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By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

Federalism is an essentially contested concept.

It seems to offer a middle way forward to cooperation and consensus between territorial interests.

In practice, if these things exist, then a formal commitment to constitutional federalism is not required.

If they do not exist, then formal federalism anchored in the Constitution will not produce them anyway.

Thus, although federalism was part and parcel of the Himalayan Republic and its Constitution, it was never properly realized – just as real, functional democracy, good governance, secularism – or even a republic as such.

The Himalayan Republic was a republic in name only – and the so-called Federal President a pawn in the hands of the absolute, oligarchic rulers and heads of the political parties that had transformed themselves into syndicates [ groups of individuals and organizations (sister or affiliated organizations) combined to promote their own common/selfish interests and/or ideologies].

If federalism is to be reinvigorated, it will be a work in progress, and bureaucrats and activists will have to work hard from the bottom up to make it really functional.

We would have to build a system of devolution of power comparable to the former Panchayat System (but not the same):

  1.  Village or Town/City Assembly electing the Village Council and Town/City Municipality
  2. At the next level, all the inhabitants of a district, like the Lalitpur District, would elect the members of the District Council, which would be the governing body of that particular district.

For the time being, there would be no province or state.

In the current situation with its fake/sham federalism, there is no real devolution of powers between the various levels of government/state.

Currently, what is missing is a sense of community at the village/ town ward levels.

This means inculcating a feeling of cooperation among the local inhabitants: collaboration, joint action, combined effort, teamwork, partnership, coordination, give and take. This creates synergy.

At the village level, an example of fruitful cooperation would be the community forests and joint fish ponds; and in the urban centres, it could be the open-air recreation areas.

The concept of consensus is also fundamental to distributing and sharing power. It means agreement, harmony, concurrence, accord, unity, unanimity, solidarity.

How could federalism in the Himalayan Republic really function when there was no consensus among the various levels of government/state?

We need to have a national discussion on the need and necessity of federalism – which is really not a holy cow.

More important is the basic need to build a sense of community among the Nepalese people.

When all is said, written and done, the basic realization for us as Nepalese is that the Himalayan Republic was an abject failure.

We have to stress that social relations inherent in community as something greater than the concerns and interests of each individual living in it added together.

Considering the leadership role in community politics, we can do nothing better than to reinvigorate the role of the Hindu Constitutional Monarchy.

What so-called Nepali federalism failed to achieve, the Himalayan Monarchy will re-introduce, solidify and further develop the sense of Nepali community — at all levels.

The writer can be reached at: shashimalla125@gmail.com