Mahendra Sapkota, 9 October 2015

Constitution writing and federalism in the post 2006 context---a political matrix

Emergence of different actors with contrasting claims

Two times of CA elections, and unending negotiations

Different alliances, movements, dissenting voices of Tarai-Madhes based parties/groups

So----the rational lies to inform the larger audience of Constitution writing and social movement studies

Main objective/RQ: to assess and analyze the constitution-making process from the view point of Madhesi and Tharumovement Nepal

Approach and method: Critical design; basically thematic review; unstructured interviews with experts, leaders, activists and some common people

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Theory of social movements----Constitutional and legal studies…… Latin American, south Asian, Arabian,

European context In Nepal, not new Positioning of Tharu movement (beyond

ethnic) and Madhes movement (beyond regional) level of discourse

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Ethnic movement Protest and agitation; claims for ethnic rights and identity; e.g. Tharu

Regional movement Protest and agitation; claims for regional issues; e.g. Madhes

Others social movements The movements for different issues, such as about religion, rights of senior citizens and women, social reform movement, Dalit movement, non-ethnic (Khas-Chhetri) movement

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Tarai region in the Rana regime----Panchayat and nationalism

Tharu movement of 1950s----cultural issuesMadhes movement of 1960s----issues of

autonomy 1990 movement and the electoral democracy 1996-2006: the decade of fear and hope 2006 and changing polity (contradiction and

unity between the Madhesi and Tharu)

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Federalism: number and political boundary of the states, particularly in the Tarai region; power sharing; local governance

Form of governance: presidential vs. parliamentary; directly elected executive vs. elected executive by the parliament

Electoral system: FPTP vs PR; threshold to the PPs Citizenship: descent (mother and/or father); naturalised (years

of living in Nepal); equal political status of the both provisions Proportional representation and identity: Positive discrimination,

special rights, representation based on population Judiciary systems: centralised or federal; constitutional court; Religion: secularism vs. Hindu State; religious freedom and right

to change the religion

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1. Deliberation of CA 2. The federalism 3. The Constitution of Nepal 2072 4. The continuation of dissenting voices

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The basic discourse: federalism vs. anti-federalism, and changing positions of the movement actors….Tarai turmoil

Claims of Tarai-Madhes- based political parties ----are they really representative?

Over-emphasis on the number, names and boundaries….but the missing issues on local governance and decentralisation, organisation of federal states and distribution of power and resources, etc.

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The strengths: defined sovereignty by the people themselves by their representatives; came after a long period of negotiation; consensual outcome of the major political parties; constitutional recognition to the marginalised caste/ethnic groups

The weaknesses: continuity of conventional parliamentary model; federal structure without consensus on political boundaries; some inaccessible fundamental rights; lacking of scientific basis of secularism and inclusion; weakening of local bodies, etc.

Opportunities: new discourse of politics, development and social movements

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Legitimacy, public ownership and popular execution of the Constitution among the movement actors and in the Tarai ??

The mood of extremism, negation, and agitations against—may be violent in coming days??

Continuity of movement and its fragmented leadership??

The handling of international actors and diplomacy??

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