A proposal to leave the new statute silent on the ceiling for land and property to be owned by Nepali citizens was brought up for deliberations at the Constitutional Committee (CC) of the Constituent Assembly (CA) but some CC members, including Mahendra Paswan of the Maoist party and Sunil Prajapati of Nepal Workers Peasants Party (NWPP), objected to the idea.[break]
The lawmakers objected to the proposal even though leaders of the subcommittee, which is headed by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and has representation of key leaders from the major political parties, had earlier agreed to keep the new constitution silent on the issue, arguing that it was not for the constitution to set a ceiling on land and property.
Maoist lawmaker Paswan, who is from the party´s hardline faction, said such a provision cannot be acceptable to them.
"We must enforce a revolutionary land reform program so as to do away with age-old semi-feudal socio-economic conditions and for that a ceiling on land and property must be fixed in the new constitution," Paswan said, informing Republica about the views that he aired at the CC meeting on Thursday.
Leaders from other parties, however, said that the way Maoist lawmakers at the CC meeting have been turning down the subcommittee´s proposals one after another has made things serious.
The CC, at an earlier meeting, could not endorse proposals to retain the name Legislature-Parliament in the new constitution and to name the lower house the House of Representatives, due to objections from some CC members from the Maoist hardline faction.
Also, they had earlier objected to a proposal to grant the suffrage to all Nepali citizens above 18 years of age. All three issues had earlier been settled at the subcommittee.
Asked why they have been standing against proposals recommended by a subcommittee headed by Maoist Chairman Dahal himself, Paswan said they can´t accept a proposal just because it was suggested by the Dahal-headed subcommittee.
"How can we accept everything our party chairman agrees to, as he has made several compromises in contravention of our party´s official policies and decisions, at the behest of other parties such as Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML?" Paswan said.
NWPP lawmaker Prajapati said there should be a provision allowing the state to confiscate land above the ceiling held by any landlord and it should be confiscated without any compensation. "What is the difference between providing compensation to landlords for confiscating land above ceiling and buying the land from them?," he asked.
However, CC member Agni Kharel of CPN-UML said they had decided to keep the new constitution silent on the ceilings after careful thought. "Fixing a ceiling on land and property is not something to be mentioned in the constitution. This is an issue to be provisioned in laws," Kharel told Republica.
He explained that it sounds illogical to enshrine such a provision in the constitution, which needs to be endorsed by a two-thirds majority of the CA, while a government that can formulate laws is formed by the support of a simple majority in the House.
He added that a constitution following democratic values and principles cannot prohibit a citizen from earning more money than a certain limit. "What a democratic statute can do to do away with economic disparity in society is to enforce a system of progressive taxation," Kharel said.
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