While the forces for and against the election to the Constituent Assembly are fighting their battles in various forms, the major political parties — the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist - have made public their manifestos. And yesterday, a number of political parties, including these three, submitted to the Election Commission their closed list of candidates for the phase of the election based on proportional representation. During the 1990s, whenever the general election was called, the political parties came out with their election promises contained in a document - their political, economic, foreign and other policies, programmes and priorities. On this basis, they sought votes. But what turned out was that hardly any political party took its promises seriously when it came to power. Drawing up election manifestos became something of a ritual, done merely for the sake of public consumption. This was a patently wrong practice, since it amounted to taking for a ride the sovereign people who gave the parties votes and returned them to power.

But the CA election is a different ballgame. As all the voters cannot sit together to draft their own constitution, they are electing a few hundred representatives to draw up a constitution in their name, not something imposed from anybody else. So, the parties’ political manifestos assume special significance for the CA election - much more than the manifestos for a general election - because the country will be governed according to the provisions of the resulting constitution. If any party made one pledge to the people while seeking votes, and lobbied or voted in the CA in a contrary manner, it would be deceiving the people. That might reduce the greatest democratic exercise to a mockery of the people’s mandate, both of Jana Andolan II and of the CA election. Therefore, the SPA members are under a strong obligation to honour the major commitments they have made in their agreements, in parliamentary resolutions, and in the Interim Constitution. Similarly, the non-SPA parties are expected to act in the CA according to their poll promises.

The question, however, arises, what would happen if any of them went back on the pledges they made in their manifestos, especially on major or broad issues of vital concern? This possibility cannot be entirely ruled out. In such an event, how representative would the resulting constitution be? But there does not seem to be in place any safeguard against this. Of course, there is always a possibility, however remote, that the voters concerned will come out on the streets in protest against the renegade parties, and that other parties will react against this. But there is no guarantee of this. If the past is any guide, one can hardly rest assured. At the same time, there is an imperative need for public awareness and

alertness about what the parties promise and what they perform. It is necessary to institutionalise the gains of Jana Andolan II. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.