When Ambassador Peter W Bodde was appointed US envoy to Nepal in June, 2012, the political scene of his assigned country was in a complete mess. In order to demolish Maoists and show Madheshbadis their place, the Indo-American nexus had joined forces with the Permanent Establishment of Nepal (PEON) to destroy the most inclusive and progressive legislature in the history of the country.The Interim Constitution lay torn into pieces. An extra-constitutional government, unambiguously backed by the security forces, was in place to orchestrate elections for the second Constituent Assembly. The fate of the polls hung in balance.
Ambassador Bodde went about his task with the suavity of a diplomat, nonchalance of a public servant and persistence of a professional. He was less flamboyant than European envoys, more visible than East Asian representatives, and considerably muted in comparison to often brash and abrasive Indian diplomats.
From his previous two stints in Nepal—as an Attaché between 1982-84 and then as the Deputy Chief of Mission between 1994-97—Ambassador Bodde knew that the threat of sticks were meaningless to the PEON; the cohort actually reveled when the people suffered. But a foreign mission could go a long way in the power corridors of Kathmandu with soft tones, amicable exterior and dollops of sweetener. His strategy seems to have worked wonders.
In the world of diplomacy, it's difficult, if not impossible, to differentiate between causation, correlation and coincidences. However, every strategic interest of USA has gained new heights during the tenure of Ambassador Bodde. The Indian influence has been considerably undercut among all sections of society. The Chinese have lost their aura of respectability after several fiascos in construction contracts and the diplomatic debacle of Lipu-Lekh.
European missions stand discredited. For the first time after the 1960s, the USA has once again succeeded in establishing itself as the paramount savior of the PEON in Kathmandu. There was a slight setback in Airbus/Boeing controversy when the British and EU countries traded their democratic agenda of promoting secularism, inclusion, federalism and welfare state to obtain a commercial deal; but that was clearly a very small price to pay in order to secure higher say in all other strategic affairs.
Ambassador Bodde correctly gauged early on that the bread of the leisure class in Nepal came from remittances of poor Nepalis working in the sweltering heat of West Asia and Malaysia in slave-like conditions. If the political order established through the counter-revolution staged by the Supreme Court in May 2012 were to be secured, the idlers in the capital city needed to be entertained endlessly. Political dramas staged ever since have had a combination of tragedy, farce and absurdities in equal measure.
In what can perhaps be described as one of the crowning glories of his career, circus artistes of Nepal have presented a draft constitution as a farewell gift to the US ambassador-designate to the occupied territories of Libya. Whether it lasts or not is no longer the problem of the playwright; the new directors have now to look after the script.
Five fallacies
The Draft Constitution may well turn out to be a trial balloon. It's difficult to accept that such a shoddy piece of work could have been produced by some of the most adroit players of political games. For uninterested insomniacs, the document is a useful bedside read to induce sleep. However, hypertensive persons need to watch out before opening the text if they have any stake in the future of the country: Its contents are sure to put blood pressure racing.
Fealty towards the feudal lord was the supreme duty of peasants. Nationals swore allegiance to the tribal chief of a settled community. Subjects were honor-bound to remain subservient to the monarch. The people are forced to form patron-client affiliation with their masters in an oligarchy to ensure survival. Citizenship is quintessentially a democratic idea that establishes a relationship of rights and obligations. Among three methods of acquiring citizenship (right of blood, right of birth and right of living or naturalization) in any civilized country, the claim that comes from having born within a territory undoubtedly is the clearest.
The "and/or" controversy is pointless when a statute being drafted in the twenty-first century still talks about bloodlines and ancestry. The draft is flawed on the fundamental premise of a democratic state. Born into a learned family of Maithil Brahmins, Parmanand Jha is the duly-elected Vice-President of the country. Diwakar Golchha comes from a reputable family of industrialists with over a century of contribution to Nepali economy. They will never be able to become 'genuine Nepalis' as long as this fiction of Nepali ancestry is maintained in the supreme law of the land.
The policy of political inclusion in the draft is even more farcical. Inclusion isn't just another poverty alleviation scheme that it needs to take interests of all possible groups into account. It's a way of reparation for wrongs done in the past and ensuring a more proportionate structure of the state in the future. The Dalit women from among Madheshis deserve it most. So do Pahadi Dalits and most Janjatis irrespective of their economic status. Even the so-called high-caste Madheshis being hardly at par with communities of the PEON, they definitely deserve special treatment. Lump them with Khas-Arya—whatever it means—and youths and farmers among others, and the provision becomes pointless.
Representation lies at the heart of democracy. Universal principles such as one person, one vote; equality of all votes; and necessity of voting; have all emerged over centuries to ensure representation proportionate to population in the legislature so that every citizen can have equal stake in the system. Provisions of representation in the draft are so skewed that Madheshis will forever remain second-class citizens.
The hullabaloo over secularism is the fourth fallacy of the draft. The idea of secularism encompasses freedom of religion and includes the right of a believer to practice her faith and not be forced or induced to change it without her explicit consent. The idea of national religion is a vestige of monarchical past and needs to be buried into pages of history. In a democracy, politics of religion invariably leads towards the rise of fascistic tendencies, which is bad news even for weaker sections of the population of the dominant faith.
The "clowning glory" of the draft statute is the midnight settlement over federal boundaries. There are principally three ways of federalization. When independent units come together for a shared future, a forward-looking union is formed. A confederation is an experimental unity between deeply divided societies that want to work together for limited purposes. The most complex federalization is when a political design has to be produced to maintain unity that was forged in the past due to force of circumstances rather than willingness of constituent societies.
Instead of ruminating over conditions that created the necessity of staying-together model of federalism in Nepal, honchos of major parties hunched over maps like warlords divvying up conquered territories. The idea is so absurd that it doesn't deserve even a cursory examination.
No exit
Geostrategic realities aren't permanent. Interests of different lobbies change over time. What remains constant is the conscience of the citizenry in any democracy. The Dalits, the Janjatis and the Madheshis, are expectedly enraged. The draft statute blatantly seeks to consign them to secondary and tertiary statuses. However, history will also record the silence of those in the dominant community that swear by equality, equity and solidarity.
Dissecting the swift rise of fascism in mid-twentieth century Europe, Aimé Césaire wrote, "... it would be worthwhile to study clinically, in detail, the steps taken by Hitler and Hitlerism and to reveal to the very distinguished, very humanistic, very Christian bourgeois of the twentieth century that without his being aware of it, he has a Hitler inside him." Mahendra and Mahendrism lives inside the very eminent, very liberal, very democratic and very modern bourgeoisie of the leisure class in Kathmandu in a similar manner. It sees no contradiction between ideas of xenophobic nationalism and federated republicanism.
The rightful place for such a dodgy draft is the dustbin. When truth and justice are at stake, it's never too late to begin at the beginning: The Springtime of Peoples in the heady days of 2006 when Nepalis of all stripes stood up to share a common dream.
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