Non-inclusive cabinet  Learn a lesson for the CA The ruling Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) have finally managed to give their coalition government a shape. After more than two weeks of inter-party wrangling over the Home ministry allocation and power sharing within their parties, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala finally expanded his cabinet on Tuesday by inducting 19 ministers, including two deputy prime ministers Bamdev Gautam and Prakash Man Singh and one minister of state. It is no doubt that the expansion of the Koirala cabinet has come as a relief, as the general public is not only expecting a smooth transition from the technocratic government to the political government but also hope that the two coalition partners would fulfill the people’s wishes of a new constitution. But the formation of the cabinet itself has raised doubts over the two largest parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA) being able to provide the country a constitution that guarantees equal opportunities to all in state affairs. The formation of the cabinet has once again proved that the two big parties are yet to adapt to the practices of justified representation of the cross section of the society, especially those who have been traditionally marginalized. Though the parties have agreed in principle that the constitution of new federal democratic republican Nepal should address the grievances of marginalized communities, they have failed to put this in practice. Out of the 21 members in the cabinet, including PM Koirala, 16 are from the so-called high caste hill Brahmin and Chhetri with a very marginal representation of Janajatis and Madheshis. There is no single representation from the ‘low caste’ Dalit community. It is not surprising though. The Dalits, being in the lowest rung of the Hindu caste hierarchy, have always been left behind and they have never been able to feel that they too have a stake in the state affairs. Hence, their quest for equality and humane treatment continues. Even as the demand for 33 percent representation of women in all the government and non-government sectors have been quite vocal in the past few years, only two women ministers have been inducted in the cabinet as token representation – one each from NC and CPN (UML) – which is just 10 percent . Thus, the domination of the Hindu elites continues. This is definitely not a good beginning. The UCPN (Maoist), throughout their armed struggle, raised the issue of building an inclusive society by providing equal opportunities to the marginalized communities. And the discussion over the issue also gained momentum during the previous CA. However, despite being the largest party in the previous CA, the UCPN (M) failed to convince other parties to ensure equal representation in practice. Now that the party has been pushed to the third position in this CA, falling quite far behind the two big parties, the issue raised by them is feared to be sidelined. We reiterate that the societal change would not be possible without addressing the existing discriminatory practices on the basis of caste, ethnicity, gender, religion and region. The marginalized communities have managed to garner the nation’s attention towards their plight by voicing their concerns, but the all important parties do not seem to have learnt a lesson. However, leaving behind the initial hiccup, the government should now work towards gaining the public confidence by taking some drastic measures to ensure smooth functioning of the government. On the other hand, the major political parties should start delving on the provisions that have been agreed upon in the previous CA and start deliberation in earnest over the contentious issues. Jai mithila....jai nepal....
Posted on: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 09:41:14 +0000
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