Since the restoration of the House of Representatives, voices are being heard from various quarters seeking equal participation in the process of democratic reconstruction of the state. The concerns of Dalit, women and other marginalised groups cannot be ignored particularly because of their wholehearted support to the people’s movement that restored democracy promising an egalitarian state structure. This invariably means that their rightful place in the society would now have to be secured by the new constitution to be framed by constituent assembly.

Equality and justice, however, at least in theory, have never been denied to anybody in the country in the first place. The 1990 Constitution guaranteed right to equality to all the citizens. According to Article 11(2), “No discrimination shall be made against any citizen in the application of general laws on grounds of religion, race, sex, caste, tribe or ideological conviction.” There also is the provision that explicitly states that at least five per cent of the total number of candidates contesting an election from any party must be women candidates (Article 114). Clearly then, it is not the absence of laws but lack of proper implementation of the laid rules and regulations that have constricted the advancement of the weak and vulnerable groups so far. More importantly, the grieving parties themselves are seldom organised or united to carry forward their agenda. The women members of parliament, for instance, who are now demanding for equal say in the new system, should introspect their own weaknesses and bring about internal changes first to give continuity and teeth

to their own efforts.