive organization like the Nepal Police, Home Minister Gautam had said, ‘There is no unbridled political interference in the police.’

The entire House burst into sarcastic laughter after hearing Home Minister Gautam’s answer. On Chaitra 22, the 24th day of his tenure as Home Minister, Gautam had replaced the then Inspector General of Police Achyut Krishna Kharel and made Dhruv Bahadur Pradhan the Inspector General. He had also donned the rank insignia of the Inspector General himself. At that time, it was customary for the retiring Inspector General to give the new Inspector General a rank insignia. But Home Minister Gautam had called the Chief to his office and given him a rank insignia.

In the local elections held in Jestha 2054, there were also rumors that Gautam had misused the police in favor of his party, UML. Gautam had not only removed Kharel, but had also started a unique tradition by transferring him to the National Investigation Department. When Gautam, who had prepared the aforementioned background, replied that there was no political interference in the police, the MPs laughed sarcastically. That day, it was felt that the Speaker had also made the procedure for conducting the House more strict than usual.