Panchayat System of Nepal Part-II and 1990 Constitution

Marich Man Singh Shrestha had served as Nepal’s Prime Minister for about four years till April 1990, when the political parties launched an agitation to restore democratic rights. He is known for mass suppression of democratic forces and this highly degraded his status. Meanwhile, the Nepal-India relations started souring due to an array of reasons mainly including the below two:

• In March 1988, King Birendra had allowed Nepal to buy weapons from China. This was against the terms of Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty of 1950 and 1965 agreement on import of arms between the two countries.
• According to the articles of the Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty of 1950, both the countries would provide national treatment to the citizens of each other with regard to industrial and economic activities. Violating these, Nepal put stringent restrictions on the ownership of property by Indians in Nepal. Further, in 1987, Nepal included Indians into the category of foreigners requiring work permits, initially in three districts later in entire country. This deprived many Indians employment in Nepal, while many Nepalese enjoyed freedom to work and employment in India.
• The India-Nepal transit route was used to smuggle cheap third country products (China) into India.

Due to these, India hardened its position and refused to renew two separate Treaties of Trade and Transit. The treaties got expired in 1989 and India closed all but two border entry points with Nepal.

The economic blockade was a big blow to Nepal’s economy and common people. The people of Nepal suffered souring inflation and inadequate supply of consumer goods and petroleum products. Nepal is a landlocked country and its entire economy is dependent on India for resources, trade as well as transit.

Jan Andolan-I

Instead of reconciliation with India, the Nepal government tried to tackle the crisis on the basis of foreign aid from US, UK, China and Australia. However, this was a flawed strategy. People’s resentment grew who wanted the government to negotiate with India in place of depending on foreign aid. Taking advantage of the people’s resentment, the Nepali Congress and other parties such as United Left Front (ULF)  started mass mobilization movement against the tyranny of the Man Singh government.  The movement turned violent and these parties garnered international support, thus forcing the King to dismiss the Marich Man Singh government and replace him with Lokendra Bahadur Chand on 6 April 1990. But the people were resenting against the partyless democracy so mere change in Prime Minister did not satisfy them. Within 10 days, the King dismissed the Chand Government also and issued a royal proclamation to dissolve the Rastriya Panchayat. He accepted constitutional reforms and to establish a multiparty parliament that took seat in May 1991. This was known as Jan Andolan.

A new Constitution came up in Nepal as a follow up to Jan Andolan which limited the Monarch’s role, retained Nepal as a Hindu Kingdom, paved the way for parliamentary system and granted fundamental rights to the people of Nepal.

Key Features of 1990 Constitution

The 1990 Constitution was different from earlier traditional constitution of Nepal. It was not drafted by a constituent assembly and it:

• Lifted ban on political parties and established multiparty system
• Curtailed authority of King
• Declared Nepal as a Hindu monarchy Kingdom
• Had scope of emergency power to be used by Nepal

The above features make it clear that the 1990 constitution substantially increased the democratic character vis-à-vis Panchayat system but it was criticized and rejected by the left parties. The key points of its criticism were as follows:

• It was not drafted by a constituent assembly but a nine-member commission whose two members were royal representatives.
• It declared Nepal a Hindu state and not a secular state, thus did not protect minorities
• It granted no freedom of life and fundamental rights could be suspended.
• It does not provide for a balance of power within the government.