The political parties are supposed to promulgate a new constitution in less than three weeks. But they are nowhere close to agreement. It is perhaps a sign of desperation on the part of the Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subas Nembang that he has offered to draft the new constitution himself. Nembang understands that as CA chairman, he holds a certain degree of responsibility in ensuring that the new constitution comes out on time. He remembers that many politicians and analysts blamed him for the failure of the first CA, and he wants to avoid this scenario at all costs. In offering to write the constitution himself and with the help of a few aides, Nembang seems to have been primarily driven by good intentions: he sees this as a way of fulfilling his responsibility. While appreciating Nembang’s intentions, however, it has to be said that this is a very bad idea.

The CA was established so that the elected representatives of the Nepali people could draft a constitution that embodied the aspirations of the diverse sections of the population. All previous constitutions drafted in Nepal failed because they had been written by small, secretive groups of experts who were not accountable to the broader population. When the first CA was elected in 2008, there was a widespread hope that this would not be the case this time around. Many thematic committees were created within the CA, where the people’s elected representatives debated on crucial issues. Unfortunately, old political tendencies gradually reasserted themselves. Over a period of time, the thematic committees became moribund, and negotiations over the constitution started to be held in closed-door meetings that included only the top leaders of the major parties. There was very little transparency of these negotiations, and even CA members stopped receiving information about them.

If the CA chairman is given the responsibility to draft a new constitution, this will be yet another unaccountable move. A constitution drafted in this manner will be no different from the many drafted in the past by the executive authority of the day, without any concern for the views of the population. In previous times, there was less political awareness in the country, and this enabled even unaccountable constitutions to last for a long time. For example, the Panchayat constitution lasted for almost three decades. For the past 20 years, however, a great political churning has been underway, and there is no chance that a constitution drafted in an unaccountable manner by a single individual, or by people representing only a section of the population, will gain legitimacy or be durable. The process of holding widespread consultations by including all political groups and trying to draft a new constitution through consensus is no doubt difficult. But this is the only way in which a widely legitimate constitution can be drafted.