Intellectuals against ethnic federalism

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: The experts affiliated to the Nepal Intellectual Council (NIC) today stated that ethnic federalism might invite instability in the society for next several decades.

Prof Ganesh Man Gurung said they were against ethnicity-based federal states for protecting social harmony, national unity and integrity.

“The states should be federated on the basis of capacity and geographical structure,” he said, adding,” We don’t need more than five federal states. And each of the states should spread from north to south encompassing Himalaya, hill and plains as per the distribution of resources.”

Likewise, Prof Govinda Nepal said there was a need of analytical discussion on impacts of federalism and its expenses before federating states.

“The only solution of present crisis is federating the country on the basis of capacity in a small number to minimise the state cost,” he said.

Bhim Prasad Neupane, former chairman of the NIC, said the political discourse regarding the federal states was heading towards wrong direction. “The Maoists are advocating racial ethnicity while communism believes in cast of mankind,” he said. “If the country is federated on the basis of ethnicity, the country will suffer from conflict for next five to 10 decades,” he claimed.

Former attorney general Yuba Raj Sangraula said the economists, sociologists, anthropologists, constitution experts and psychologists were excluded in the constitution writing process when they are inevitable to write the fundamental law.

Likewise, Political analyst Lal Babu Yadav said the state is represented by citizens rather than a single group or ethnicity. “I am a Nepali regardless of my race or roots. When democracy itself believes in decentralisation, human rights and inclusion, why need we talk about ethnicity? If we put the rights of the group ahead of its citizens, the country is likely to fall behind of time,” he warned.

The constitution could not be made due to ideological differences of the major political parties on the concept of federalism, said Legal expert Tika Ram Bhattarai.

He said, “UCPN-Maoist wants to make the federal states weaker without opposition parties, so that it could capture the state power in its favourable time.”

Advocate Hong Kong Rana and CPN-UML lawmaker Rakam Chemjong expressed their views in favour of social harmony and spirit of co-existence at a programme organised by NIC today.