Nepal’s Wait for a New Constitution

Nepal was declared a secular democracy in 2008, after the fall of the Hindu monarchy. Six years later, it is yet to have a new constitution to cement the transition. The nation’s first elected Constituent Assembly (CA) had the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) at the helm, but with its two major rival centrist parties – the Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) – having only marginally fewer seats. While contentions and the failure to promulgate a new constitution marked the first CA, the centrist parties have a comfortable majority in the second and current assembly, elected last year. Will this assembly, led by the NC, finally be able to resolve the ideological differences and manage geopolitics with India and China competing for influence? Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister Prakash Man Singh, a leader of the NC, speaks to The Diplomat on questions surrounding the country’s constitutional journey and its relations with India and China.