It has been a rocky road. There were challenges every step of the way. For a long time, there could be no progress on constitution as the peace process—an integral component of the political course charted with the signing of the 12-point New Delhi accord in 2005—seemed permanently stuck. The long-awaited breakthrough came only in 2011 when Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai courageously ordered Nepal Army to take over Maoist cantonments, ending the state of 'two armies' in the country. But despite this progress in peace process, the first Constituent Assembly could not produce a document of compromise and got dissolved on May 28, 2012, largely because of its unfavorable balance of power. The day, many feared, marked the end of the dream. So when the second Constituent Assembly elections were successfully held in November, 2013, once again against considerable odds, it gave Nepalis fresh hope. Yes, they were skeptical that the same political actors who had failed them so badly in the first CA could give a better account of themselves this time. To vindicate their fears, the kind of deep polarization witnessed in the first CA was also seen as the start of the second CA. The old alignments—between Nepali Congress and CPN-UML on one hand and the Maoist and Madheshi forces on the other—resurfaced.In the second CA polls, Congress and UML had together secured nearly two-thirds of CA seats, enough to promulgate the constitution with the support of fringe parties. But without any of the post-2006 forces, chiefly the Maoists, on board, the new constitution would have had limited political legitimacy. But at some point, the Maoists, and its chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal in particular, seemed to have (correctly) inferred that any more delay could be suicidal. The longer the constitutional process had dragged on, the more intractable it had gotten. There was now a real risk that the experiment of CA in Nepal could fail and the reputation of the mainstream political forces could be irreparably damaged. This was the reason the Big Three were finally ready to come on the same page.
We, like most Nepalis, were delighted with this new maturity of our political leaders. For once our political class was able to rise above self interest and work for the greater good of all Nepalis. This unity of purpose was reminiscent of the kind of extensive cooperation among political parties evident at the start of the peace and constitutional process in 2005/06. It helped cement post-2006 changes and such cooperation will be vital for effective implementation of new constitution.
It is rightly said that the process of emotional bonding of Nepalis started only after the overthrow of monarchy. Unlike the forced unity of the yore based on diktats from above, this unity would be based mutual respect and the recognition that despite their many differences all Nepalis are bound together by their common democratic values of popular sovereignty, rule of law, equality, human rights, and freedoms of speech and faith, the real building blocks, as it were, of New Nepal.
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