Federalism—Let the people decide!

Kathmandu: Unlike expectation of many Nepali people that the new constitution will bring peace and prosperity to the country, it brought many problems. Division of the federal states is the main issue, which has been pushing the country towards an uncertain future. Rather than confronting the issue, why don’t the political parties let the people decide on the issue of federalism?

Nepal is a very small country with many different ethnic groups; therefore federalism based on ethnic identities does not seem feasible. Leaders in the past inked various deals with different groups to give federal states based on identity, which is pushing the country towards uncertainty and confrontation. When we see the current problem, it can be easily said that Nepali people opted for federalism without knowing the basic concept of federalism. Nepali politicians roamed around grabbing power rather than making people aware about important issues. In the eight year long tenure of the constituent assembly, the leaders did not go to the people and made them aware about the issues of federalism. They spent most of the time in the power game and leaders of the four major political parties imposed their will in the name of the people while deciding major issues of the new constitution. As people are not aware about federalism and how it works, they are hesitant to accept the new delineation of the states. People are opposing on the boundary of federal states as if they are dividing the country and the next state is a different nation. For example, different protests for undivided districts like undivided Rukum, undivided Kailali and undivided far west are only based on people’s perception not reality.

Dividing the federal states is a technical issue and it should be done by experts based on feasibility, geography and other relevant factors but the leaders divided the federal states based on their political gain and loss. The leaders should have mobilized to the grass-root level to orient people about federalism and also to hear their ideas about the federal states after giving the responsibility of dividing federal states to a group of experts. However the case is different as the leaders of major political parties divided the federal states taking into consideration how they could secure state power from a particular state. The leaders also failed to sensitize people that having a district in one or other state or having a district divided into two federal states will not have any major implications. As we are getting new boundaries, why there is hue and cry about old boundaries which is going to be changed when the new structure comes into force. For example, we have VDCs and when the government declares municipalities it has different structure and the area under the municipality came under wards not the VDCs so what is the point of making fuss over my VDC should be this and that. The formula is simple but the leaders did not want to see this happen and mobilized their cadres as they wanted to ‘catch fish in troubled water’ and win the sympathy of people for being pro-people. Even the senior leaders like Sher Bahadur Deuba and Bhim Rawal stood in the line for an undivided far west.

The current demand of Madhesh based parties like having only two states in Tarai/Madhesh may not be feasible as there are different groups and they all want their own state. The country and economy will not tolerate more agitation and protests, so the simple solution of the current problem is deferring the decision of implementing federalism and go to the public to get their views on it. All the political parties should respect the verdict of the people, so why don’t we go to referendum for getting people’s approval on the issue of federalism and federal states. Most of the countries which drafted new constitution through constituent assembly have gone for referendum for deciding the thorny issues. If we look at the recent referendum of Scotland, they decided whether to merge the country with United Kingdom or not through referendum, so, we should not hesitate to accept the process. As some leaders of civil society and the FNCCI, the umbrella organization of entrepreneurs, have also requested to defer the implementation of federalism, why don’t we go for referendum? We can ask people whether to go for federalism and what type of federal states the country should have. If that is done, it would be the real reflection of people’s views and it will help to resolve conflict among different communities of the country. As the country and economy is already moving towards negative growth and if the situation remains the same, Nepal will soon move towards a failed state, which will not enhance the dignity of any Nepali people.

All politicians have been making fools of the people and imposing their will in the name of people, so having referendum on the issue will provide opportunity for getting people’s approval and based on the learning of this referendum, we can also have similar exercise in the future if some issues of public importance are to be decided.

The current movement is due to the failure of the political parties. They should have gone to every nook and corner of the society and informed the people about the proposed provision of the new constitution. If they had gone to the villages with the copies of the new constitution informing people how it ensured their rights, there would have been very less space for the Madhesh based parties to spread various rumors. Still they can go to the people and inform people about the provisions of new constitution as the Madhesh based parties have been spreading rumor about the new constitution and playing in between. If the state mobilizes its resources for educating the people about the new constitution, people will be aware about the intention of the agitators and they will gradually lose support from the people. Rather than expecting that if the situation further deteriorates, we will topple the Oli government, the largest party of the parliament Nepali Congress should be responsible and take initiatives towards resolving the current impasse. The leaders of all political parties should start concrete action for addressing the issues on time before it is too late rather than just looking at the political gain and loss as you can’t be a leader if there is no country. The leaders should take a bold step of deferring federalism and opt for referendum to decide on the issue.

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