Team 15 sounds out opinion in Changu

BHAKTAPUR, March 9: However ineffective the lawmakers´ opinion collection drive for the new constitution was in other parts of the country, what one saw in Changu village in the outskirts of Bhaktapur Monday was somewhat encouraging.



There was ample participation by the people – elderly and children alike – and the efforts made by the six members of Constituent Assembly team no. 15 led by CPN-UML´s Bishnu Rimal to ensure broad participation were rather exemplary. [break]



In the first three days of their two-week opinion collection drive, the lawmakers – Rimal, Purna Bahadur Khadka, Ambika Basnet, Binod Pahadi, Uma Gothe Kapali and Buddhi Ratna Manandhar – have achieved two objectives: (1) the primary task of collecting people´s opinions on the new constitution, and (2) listening to their grievances about a whole range of issues and promising to take these concerns to the authorities concerned.



On Sunday, 82-year-old Shiva Raj Giri, who had participated in the country´s first pro-democracy movement in 1951, filled the 295 questions listed in 11 questionnaires through an interpreter, in Bageshwari village. And, on Monday, 11-year-old Rupesh Pokharel was seen chasing the lawmakers with his questions, both hands holding the bundle of questionnaires tight.



"What is your phone number?" Rupesh asked Rimal, who instantly obliged and asked Rupesh to call back. Rupesh said he would call Rimal with political questions. "Please also tell me your name so I don´t get confused when I get your call," Rimal advised.






Rupesh and his father Ram Krishna, 50, have taken two sets of questionnaires to fill up. "I will send the filled-up questionnaires back to them (lawmakers) through the VDC (Village Development Committee) secretary tomorrow," Rupesh told myrepublica.com. During the allotted three hours, 212 people had filled up or taken the questionnaires in Changu Narayan Village Development Committee (VDC), which recorded a total voter population of about 3,300 in last year´s election.



Given that the questionnaires were too long, people have been given the option of returning the forms through the VDC secretary by March 21. Those scared of the questions are also given the choice of writing their opinions on a separate piece of paper. "Anyhow, we want to get the people´s opinion," said Rimal. "They should be left free to choose the way they express themselves."






When Ram Krishna, a Nepal Army veteran, was telling Purna Bahadur Khadka, a former home minister, that loktantra (democracy) had only brought them more anarchy, his son, Rupesh, was paying close attention to their conversation. "You should work as a balance." Rupesh chipped in: "We haven´t been able to continue out studies due to the YCL (Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League)."



In reply, Khadka said he wasn´t there to argue, but to listen to people. "We will just listen today," Khadka told the father-son duo, while other villagers stood by quietly. "People certainly have suspicions about politicians," he said. "But, don´t mistrust us." The hallmark of Team 15, which plans to visit all 16 VDCs of the district, is that it never does its planned tasks late on the excuse of "Nepali time".






Given that various political parties have made their versions of the new constitution public, people have developed a feeling that the opinion collection was just a formality and they would ultimately adopt an Indian- or UK- or US-model constitution. "We will certainly come to you with the draft constitution incorporating the people´s views," Khadka tried to assure the skeptics.



To test the lawmakers´ promise to return to the village, the women of Bageshwari invited them to lunch with tomato pickle (tomato cultivation being a major source of local income). Khadka and Rimal said they would be at the village for the lunch, on March 14.






At a press conference organized at the office of the District Development Committee, Bhaktapur, Monday, Khadka said people have always raised problems like load-shedding, lack of drinking water and roads and unemployment. "We will take their grievances to the authorities," he said.



The lawmakers also reviewed the modus operandi of opinion collection on the basis of feedback from the people. "We gave out the questionnaires, but farmers didn´t have pens to fill them with," said Rimal. So, the team provided each one a Starline ball pen. "It was our own decision. We will bear the cost ourselves if the (Constituent Assembly) Secretariat doesn´t reimburse us."






To ensure broader public participation, the lawmakers sought help of VDC secretaries to invite the people through loudspeakers starting Sunday.



However, some villagers were still reluctant to participate. Karna Bahadur Khatri, 67, a physically handicapped person who was basking under the sun about 50 meters from the venue, said he didn´t participate in the opinion collection because he was not given "allowance for the handicapped". "I am not interested," he said. "I have no trust that filling up the questionnaires will bring about positive changes in my life. There is no water to drink and no electricity here."






Like Khatri, Mukunda Budhathoki, 31, who runs a grocery shop in the village, also didn´t take the questionnaires because he was not interested in politics.



tilak@myrepublica.com