iii. making the new constitution
Interim arrangements
When a country emerges from a state of conflict and state institutions have either
collapsed or been discredited, or are unacceptable to one or more groups,
an interim constitution (IC) is usually adopted both to provide for the governance
of the country until a new government under a new constitution is established
and to set out the road map (goals, institutions and procedures) for the making of
the new constitution. Sometimes the interim arrangements are short (when they
focus on drafting a new document) and sometimes long (when they provide a
complete constitutional framework for the interim period). Sometimes interim
arrangements take the form of a political agreement among the key actors. In
Nepal, the arrangements were long and elaborate, dominated by the Maoists and
three of the seven political parties, with little room for Dalits, indigenous peoples,
people of Tarai (the southern part of Nepal) and women, who had been instru-
mental in the removal of the authority of the king.
The making of the 2007 interim constitution
Although many differences divided civil-society leaders and Maoists, they were
united on the way forward, through a constituent assembly and a broad social
agenda. The king and the other parties wanted reform through parliament and
within the more restrictive framework of the 1990 constitution. The advocates of
the latter approach wanted only cautious reform, clarifying the legal provisions for
the power of the king which had enabled the monarchy to intervene actively in
politics. The proponents of the constituent assembly wanted new foundations of
constitutional authority, derived directly from the people, a more inclusive participa-
tion than is possible in parliament, and the realisation of the vision of Nepal as a truly
multiethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual state with a strong commitment to
social justice. Although at first all forces opposed to monarchy and authoritarianism
(the seven political parties, including the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party
of Nepal (UML) and smaller parties; the Maoists; and the disadvantaged groups)
wanted democracy, their real positions surfaced soon enough to complicate the
way forward. Maoists had a different conception of democracy from the other
political parties while the disadvantaged groups (Dalits, indigenous peoples, women
and people of Tarai – the lowland strip adjacent to India) wanted greater inclusion
in all sectors of state and society.
The Maoists and the other parties had major differences on how to proceed to
a new constitutional order once a ceasefire had been agreed. The seven parliamen-
tary parties that had negotiated a political alliance with the Maoists in 2005 were in
favour of using the 1990 constitution, with its unsuitable provisions modified or