--By Janardan Baral

 

Dr Baburam Bhattarai, former prime minister of Nepal and senior leader of UCPN Maoist, recently claimed that the life of Nepali federalism is 30-40 years only. He said this to business leaders and CA members, at a time when the second Constituent Assembly (CA) is making a draft of the new constitution with an aim to promulgating it on 15th of January 2015. Dr. Bhattarai is the chairman of CA’s political dialogue and consensus committee, which is given a crucial role in drafting the new constitution. 

 

Federalism in Nepal was the agenda of the then CPN Maoist. The party waged a civil war to establish federal and republic system in the country. More than 15,000 Nepalis were killed in the course of the civil war which culminated in a 19-day people's movement of 2006-07 that resulted in the declaration "democratic federal republic of Nepal". After investing so much of time and sacrificing thousands of lives for the sake of federalism, the Maoist leadership is now realizing that federalism is not a sustainable system for countries like Nepal.

 

Dr Bhattarai’s statement necessitates examining the very idea of adopting federalism: Are we adopting it for the sake of adopting it or is it genuinely necessary? A federal system should solve some of the existing problems of the country. People should be empowered. Federalism as understood by the general public is the means of economic prosperity. But, will federalism really bring prosperity to the general public? Or, will it become the seed of future conflict? It is widely understood that conflict and disputes are the natural by-products of federalizing the state, as there would more entities to fight for the same interest.

 

The Kathmandu-centred ruling system of the country, dominated by certain caste groups, discrimination along caste/ethnic lines, and failure to meet the needs of the masses, have been identified as some reasons for federalising Nepal. Thus, identity and capacity have been fixed as two main bases of Nepal's federalism. Of these two, identity is mostly prioritized while capacity in terms of economic viability of the states is undermined. Though five types of identity have been specified as the bases of federalism, most people and even the lawmakers understand it as ethnic identity. This will result in adopting ethnic identity as the basis for creating provinces while adopting federalism. Defending identity-based federalism, Dr Bhattarai has said, "If people get identity-based federalism, they will produce and sell few things only for their own ethnic and linguistic group. That would help in local development and contribute to national development at large." 

 

But, Nepal is a small country with a small population of around 30 million. This small market size is one of the major constraints to attract investment in the country. In this context, will an entrepreneur invest in an enterprise, which can produce only for a village?

 

Federalism is best for large country, not for small

There are more than two hundred countries in the world, of which only 26 are federal. Among largest 10 countries of the world seven have federal system, i.e. Russia, Canada, USA, Brazil, Australia, India and Argentina. Of the total 29 states of India, 11 are either almost equal or larger than Nepal in terms of area, five are almost double in size than Nepal. 18 Indian states are either equal or larger than Nepal in terms of population. Among Nepal’s neighbouring Indian states, Uttar Pradesh has a population of 200 million, Bihar has 120 million and West Bengal has 90 million.  

 

What should we do?

We don't need ‘40-year federalism’, we need a sustainable federalism that is driven by the objective of economic prosperity. It should ensure the right of people to live a decent life. If we concentrate solely on identity issue, it can be hazardous to the nation. Federalism should ensure equality in terms of basic living standard of all the people, and shouldn't further widen the regional gap. There are many successful and unsuccessful stories of federalism from different parts of the world, to learn from. We should create a model for ourselves on the basis of these lessons.