The pace of federalism

Federalism is a new exercise in Nepal, and it is not unusual for challenges to appear.

Nepal is a diverse country with more than a hundred ethnic and language communities. For a long time, its unitary and centralised system of governance was unable to address the concerns of these diverse communities. The monarchical system, unable to uphold the rights of the citizens, was eventually replaced by a federal democratic republic. These calls emanated forcefully from the "People’s War" initiated by the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the movement led by the Seven Party Alliance and the 2006 People’s Movement. As a result, the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 accepted the federal system. The constitution promulgated by the Constituent Assembly in 2015 with the primary objective of ending all forms of discrimination mandated a three-tier model of government—federal, province and local.