Minister for Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs Sobita Gautam has apologized for remarks she made regarding the National Assembly.
She apologized during Thursday’s meeting of the National Assembly while clarifying her remarks.
Minister Gautam had faced criticism after saying at an event organized to mark Gen Z Martyrs Memorial Day that the absence of representation of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) in the National Assembly was creating difficulties in the lawmaking process.
“Honorable members have raised some questions regarding some of the remarks I made in the context of Gen Z Martyrs Memorial Day. The families of the Gen Z martyrs had organized an event, to which government ministers and leaders of various political parties were also invited. I attended the event as a minister.
“At the event, I was repeatedly asked questions along the lines that laws should be enacted more quickly, that they had sent [representatives] with a two-thirds majority vote, that lawmaking should now be expedited, and that the Constitution itself should be amended.
“I did not say anything beyond the facts that could hurt your sentiments. What I said was that there is a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives. The lawmaking process is not completed by a majority in the House of Representatives alone. Laws are enacted after going through the House of Representatives and the National Assembly and then receiving presidential authentication.
“It is a complex process. And this is a fact. I feel that, depending on how someone wants to frame it in political language, it can be interpreted in different ways,” she said.
She added that she had never said anywhere that the National Assembly had not cooperated with the lawmaking process.
“I have not used the language or words anywhere saying that the National Assembly did not cooperate. Honorable members can also check that. But because of what I said and the facts I mentioned there, I am a political person. And because I am a political person, journalists and social commentators interpreted my remarks in different ways, and various contextual interpretations of what I said appeared on social media.
“If anything I said hurt anyone’s feelings, I apologize for that,” she said.
(News Agency Nepal)
