KATHMANDU: Lawmakers from opposition parties sharply criticized Prime Minister Balen Shah in parliament on Thursday over his controversial remark claiming Nepal encroached on Indian land.

CPN (UML) chief whip Ain Bahadur Mahar demanded to know which lawmakers applauded the PM’s “anti-national” statement during his May 31 address.

Likewise, Nepali Congress MP Urmila Thapaliya expressed dissatisfaction with Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal’s clarification on the matter, reciting a protest poem titled “The Day the Country Was Forgotten”.

Meanwhile, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) MP Bipin Kumar Acharya sarcastically proposed renaming the parliament’s ‘Zero Hour’ to ‘Black Hole Hour’ if public issues continue to disappear without government action.

He urged that matters raised during ‘Zero Hour’ be formally forwarded to relevant ministries with mandatory progress updates to ensure state accountability.