Home »
Constitution Making in Nepal »
Making a Constitution
High Level Commission on State Restructuring
The Interim Constitution requires that this Commission be set up. It says:
Progressive Restructuring of the State:
- Inclusive, democratic and progressive restructuring of the state shall be made to bring about an end of the discrimination based on class, caste, language, sex, culture, religion and region by eliminating the centralized and unitary form of the state.
- A High Level Commission shall be constituted to recommend for the restructuring of the State in accordance with clause (1) above. The composition, function, duty, power and terms of service of such Commission shall be as determined by the Government of Nepal.
- Final decision of restructuring of the State shall be as determined by the Constituent Assembly.
If you read this carefully, you will see that it is not very clear about what the responsibilities of the Commission will be. But it does seem that they will be rather narrow. The sense that its responsibilities are narrow is enhanced by the fact that this article appears in the chapter of the Interim Constitution entitled "Form of State and Local Self Governance".
The function of the Commission is to be making recommendations on restructuring of the state. That could be very wide - everything that seems to be wrong with the state could come under this heading. But in fact "restructuring of the state" seems to be limited (by clause (1)) to (i) bringing about an end of discrimination based on class, caste, language, sex, culture, religion and region and (ii) eliminating the centralized and unitary form of the state. And these are not separate but linked - ending the discrimination is to be by eliminating the eliminating the centralized and unitary form of the state. If we link this to the commitment in the Interim Constitution to federalism, we see that the real focus of the work of the Commission is on federalism.
Not only is this narrow, but it is not at all clear that federalism will achieve the end of discrimination, even if it has a lot of other advantages.
Other points to make are that there is no indication that this will be an independent commission, and that there is no indication that it is supposed to consult the people. Most bodies these days are composed by bargaining between the parties in government. A commission composed like this would not be independent. It could carry out its work simply by inter-party negotiations.
Of course it could be very different: there is nothing to stop government appointing a genuinely independent body, and mandating it to consult widely, including with the people, and to report direct to the Constituent Assembly. It could also be given a really wide mandate, making it more like a Constitution Commission .
Unfortunately, time is running short if elections are to be held on November 22. It seems unlikely that this commission, even if appointed, will have time even to do a thorough job of its narrow mandate. However, the recently announced (August 30) settlement with the Madhesi Forum includes a commitment on the part of the Government that the High Level Commission will report and that the Constituent Assembly will make a final decision on these issues.
|
