Week to heal

The constitutional process

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The four major political parties, including MJF (Loktantrik), which had earlier declared itself out of the ongoing constitutional process, have on Sunday agreed to give continuity to Constituent Assembly procedures. Accordingly, the dissenting parties have been given a week to table their desired amendments to the draft constitution. MJF (Loktantrik) has made it clear that the draft in its current form is unacceptable and significant amendments will have to be made to take Tharus and Madheshis into confidence. We believe one week is more than enough for this—if there is political will to work out a viable compromise. But for such compromise solutions to emerge the two sides in the constitutional debate will first have to start talking. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, after his informal consultations with Madheshi and Tharu leaders, has said he is still 'positive'. During these consultations, the protesting Madheshi-Tharu alliance asked the prime minister to honor past agreements with the two communities. Another of their demands was that the Nepal Army 'deployed' in some troubled areas in Tarai be sent back to barracks.

Besides these, the opposition alliance wants all those arrested in the course of the protests in Tarai freed and those killed to be declared 'martyrs'. These are not impossible demands and there is enough in them to suggest that the opposition alliance is still interested in talking. There are also some signs of flexibility from four party leaders. For instance both Sher Bahadur Deuba and Bhim Rawal, the two leaders who were dead against dividing the Far West, it is reported, are now more flexible. They appear more comfortable with the idea of merging certain Tharu-dominated areas of Kailali with a province in the Tarai belt. If true, it would be a strong signal to Tharu community that the ruling parties are serious about their concerns. There will have to be similar flexibility in demarcating provinces in rest of the Tarai plains. But Madheshi parties, for their part, must also be ready to discuss two or more provinces. If their concern is continued marginalization and subjugation of Madheshi people in future federal states, it is still possible to carve out states such that there is a clear majority of native Madheshis in some. Similarly, some areas in the Tarai districts with predominantly hill populations can be merged with hill and mountain areas further up. Something similar was tried in the six-state federal model, which unfortunately didn't have the buy-in of the constituencies directly affected by the new demarcations.

It is now clear that some forces, both in and outside the country, want to foil the constitutional protest at any cost. They will stand firm against any viable federal model. Whatever their immediate political calculations, it will not be in the interest of any of the political parties that own up post-2006 changes to let these divisive forces prevail. This is why it's important to take the disgruntled forces into confidence and end the constitutional process without any further delay. The longer the process drags on, the greater the room to play for these destabilizing elements. Again, if Nepali people are to write their own constitution, there is absolutely no more time to waste. It's still possible.