The Constitution cannot be promulgated in chaos

KATHMANDU

Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Democratic boycotted the constitution drafting process in the Constituent Assembly alleging the establishment is not addressing the concerns of Madheshi and indigenous people.

MJF-D Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar handed over a letter of demand to Chairman Subas Chandra Nembang and announced that his party has boycotted the process of constitution drafting.

Accusing the three top parties of deviating from the eight-province model and not addressing the concerns of the Madheshi and indigenous people, Gachhadar announced the boycott in the 11 hour of the process of drafting the Constitution. In the 16-point agreement, the political forces took a decision to go for eight-provinces.

CA member Rukmini Chaudhari, representing the Federal Democratic National Forum and other leaders of various political parties boycotted the process of clause-wise discussion one after another submitting their demand to Chairman Subas Chandra Nembang.

This is a reflection of our present political situation which shows how the constitution making process has run into a difficult phase. Almost all political forces representing the Tarai have boycotted the constitution drafting process and expressed dissatisfaction.

After the shocking Kailali incident where a number of police personnel were killed in a riot, the government mobilised the army. The Madhes based parties, meanwhile, have been claiming that mobilising the army and suppressing the people and non implementation of past agreements signed with Madhesh based parties are violation of their rights.

The current political situation did not happen overnight. There were several factors leading up to this. The final nail in the coffin was the conflict driven UCPN Maoist party led by Pushpa Kamal

Dahal’s provocation and demand for caste-based and religion-based state provinces.

In fact, due to the occurrence of such incidents seen in various parts of the country, the making of the constitution is becoming extremely difficult.

“Had the political parties not provoked the people we would not be in such a bad situation,” advocate

Chandra Bahadur Shahi told THT Perspectives. “The process of promulgation of the constitution should have been peaceful without violation of the laws governing the country,” he said.