Moving Towards Federalism: A New Experience for Nepal

Nepal has been governed in a centralized unitary system for centuries.  Democratization in various phases of history had not led to a significant alteration in the basic set up of the system of governance.  Now the scenario has been changed. The Constituent Assembly (CA) in its very first meeting formally declared Nepal a Federal Democratic Republic. In conformity to this declaration, the Interim Constitution was duly amended and Article 159(1) declares that Nepal is a Federal Democratic Republican State. For this CA has entrusted responsibility to set out principles and hold consensus among the members to transform Nepal into federal structure.

There are so many issues to be taken into consideration. Carving state boundaries, naming of the provinces, identifying the system of governance and electoral process, classification and management of natural resources, fiscal management, inter provincial relations, judicial system, conflict resolution mechanism to quote some. Federalism is a new experience for Nepal, a country having multi lingual, multi ethnic, multi cultural status and again with diverse geographical structure. Though diverse, the political culture established by Hinduized rulers and the caste oriented elite has prevailed in the country. Ethnic, religious and linguistic groups now want self-rule with shared rule rather than unitary rule by certain elite groups. Federalism enables the state to combine "self-rule" with "shared rule".

Federalism is based on the principles and values of democracy. Each people should feel belongingness to the nation for peaceful existence of the system. So, the provinces to emerge in a federal Nepal must remain, in whatever form, multi- ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural. If certain constituent groups felt their identity has been overshadowed by the dominant ethnic group or they are marginalized by the provincial administration, this will give rise to an unending cycle of demand for new autonomous provinces. So this is the major question to be addressed for the prevalence of  balance in the society.

It is not denied that there exist challenges in conversion of the unitary state into the federal structure. Modeling a federal structure that can meet the diverse ethnic and regional aspirations without weakening national integrity and harmony is a serious challenge. Federalism should be able to balance population, political structure and resource sharing policies meeting concurrently the criteria of administrative convenience, economic rationality and equal opportunities of political and cultural space for all communities without any discrimination. In the other hand, federalism is the opportunity to practice inclusive democracy. The system makes the representatives more accountable to the people. There exists sense of ownership of government among people as government is near to people even at the local level. Then it is obvious that the representatives will remain more concerned with development affairs and welfare of the people. When more power(s) are granted to provincial and local government, unlike the past the lower level governments have not to rely on every planning, budgeting and programs to the central government. Definitely it does not mean that central or national government should be a weaker one but instead should be strong enough to deal with certain issues of defense, security, diplomacy, monetary policy, maintaining balance between the provinces and others.

However, it is not like that one fine morning the country declared to be federal state and all problems solved with getting number of provinces. It needs lot of research, studies and also demand abundant discussions. The CA, committee on restructuring the state and distribution of state power has proposed model of 14 provinces and 22 special autonomous regions based on human ethno geography and capacities/ potentialities of the region in order to meet the aspirations of all people around Nepal. But the reports should be taken to general people to initiate needed discourse on it to identify its feasibility which is yet to be done. Of course external state structure as stated in the report alone is not everything. It provides a comprehensive framework, its efficiency and impact would depend on the political players and their tendencies who were to put the system at work. We are now at the initial stage of putting the system into a definite shape.  Yet, the road ahead is not so easy. All Nepalese people are waiting for qualitative inclusion in the state mechanism. So, there is no time to limit oneself on party interest and political stand of certain party leaders. The first priority today has to be the creation of a truly federal, democratic, republican political system and to ensure its development rising above the party political lines and ephemeral priorities. We, the general people are optimistic to get our experimentation of federalism becoming a successful practice which will lead Nepal to progress and prosperity.

Posted on : 2010-06-30 08:08:39

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