The symbolic march was of huge success with the turnout of 350 youth from all walks of life walking backwards from the CA hall to Singh Durbar. This has been a small beginning but the solidarity and unity exhibited by the youth nevertheless serves to remind the leaders that a time has come for them to act.
On this edition of chitchat on gennext, we talk to youth about the making of a new constitution, which probably will not be drafted by the deadline, according to the five participants.
In 2008, Nepal held its first CA elections and everyone looked forward with optimism that all is going to turn out well in the ensuing days. Come 2010, the environment has turned nasty with political leaders enmeshed in personality cult and scrambling for power pushing the entire peace process and constitution-drafting to the back burner. Where do we, the youth of Nepal, stand in all this hustle and bustle?
"We are completely being ignored by the government because we are young," says Sailesh Dhungana, founder of Bikalpa Foundation and a student at Princeton University in the US. However, Anita Thapa, president of Youth Initiative, says that with the youth being slowly mobilized and the youth power being felt, albeit at a minimum level, things are likely to improve.
The solution?
"Like the backward march, we need to organize more non-violent protests and with such creative ideas we are sure to attract more crowds to build pressure," says Sailesh. However, to Amrita, such non-violent protest strategies are very few in a country like Nepal.
Nirjan Shakya, a member of the Rotract Club of Yala, however, contemplates that the best way to grab attention of the government could be bandhs but says they are not the solution. "The government is taking note of us ´ironically´ but in fact, they´re not," says Nirjan. He adds that the political parties are way too busy in their power game than to give us a thought.
If at all the new constitution is drafted, what differences will it really make? Indu promptly answers: "The parties will have fewer quarrels." But Anita and Nirjan together argue that even if the new constitution comes into action, it will take a lot of time for the people to cope with the new laws.
After a long time, the Nepalis watched in incredulous awe and admiration for a new constitution but their initial euphoria soon gave way to despair as soon as the scramble for power surfaced among the big three political parties relegating the smaller parties to the dustbin. In this mess-up, will the Nepali dream of a new constitution ever come true that we all will be proud of and shelve a copy of it?
All five nodded their head to a "no". "I don´t think the constitution will come out next year too on its stipulated deadline because it´s been six months since the deadline was extended and nothing has happened yet," says Sailesh.
True, that the lawmakers have not been able to meet to draft the constitution and the CA hall is seeing some sort of a drought, but more than the lawmakers, isn´t it the political parties at fault for halting the whole process in the name of political consensus? Not only is the constitution not being drafted, but four months down the line and many parliament elections after, Nepal still doesn´t have a new prime minister, which is a big shame.
"The youth today are definitely aware of politics and the constitution in the making but to exert more pressure on the parties to draft it on time, we all have to come together," says Nirjan. Meantime, Indu adds that the youth outside cities are working for food all day while the youth in Kathmandu are whirling away their time. "This is the problem of the urban youth. Everyone´s aware but no one comes up front," she puts in.
The road to the new constitution and the peace process is bumpy and the current political deadlock is definitely putting the whole process on the back burner. But as the non-violent youth campaigns unfold, the youth, however, vow to alter this scene and want to get things going on right track.
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