Why Nepal's new constitution has left Indians worried

Madhesis and the Tharu ethnic communities in the Terai region are opposed to the new Constitution as they believe it fails to address concerns raised by them

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Nepal on Sunday adopted its new fully secular and democratic Constitution, achieved after seven years of painstaking deliberations, amid violent protests by minority Madhesi groups over a seven-province federal structure.
 

“I call for unity and cooperation of all at this historic moment,” Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. Yadav was speaking at a special ceremony at the Constituent Assembly (CA) hall in Kathmandu’s Naya Baneshwor to mark the Himalayan nation's transformation into a secular, federal democracy from a Hindu monarchy.
 

The Constitution, coming within months of the country seeing deaths of close to 9,000 people after devastating earthquakes, has 37 divisions, 304 articles and seven annexes. 
 

But disagreement surrounding the federal structure that will divide Nepal into seven provinces has triggered violence in the country, claiming at least 40 lives including one on Sunday.
 

Madhesis and the Tharu ethnic communities in southern Nepal (the Terai region) and some western districts are opposed to the new Constitution as they believe it fails to address concerns raised by them. The Terai region constitutes a fifth of Nepal’s landmass but accounts for over half the nation's population. 
 

Among some of the most contentious clauses in the Constitution are those over citizenship in the country of 28 million people. The proptesting communities say that these clauses discriminate against women marrying foreigners, and deny their children equal access to citizenship. Estimates of the number of stateless people in Nepal range from 800,000 to 4 million, says a Reuters report.

Indians’ worry
 

Quoting official sources The Indian Express reported that India was “dissatisfied” with the new Constitution of Nepal as it was “not broad-based” or “equal” and did not represent “two-thirds of the population”, comprising Madhesis and Janajatis. 

The report added that India's biggest concern was that Madhesis were up in arms against the secular and democratic Constitution.
 

A FirstPost report argued that as the Terai region shared its borders with the Indian state of Bihar, it was quite obvious that political unrest in Nepal would impact the poll-bound Indian state. 
 

A statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs also had some apprehensions regarding the Nepali Constitution. “We are concerned that the situation in several parts of the country bordering India continues to be violent. Our ambassador to Kathmandu has spoken to the prime minister of Nepal in this regard,” it said.

“We urge that issues on which there are differences should be resolved through dialogue in an atmosphere free of violence and intimidation, and institutionalised in a manner that would enable broad-based ownership and acceptance,” the statement added.
 

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had on Saturday said India had always been strongly supportive of the Constitution-making process in Nepal and it would like its completion to be an occasion of joy and satisfaction, not agitation and violence. 

The Terror factor
 

The 1950-Indo-Nepal Treaty of peace and friendship that enables the Nepalese and Indian citizens to move freely across the border without passport or visa has become a tool for terror outfits to export extremist elements to the Indian side. So, given the unrest and chaos along the Indo-Nepal border, members of several terrorist groups might enter India with sinister designs. India shares a 1,751-km border with Nepal. 
 

According to an India Today report in April, just after the first devastating earthquake, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had sent alerts to the Uttar Pradesh government to intensify vigil at the border in Maharajganj, Siddharthnagar, Balrampur, Shravasti, Bahraich, Lakhimpur Kheri and Pilibhit in the state.

So, it is clear that India’s concerns on the unrest over promulgation of the Nepali Constitution are not unfounded, as this will impact its own internal security.