IT is heartening to note that Nepal is serious about drafting a Democratic Constitution for the country. And it has asked India to help it draft it. Nepal’s Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala said, while seeking India’s help to carry on with the Peace process, that her government attaches at most priority to drafting a Constitution for the country. She said, “We need India’s cooperation and support to move the peace process forward. The Nepal Government wants to strengthen bilateral relations with neighbouring countries, especially India”. The President of Nepal Mr. Ram Baran yadav also urged the government to devote its energies to preparing a Constitution.
India’s Foreign Secretary Mr. Sivasankar Menon is visiting Kathmandu to lend a helping hand to the tottering Nepali government to stabilize and undertake the drafting of a Democratic Constitution by the end of next year. Nepal and India has agreed to find out a bilateral mechanism to resolve the border issues between the two countries. Nepal has to finish the draft by 27 May 2010, as the term of the present interim government, formed for the job, ends by that time. However, it is fraught with many problems as the Maoists have refused to join the government and is busy with protest marches and other intimidating tactics. Constitution may be said to express the spirit of a country. It is an expression of readiness of the people to accept the rule of law. It tells how the people want to be ruled and the kind of life it want to live. The Constitution lays down the structure of the legislature where the laws are made after prolonged deliberations by the members elected by the people. The constitution also defines the various organs of the State and their duties and responsibilities. It also may spell out the duties responsibilities of the citizens also. It is the Constituent Assembly that drafts the Constitution.
The nature of the present Constituent Assembly of Nepal is not that good. The former interim government of Mr. Prachanda, the Maoist leader, resigned on 4 May when its order to sack the Army Chief was stalled by the President. Though Madhav Kumar Nepal who formed a coalition government comprising 22 arties he has not been able to persuade Mr. Prachanda to join the government. Madhav Kumar has to reconcile many diverse views, which itself is a Himalayan task, before the constitution is drafted. As Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister and an important member in the Constituent Assembly put it then, “This cannot be done by the wisest f lawyers sitting together in conclave, it cannot be done by small committees trying to balance interests and calling that constitution-making; it can never be done under the shadow of an external authority. It can only be done effectively when the political and psychological conditions are present, and the urge and sanctions come from the masses”.
Writing a Constitution is not enough. It should work the way it is expected to work. And it is the duty of all sections of the people to see to it that it does work. If it remains merely as a thick dome containing the ‘laws’ of the state it is useless. The various institutions and the rules envisaged in the constitution must not remain static. They must evolve in time .Otherwise it would not be able to take care of the political system or the people. Just as a living organism grows and develops in time, a constitution should also live and develop if it is to be effective.
Speaking in the constituent assembly of India on 17 October 1949, J.B.Kripalani said, “I want this house to remember that what we have enunciated are not merely legal, constitutional, and formal principles, but moral principles; and moral principles have got to be lived in life. They have to be lived, whether it is in private life or it is in public life of an administrator. They have to be lived throughout. These things we have to remember if our Constitution is to succeed”.
These sound observations are applicable not only in the case of India but that of any country that wishes to have a constitution that can take care of the interest of a nation and her people.
India’s Foreign Secretary Mr. Sivasankar Menon is visiting Kathmandu to lend a helping hand to the tottering Nepali government to stabilize and undertake the drafting of a Democratic Constitution by the end of next year. Nepal and India has agreed to find out a bilateral mechanism to resolve the border issues between the two countries. Nepal has to finish the draft by 27 May 2010, as the term of the present interim government, formed for the job, ends by that time. However, it is fraught with many problems as the Maoists have refused to join the government and is busy with protest marches and other intimidating tactics. Constitution may be said to express the spirit of a country. It is an expression of readiness of the people to accept the rule of law. It tells how the people want to be ruled and the kind of life it want to live. The Constitution lays down the structure of the legislature where the laws are made after prolonged deliberations by the members elected by the people. The constitution also defines the various organs of the State and their duties and responsibilities. It also may spell out the duties responsibilities of the citizens also. It is the Constituent Assembly that drafts the Constitution.
The nature of the present Constituent Assembly of Nepal is not that good. The former interim government of Mr. Prachanda, the Maoist leader, resigned on 4 May when its order to sack the Army Chief was stalled by the President. Though Madhav Kumar Nepal who formed a coalition government comprising 22 arties he has not been able to persuade Mr. Prachanda to join the government. Madhav Kumar has to reconcile many diverse views, which itself is a Himalayan task, before the constitution is drafted. As Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister and an important member in the Constituent Assembly put it then, “This cannot be done by the wisest f lawyers sitting together in conclave, it cannot be done by small committees trying to balance interests and calling that constitution-making; it can never be done under the shadow of an external authority. It can only be done effectively when the political and psychological conditions are present, and the urge and sanctions come from the masses”.
Writing a Constitution is not enough. It should work the way it is expected to work. And it is the duty of all sections of the people to see to it that it does work. If it remains merely as a thick dome containing the ‘laws’ of the state it is useless. The various institutions and the rules envisaged in the constitution must not remain static. They must evolve in time .Otherwise it would not be able to take care of the political system or the people. Just as a living organism grows and develops in time, a constitution should also live and develop if it is to be effective.
Speaking in the constituent assembly of India on 17 October 1949, J.B.Kripalani said, “I want this house to remember that what we have enunciated are not merely legal, constitutional, and formal principles, but moral principles; and moral principles have got to be lived in life. They have to be lived, whether it is in private life or it is in public life of an administrator. They have to be lived throughout. These things we have to remember if our Constitution is to succeed”.
These sound observations are applicable not only in the case of India but that of any country that wishes to have a constitution that can take care of the interest of a nation and her people.
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