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Draft Constitution Unacceptable To More Than Two Thirds Of Population
Siddhi B Ranjitkar
The current constitution-crafting activity of the Constitution Drafting Committee of Krishna Prasad Sitaula: general secretary to the NC party reminded me a bit of the 1990-constitution crafting activity. At that time King Birendra shoved the constitution prepared and submitted by the political parties in a palace trashcan, and conjured up another constitution out of his pocket. The then Supreme Leader of all political parties Ganeshman Singh threatened the king to abolish even the monarchy if the palace and its dweller King Birendra were to impose a constitution contrary to the people’s aspirations. No doubt about ending the evil monarchy at that time if the political parties wanted. Currently, some political parties prophesying the split of the country if the clique of the four-political parties were to disregard their voices in a new constitution, and people’s movements would spread as wildfires elsewhere in the country immediately after the promulgation of a new constitution. The crafters of the new constitution had totally forgotten about more than the two-thirds of the population comprising the ethnic people, Madheshi people and the underprivileged people including the women that wanted a rational and inclusive constitution instead of the preliminary-draft constitution that excluded them.
The 1990-people’s movement not only brought down the despotic panchayat system but also its ringleader Birendra to his knees. The people’s movement scrapped the constitution of 1962 Birendra’s father Mahendra had enforced burying democracy and sowing the seeds of the corrupt no-party system called panchayat. The multi-party parliamentary democracy came to life in 1990. Then, the Supreme Leader Ganeshman Singh clearly told the then Birendra ‘from then on the people would nominate the prime minister not the king’.
Within three months of the cremation of the panchayat system, the political parties crafted a new constitution, and submitted it to Birendra for proclaiming it. Instead of proclaiming the new constitution of 1990, listening to the sycophants, Birendra was about to proclaim another constitution. People in general and the political parties in particular rose up against the king betraying them.
The Supreme Leader Ganeshman Singh warned the king of the consequences of not proclaiming the constitution as presented by the political parties. Ganeshman Singh went to the palace and told Birendra clearly that either Birendra proclaimed the constitution as submitted or face another movement that would certainly bury the monarchy forever. Then, Ganeshman Singh left the palace for Birendra to decide. Birendra ultimately read out the constitution prepared by the political parties.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala was the witness of all these political events happened in 1990. But he wanted to repeat the history doing almost the same as did the then king in 1990. The corrupt and despotic rulers often overlooked the reality and fell down in the abyss leaving behind their inhuman behavior.
Krishna Prasad Sitaula made the Constitution Drafting Committee as his private company. He trampled the resolutions of the constituent assembly made of 601 members. He disregarded the Interim Constitution of 2007, and every agreement the ethnic and Madheshi people had reached with the government. He produced a preliminary-draft constitution that had drastically reduced the fundamental rights of the people, and made it exclusively for the current rulers. Mr. Sitaula in 2015 was taking the position of the then Birendra in 1990 shoving all the resolutions passed by the constituent assembly and all the agreements reached with the ethnic and Madheshi people not to mention the Twelve-point understanding the Maoists had reached with the government in November 2005 in his trashcan.
This time, Nepalese have no Supreme Leader like Ganeshman Singh in 1990. But someone would surely emerge as a formidable figure. Prachanda about to be a supreme leader had been reduced to nothing more than Shiva carrying the corpse of Satidevi dropping one bodily organ after another of the dead Satidevi, as his one-time deputy Dr Bhattarai described. Dr Baburam Bhattarai was entirely for surrendering everything to the two-thirds-majority political parties.
At the interactions held with the ethnic leaders, Dr Baburam Bhattarai even told the leaders of the ethnic people that the people’s movement was not possible. The so-called Maoists’ leaders such as Prachanda and Dr Baburam Bhattarai had developed the totally defeated mindset. They wanted the ethnic and Madheshi people to follow them and accept the most regressive constitution after the most progressive people’s movement.
Dr Bhattarai had clearly indicated that he was on the side of the ruling political parties not on the ruled-people’s side. As the chairman of the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC), Dr Bhattarai had been doing the business as usual at his CPDCC even after more than the two thirds of the population rejected it, and even said that his CPDDC would settle all the disputed issues by Sunday, August 2, 2015. Dr Bhattarai again disregarded the seriousness of crafting a new constitution acceptable to all the people even after the ethnic leaders dismissed the preliminary draft of a new constitution as exclusive and useless at the official interactions Dr Bhattarai held with the ethnic leaders a few days ago. According to the news on the Nepalese media on August 2, 2015, Dr Bhattarai had suspended the meetings of the CPDCC for an indefinite period.
Ethnic leaders had challenged Dr Bhattarai and his partners in the constitution crafting to enforce the new constitution promulgated without considering the voices of the ethnic people for five years. That was the very generous time period, one of the ethnic leaders had given Dr Bhattarai but I believed that such a new constitution without having the ‘say’ of the ethnic and Madheshi people, underprivileged people including the women would not last even three months.
People not having their voices in a new constitution had been ready to set fire on the new constitution while the constituent assembly would passed it. They were not for waiting the president to promulgate it. That single fire would spread as the forest fire fanned by the strong wind to spread out across the country. What would happen then would be only everybody’s guess. We would see it very soon given the two-thirds-majority political leaders ignoring the historically disadvantaged people.
Even now opposing the preliminary-draft constitution, the Madheshi political parties had already declared their program on the peaceful movement against the draft constitution. They would start off the movement on the August 4, 2015, according to the news on the Nepalese media. So, they were not waiting for the passing of the constitution and the promulgation of the unacceptable constitution to put it to death. The unfortunate constitution might need to die even in the womb but the two-thirds-majority leaders had been the strong-minded midwives to give it the birth by force they could apply. They were in a hurry to bring the constitution to light by the forced delivery.
Twenty-seven lawmakers of the origins of the ethnic and disadvantaged people but belonging to the UCPN-Maoist had collectively submitted a memo to Chairman of CPDCC Dr Bhattarai to consider the aspirations of the ethnic and deprived people for their rightful place in the new constitution to be promulgated soon, according to the news posted on the myrepublica.com on August 1, 2015.
One of the NC leaders Pradeep Giri said that the constitution not acceptable to all the common folks would be the most unfortunate one, according to the news posted on medianp.com on August 1, 2015. Such matured and visionary leaders had been opposing the one-sided constitution crafted by the two-thirds-majority political parties ignoring the historically suppressed people. They knew that the Shah rulers had already suppressed the Nepalese for 240 years. Now none could repeat the history. The NC and CPN-UML leaders mad with the two-thirds mandate did not want to accept this fact and seemingly going to the cliff to fall down to the dark abyss of uncertainties. Not only these not-visionary guys would need to face the consequences of the certain future but also the common folks in general.
The news posted on the onlinekhabar.com on July 28, 2015 stated that while speaking at the interactions held by Chairman of CPDCC Dr Bhattarai, one of the civil society leaders Padma Ratna Tuladhar said to Dr Bhattarai, “I had told everybody in 1990 that the constitution of 1990 would invite a war. Then you (Dr Bhattarai) had taken up the arms and brought the country to the current state. The current constitution would not do better if you were to enforce it without considering the people’s aspirations.”
Some other ethnic leaders at the same interactions with Dr Bhattarai said if some Hindu fundamentalists could say that they would fight a religious war for introducing the Hindu state why not “we fight an ethnic war.” Obviously, ethnic people had reached the state of fighting a war. The majority leaders might think that they had the police, the armed police and even the army to fight against the people if the history was any guide the people always won the war.
Speaking at the same interactions with Dr Bhattarai, one of the lawmakers Ganga Chaudhary said to Dr Bhattarai, “One of the drafters of the new constitution Agni Kharel had told that the Bahuns should run the country for the coming 40 to 50 years. The collection of people’s feedback to the draft constitution had been the mockery only. They had collected only the opinions of the people on making Nepal a Hindu state. They had inflated the votes for the Hindu state one hundred folds.”
The CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya had opposed the preliminary draft of a new constitution and threatened to launch a movement against it. Chairman Mohan Vaidhya said that the constitution promulgated without the participation of the CPN-Maoist-Vaidhya that had fought the ten-year people’s war for crafting a constitution through an elected constituent assembly would be meaningless. Chairman Vaidhya was correct to say his party had fought the ten-year people’s war to some extent only but it was also true that his party had been only a fraction of the original CPN-Maoist that had really fought for a constituent assembly. Chairman Vaidhya also had led his party to an insignificant one keeping the party warriors such as CP Gajurel. Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal, Dev Gurung, and Pampha Bhusal to name a few totally idle and leading them to oblivion.
Another CPN-Maoist-Biplav led by Netra Bikram Chand Biplav could equally claimed the party of the ten-year people’s war but it had not claimed its participation in the crafting of the constitution but it had already launched the movement against the preliminary-draft constitution. How big or small the party had been hard to ascertain at this time but it had effectively enforced the shutdowns launched against the preliminary-draft constitution recently. Biplav said that the door to a war would open after the declaration of a new constitution, according to his interview posted on the ratopati.com on August 2, 2015.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda that had visited India in the second week of July and NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba that also had visited India in the last week of July to craft an inclusive constitution. But some of the leaders of the Modi’s party wanted Nepal to be declared a Hindu state. Their concern for a Hindu state was understandable, as the leaders of the party had been the cow worshippers, and strong believers in Hinduism.
Some of the Nepalese proposed a single-horn rhino for a national animal instead of ‘cow’ made in the preliminary-draft constitution. A single-horn rhino was unique and domicile in Nepal. The proposal was more rational than the demand of the Hindu fundamentalists for making ‘cow’ a national animal. The alternative was to forget about the national animal the previous despotic regime had once introduced in the constitution.
More than the two thirds of the Nepalese population had rejected the preliminary draft constitution demanding to make it inclusive rather than exclusive. The ethnic people, the Madheshi people, and the underprivileged people including the women made up more than the two-thirds majority in the Nepalese population. However, the leaders of the political parties with the two-thirds majority in the constituent assembly had totally disregarded them, and attempted to introduce an exclusive constitution beneficial to some people only.
In 1960s when Mahendra introduced a new constitution, people thought that it was okay if the king were to lead the country to the fast socio-economic development. They were ready to sacrifice their fundamental rights. But the king and his sycophants were not for the economic development but to confuse the people launching the ‘go to village’ campaign, retarding the socio-economic development considerably, only imposing the discretionary rule of the king, and making every minister, every elected officials and even the state employees corrupt. The current coalition government of NC, CPN-UML and some other small parties had been doing almost the same thing.
Nepalese waited for more than 15 years before doing anything against the panchayat system and the monarchy anticipating something would happen for the betterment of the people. Clearly, it did not happen. In 1979, the Nepalese youths gave the first unanticipated jolt to the monarchy. It shook the foundation of the monarchy on which the panchayat system stood. It was a seismic tremor that left the monarchy with cracks forever. The king and his henchmen managed to stay on forgetting about the red sticker they had received. But the current Nepalese were not for waiting a single day for the government doing something good. So, they had started off the movement against the exclusive and corrupt nature of the government. We needed to wait and see what would be the consequences of the attempting to impose the exclusive constitution.
Prime Minster Sushil Koirala had proposed to take actions against the NC lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh at the central committee meeting of his NC party held at the Baluwatar official residence of prime minister on August 1, 2015 for the NC lawmaker Singh going against the NC line and speaking against the preliminary draft constitution, and speaking the government not following the order of the Supreme Court of Nepal, and threatening to take the side of the secessionists if the demands of the Madheshi people were not met, according to the news posted on the Setopati.com on August 1, 2015. Speaking at the interactions held by Dr Baburam Bhattarai on July 27, 2015, NC lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh told all those things to Dr Bhattarai.
As did the Rana-Shah rulers in the past, Prime Minster Koirala had been ready to punish the people demanding the rule of law. The two-thirds-majority mandate had almost reinstated the corrupt discretionary rule in the country. The rulers wanted to have everything to them whether it was the donation received for the quake victims or landslide victims or the revenue collected illegally means the commission on every contract or purchase made by every minister. How long Nepalese would take the burden of such a government and its ministers remains to be seen.
August 2, 2015
