Suggesting top leaders to become guardians without being greedy for leadership is not new to the Congress. Such suggestions have been coming since time immemorial whenever it is time to elect a new leadership. Just as the new generation is now pressuring and suggesting the old ones to leave the leadership, 28 years ago, the then youth leader of the Congress and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had also given similar suggestions to founding leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and party president Girija Prasad Koirala.

Deuba had said in an interview with Kantipur in 2055, ‘Personally, I think they (Koirala and Bhattarai) should retire. But I don’t know what they think. It’s not about anyone pressuring anyone.’ Deuba had taken the incident of the party’s own MPs absent from the House of Representatives and removing the Prime Minister and making Girija Prasad the leader of the parliamentary party seriously. He wanted a change in leadership in the party. That is why Koirala and Bhattarai had said that they could still lead the Congress even if they retired from politics.

He had said, adding that when he was in the government, party president Koirala, leader Shailaja Acharya and general secretaries were in opposition, ‘Koirala has not been able to balance the differences within the party.’ Deuba had specifically explained that the Koirala camp had made two MPs absent during the vote of confidence in the House of Representatives on 23 Chaitra 2053 to remove him. ‘When the government under his leadership was in 2053, Koirala exploded in Biratnagar, Shailaja Acharya went on a walking tour against the government, the general secretaries were against me,’ Deuba had said in an interview. He had said that the government under his leadership was unable to hold the 2054 local elections and that the elections were rigged when Bamdev was the Home Minister.

During the interview, he had expressed the view that internal differences were natural since the Congress was a democratic and large party. Stating that he had both an investment and a responsibility in the party since he had grown a mustache, he said that Girija Prasad's leadership had not been able to manage the internal management within the party. Deuba, who gave an interview when Girija Prasad was the Prime Minister, had expressed dissatisfaction with the failure to maintain a balance in terms of caste, region and language in the cabinet. He said that he himself was in a position to claim top leadership within the Congress. Deuba had expressed dissatisfaction with the UML's failure to conduct itself according to its position against Speaker Ramchandra Poudel.

He said that the opposition UML had brought an impeachment motion against the Speaker in an apolitical manner, and Deuba felt that the method was not right. He also said that he disagreed with the motion registered by the ruling party against the Deputy Speaker. However, he had said that he would vote for the ruling party when the vote was held in Parliament. The UML, which disagreed with the provisions of the bill on local autonomy, had filed a motion in parliament against the Speaker for not behaving in accordance with his position. UML leaders said that the bill was made to suit them since the leaders of the ML, which broke away from the UML, are in the Koirala-led government.

Deuba had repeatedly raised the issue of his removal from the prime minister and said that he suspected that his own party's MPs would be absent as they had not been in touch for two days. Regarding the purchase of the Pajero, Deuba had blamed the UML. Informing that the proposal to buy the Pajero was prepared during the UML government, Deuba had said, 'The decision to take customs facilities was made by an all-party meeting. Everyone was in favor of it, how could I have stopped it.' Deuba said that although many people opposed the Mahakali Treaty, no one objected to the purchase of the Pajero. He had said, ‘The truth is that customs facilities were misused. Why should the secretary, joint secretary, JVS chairman, mayor, etc. get vehicles but not the MPs who have to run around a lot?’

He had said that the people were dissatisfied with the political parties at that time. He believed that this happened because the parties had failed to fulfill their promises. He said that the parties had made promises in such a way that the people’s aspirations would increase when they became disillusioned. Deuba had narrated his experience of facing many challenges during his 18-month tenure from 2052 to 2054 when he first became Prime Minister. He had narrated his experience of facing many challenges during his 18-month tenure from 2052 to 2054. He had narrated his experience of facing no-confidence motions repeatedly. Deuba claimed that the Mahakali Treaty and the electricity trade agreement with India were achievements of his tenure. Deuba had mentioned the construction of 22 bridges in the Far West with the help of India, the decision to increase non-governmental regional cooperation relations with China, getting India to agree to build the Koshi High Dam and the Sunkoshi diversion, an agreement with Britain to increase the pension of Gorkha soldiers, and the commencement of the Bardibas-Sindhuli road as achievements of his 18-month tenure. He said that for the first time during his tenure, an agreement of half water and half electricity was reached with India and that he did not know about the Kalapani issue until the Mahakali Treaty was signed.