My Note of Dissent on Preamble of Draft Constitution of Nepal

WE, the Nepali Janata, have waited for a new and noble Constitution for a long time. We are hoping to see one day a Constitution of Nepal drafted by representatives elected by Nepalese people. We hope the Constitution will give a "Kick" to Nepal to propel it towards a modern State where equal rights to everyone becomes the reality.

Among many, I hope the day is not far. Not that I am convinced that the Constitution as we would have liked to see is going to be unveiled, but some sorts of Constitution is definitely going to be the "Supreme Law of our Land" soon. This hope is created by unprecedented agreements among the political parties few months ahead. We have already moved ahead from the point of disagreements and discords and a draft Constitution of Nepal is before us. The draft has been prepared by applying super - fast/ultra - fast techniques and that can be visibly seen in it. Now, our parliamentarians are asking for our "valuable" suggestions to augment the draft of the Constitution. Not many days are left to give our suggestions on the draft and therefore, it is better to be in a hurry.

As a Common Nepali Janata, I too joined the bandwagon to give my feedback. I could not go through each and every article where I can suggest for a change. I rather adopted a lumpsum approach to give my feedbacks. I wrote to them what I wanted to see in the New Constitution which has been waited not only by Nepalese but by the world.

When I tried to read the draft, I could not go past the Preamble. The verbose of Preamble made me read it again and again and I found it difficult to actually find a reason why so many words have to be put in Preamble to our unborn Constitution. Anyway, I hope lawmakers will clarify in the coming days why exactly they need such a long preamble with many redundant words. My point in this blog is that I have a serious dissent on two words which are used in Constitution's preamble and if final draft is promulgated without any changes, it will be the biggest fraud on the hope of people.

1. The draft Preamble writes, "राष्ट्रहित, लोकतन्त्र र अग्रगामी परिवर्तनका लागि नेपाली जनताले पटक-पटक गर्दै आएका ऐतिहासिक जनआन्दोलन, सशस्त्र संर्घष" सशस्त्र संर्घष i.e, "armed revolution launched by CPN Maoists" which was termed as Terrorists by democratic parties gets a legitimacy by this Constitutional draft. This is a dangerous trend.

No one can forget that the armed revolution launched by Maoists was based on terrorisms, killing, kidnapping. Many of the people involved in the terrorisms had resorted inhumane practices without any care for laws of wars. The people who are guilty of killing innocents are roaming freely and instead of showing commitment to punish the perpetrators, the preamble gives a standing ovation to such criminals who launched a war for usurping power by coating it with political colours. This will have a tendency to legitimise any kinds of terrorists and criminal activities in the future. Therefore, this phrase must not find place in the Constitution's Preamble


2. The second issue in the draft Preamble is "लोकतान्त्रिक मूल्य र मान्यतालाई अवलम्बन गरी समाजवादको आधार निर्माण गर्न प्रतिबद्ध रहँदै". Hello, Are you saying the the democracy is a path to Socialism? Whose Socialism? Socialism of Hitler, Stalin, or Indira Gandhi? Or of Karl Marx or Mao?

This brings a very perceivable threat to the freedoms of People. By resorting to "build a foundation of Socialist State", it tries to invade person's liberty and freedom. This may give State a chance to be a "Big Brother" of Stalin era as explained by Orwell in his 1984.

First of all, what is socialism the draft is talking about and whose socialism it is being talked. This needs to be very clear. Are we imagining Nepal to be a Country where State can acquire business and property of private individual in the name of "creating foundation of Socialism"? That means private insurance, banking, media, publication, prints, textiles etc. can be acquired and nationalised by state on the basis of someone's whims and fancies. This means there is no property rights in Nepal and Nepal will remain a poor country forever as we have seen how our public institutions are working. Since it says that they will be committed to build the foundation of Socialism, we may have to see one day Commune system of farming and working. 

Instead of trying to be a "welfare state" and intervening only where state's intervention is required and leaving the other spaces for private enterprises, the constitution has moved dangerously off course with the word socialism in its preamble. 

That's why I, the Nepali Janata exercise my right to dissent.