India jittery as Nepal dithers on Constitution

India, along with the rest of the world, is watching with bated breath the transition of Nepal to a full-fledged republic with a Constitution that aims to empower all segments of the society. The small Himalayan country has already shown the world how to abandon the path of bullets and opt for ballot and to assimilate insurgents into the mainstream. However, a new draft Constitution continues to be elusive.

Nepal is India’s immediate neighbour and also shares borders with China. Therefore, India needs to deal with a valuable partner like Nepal with extreme caution.

Recall, the second Jan Andolan (people’s movement) resulted in the overthrow of the monarchy in April 2006. The peace process that begun led to the coming into force the Interim Constitution early next year. The elections in April 10, 2008 led to the formation of the first unicameral Constituent Assembly of 601 members. It began its work on May 28 2008, but could not produce a Constitution within a period of four years.

Thereafter, the 2013 elections threw up a second Constituent Assembly (CA) of 601 members.

The senior-most member of the House and a former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa assumed chairmanship of the CA on January 20, 2014 and administered the oath of office to 565 lawmakers at the first meeting of the Assembly on January 21, 2014 were the leaders of the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) pledged to draft a new Constitution within a year. This self-imposed deadline is now over with producing any tangible results.

Though the political leaders have agreed to the concept of federal democratic republic, the debate over the form of federalism and creation of different States has become a contentious issue. Two competing proposals are on the table – one is territorial and administrative federalism and the other is identity-based federalism.

Other issues where leaders are failing to reach a consensus are on the details of the form of governance, electoral system independence of judiciary, system of direct and proportional representation.

The composition of the second Constituent Assembly is different from the first one. The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) of Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) which was dominant party in the first Constituent Assembly with 229 seats has been reduced to only 80 seats in the second Constituent Assembly, where Nepali Congress of Prime Minister Sushil Koirala has 196 seats followed by United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) with 80 seats.

Nepal has a large network of fragmented civil society groups that are exerting pressure along with the demands of as many 31 political parties in the Constituent Assembly. One can hope that Nepal drafts a vibrant Constitution enough to do justice to the cross section of its cultural and ethnic diversity. A vibrant Nepal will not only be in the interest of India, but also South Asia.

By: Ashok B Sharma