‘Chandrashamsher had already abolished slavery. But now, there is nothing more despicable than responsible people like MPs voluntarily becoming slaves. MPs themselves are being bought and sold. There is nothing more hateful than that. Those who buy and sell should be socially boycotted.’

This statement made by former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, who fought for democracy all his life, at a meeting organized in Kathmandu on Falgun 17, 2054, received a lot of attention at the time.

The desire to go to power, to become a minister, and the ill effects created by factional disputes within the party had made the parliament a ‘perverted place’ of personal interests. The top leadership of the political parties participating in the all-party meeting organized by the then Speaker Ramchandra Poudel had themselves criticized their parliamentary role.

Speaker Poudel had discussed the agenda of buying and selling MPs, low attendance in the House, a tendency to focus on power shifts, MPs taking more privileges and leaning towards anarchy. Poudel had said that serious questions and complaints had been raised about the system and its representatives in the seven years since the parliamentary system was introduced and that such problems should be resolved. He had said that MPs had deviated from their duties and conduct.

Speaker Poudel had requested party leaders to play a role in making the parliament and the parliamentary system dignified. After the mid-term elections in 2008, the UML led the government for nine months. After that, the game of forming and toppling the government was going on continuously for about two and a half years from Bhadra in 2009. In this game, incidents such as buying and selling MPs, sending MPs abroad at the expense of government funds in the name of alcohol, beauty, and treatment, kidnapping MPs, waving the flag of a minister and signing a no-confidence motion against their own prime minister, and splitting parties to become prime minister had reached the public level.

In 2052 BS, after MPs were given the facility to purchase expensive vehicles, it was widely criticized by the public. This still portrays the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba as a leader who introduced the 'Pajero culture'. At that time, MPs with very low financial status used to buy expensive vehicles in their own names but borrowed money from moneylenders. Some even rented the vehicles. At that time, there was a lot of criticism that 'the car would be in the name of the MP but the industrialist would drive it'. MPs would change factions and parties as soon as they became ministers. MPs were left in a state of disarray due to the lack of laws on political parties for a long time. The Election Commission had repeatedly requested to make a law related to the party, but it was ignored.

Discussion on the benefits of MPs

Top leaders had said that it was impossible to bind MPs by making laws and that everyone's morality should be taken into account. Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala had said that there was a situation where 103 MPs had to be brought to the government and topple the government, and that MPs themselves should take care of their morality. Former Prime Minister Deuba, on the other hand, had said that if we look at the salaries of MPs, the facilities given to them were not much. Deuba had said, 'The salaries and facilities of MPs are low. They had to take care of those who came from the district. The ministry had to go to the ministry for transfers, promotions, and jobs of district residents. Only MPs can understand the pain of MPs.'

Adding to the incident where the mayor of the city and the chairman of the District Development Committee received a vehicle, Deuba said that a publicly elected MP should get a vehicle. He argued that MPs were not yet given enough facilities, saying that a lot of propaganda had been used to assassinate their character. He had said that the facilities they had received should not be misused.

Former Prime Minister Bhattarai had advised MPs to buy and drive vehicles with their own money. He had said, ‘There is no complaint when people from Kathmandu buy vehicles.’ If the crown prince (son of the king) keeps 10 vehicles, there is no complaint. If the children of the king keep vehicles, there is nothing. But when elected representatives buy vehicles, there is a complaint. As the country says, they should reduce facilities from one side and take facilities from the other.’ Former Prime Minister Koirala had complained that there was an attempt to reduce the dignity of MPs from other sides as well. He said that small things were exaggerated about MPs.

UML’s KP Sharma Oli had said that MPs did not take more facilities. ‘The MPs were given concessions in revenue to buy cars,’ Oli had said, ‘They did not buy cars by misusing the national treasury. Some more revenue has been added from that.’ Nepal Workers and Peasants Party Chairman Narayanman Bijukchhe had said that the MPs were criticized for taking car facilities beyond their means.’

MPs are anarchic in thought

Top leaders had opined that MPs should be anarchic in thought. In a discussion on the agenda that MPs were leaning towards anarchy, former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai had said, ‘How was the birth of Parliament? This is a matter of parliamentary development. Earlier, MPs used to go to the British Parliament with swords. Now, even a small nail cannot enter the Parliament.’ He had argued that MPs should be anarchic in thought and disciplined in work.

Former Prime Minister Deuba had said that Nepal's MPs are not anarchic, but rather royal compared to other countries. His argument was, 'So far, there has been no serious situation of hand-wringing in the parliament.' UML leader Oli, on the other hand, had said that the root of the corruption lies not in the parliament but in the party.

Former Prime Minister Bhattarai had said that the job of MPs is to manipulate power and there is no point in complaining about it. He argued, ‘For this work, MPs are also given allowances.’ In the meeting, former Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand sarcastically linked Bhattarai’s statement and said, ‘I used to say that I was very involved in the power equation, but Bhattaraiji said that the job of the parliament is to manipulate power, so I have become complacent.’

UML leader Oli supported the statement of Chand and Bhattarai in support of the phrase ‘manipulation of power’ and said, ‘It is impossible to pay attention to the problems of the people without going to the government.’ Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, who was present at the meeting, did not speak. In the meeting, which was attended by National Assembly Chairman Beni Bahadur Karki, top party leaders, and senior MPs of all parties, everyone accepted that questions had been raised about the parliamentary system because of them. But they had maintained that such activities were natural in the parliamentary system.

In the span of three years, four Prime Ministers including Manmohan Adhikari, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Surya Bahadur Thapa had become Prime Ministers. All kinds of legitimate/illegal activities carried out by party leaders and MPs for power had come to the surface. But the top leaders had tried to normalize such incidents that occurred during the power equation.