The Constitution of Nepal assigns three basic responsibilities to federal parliamentarians – law making, policy making and monitoring the executive. However, the current trend seems to be that the parliamentarians themselves forget their constitutional role and vow to become development contractors.

The Constitution of Nepal assigns three basic responsibilities to federal parliamentarians – law making, policy making and monitoring the executive. However, the current trend seems to be that the parliamentarians themselves forget their constitutional role and vow to become development contractors. The posts on social media saying 'so many crores of budget have fallen in my area' have raised a serious question about what is the priority of their work. Is it a political decoration or a democratic obligation?

MP's duty is to focus on policy thinking and long-term reforms, but they are interfering in the work of the executive and looking for a share of the budget. It attacks the basic principles of parliamentary system and separation of powers. The responsibility for formulating the budget lies with the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance and related ministries, not the parliamentarians. However, they have started to think of themselves as 'masters of development', which is delusional and a gross mockery of democratic values. Now is the time - the people should question the parliamentarians: how many laws have you made in the parliament? What questions did you raise to make the government accountable? What long-term policy did you propose to solve local problems?