FYI,

The following was the conclusion of the conclusions of my presentation (on ‘the federal model choices for Nepal’ ) at the talk program hosted by ‘Washington Nepal Form’ yesterday at American University, DC.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. While federating, Nepal should give birth to ‘states’ in such a way that the opening line of our fate could be written this way:

Every state is born equal (in terms of natural and human resources).

This can be best achieved by dividing the country into three states (East, Middle, West).

Alternatively, the country can be divided into several provinces (like Maoist has proposed), however, they should have neither autonomy nor ethnic names.

Absence of autonomy will allow the unrestricted flow of the wealth/poverty across all states through all channels (local, regional and central channels) and absence of ethnic names will make all caste/sub-caste/ethnicity feel indiscriminated. (Remember Maoist scheme of rewarding a few lucky caste/ethnicities their statehood and leaving out the rest for no or sub-statehood creates a new “barnashram” for caste/ethnicities, a recipe for never-ending future ethnic conflicts)

2. Regardless of the scheme for regional structure, more powerful and more resourceful local level government and a perfectly inclusive central government  should be the main features of our statecrafting.

____________________________________

Nepe