Kathmandu, October 1
Opposition and ruling-party lawmakers exchanged questions and answers in the House of Representatives on the nature of the government led by Prime Minister Balen Shah.
Speaking at Thursday’s House meeting, CPN-UML lawmaker Laxmi Prasad Pokhrel said the government appeared to be a constitutional government because the leader of the parliamentary party with a majority in the House was the prime minister. However, he said it also appeared to be an independent government because the prime minister did not attend meetings of his own party.
He said the government also appeared to be a one-party government because it did not attend all-party meetings.
Describing it as resembling a Panchayat-era government run by an underground group and a “Shree 3 Maharaj” who disregards the president, he asked, “What kind of government is the Balen government, actually?”
Ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Santosh Rajbanshi responded to the question after some time.
He said the election held on March 5, 2026, was not a regular election that marked a continuation from one political sequence to another, but had brought a new government by breaking the existing political pattern.
He urged lawmakers to remember that the government had been endorsed by the people’s mandate and that it had the support of a majority of lawmakers.
“I want to tell the honourable member who keeps asking what kind of government the Balen government is: it is a government that seeks to reduce corruption. Whatever mechanism weakens the country—whether the judiciary, the bureaucracy or the political mechanism—it is a government that listens to everyone and jails everyone,” Rajbanshi said.
He said the government was not one that would follow regular procedures for the sake of anyone and reiterated that it would take action against those who had engaged in corruption in the past.
