KATHMANDU: During Monday’s National Assembly session, opposition lawmakers fiercely criticized the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and the government over legal violations and poor governance.

Nepali Congress (NC) lawmakers Chandra Bahadur KC and Jagat Timilsina drew the attention of the government and the Election Commission to RSP’s recent convention report, which revealed that 35,257 children under the age of 18 (6.7% of its total membership) had been given party memberships.

Timilsina stated that this directly violates the Constitution of Nepal, the Political Parties Act, and the Children’s Act, which strictly ban using minors for political purposes.

He also urged the National Human Rights Commission to intervene.

Lawmaker KC slammed the ruling party’s blatant double standards, asking, “How can a party talk about dissolving student unions to keep students away from politics, while simultaneously lining up over 35,000 minors to carry its party bags?”

KC also used his time to demand immediate government attention for the heartbreaking, displaced state of landless settlers currently left without proper shelter.

Adding to the criticism against the government, Nepali Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Nar Bahadur Bista accused the administration of creating chaos across schools and universities under the guise of “good governance.”

Bista alleged that the Prime Minister and Education Minister were separately bargaining with candidates for Vice-Chancellor positions based on financial kickbacks, asserting that a country cannot be run simply by insulting other parties on social media, but requires genuine diplomatic dialogue.

Janta Samajbadi Party (JSP) lawmaker Mohammed Khalid expressed his expectations regarding regional development, reminding the house of a campaign promise made by Balendra (Balen) Shah in Janakpur to empower local governance rather than centralizing authority in Kathmandu.

Khalid urged the government to focus on strengthening federalism rather than moving toward its dissolution.