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VOL. 27, NO. 39, June 13 , 2008 (Jestha 31 2065 B.S.)
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Indian Ambassador Remarks
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Consolidation of India’s federal democracy
By Rakesh Sood
I am happy to be present at this post-visit interaction with the delegation of senior civil servants of Nepal, which has just concluded a two-week visit to India to study various aspects and issues related with federalism. We have attached great importance to this visit as part of our development cooperation with Nepal.
The visit of the delegation has taken place against a historic backdrop when the choice of Nepali people regarding their system of governance and political set up has put Nepal on a new road to peace and prosperity. The focus of the visit of the delegation of senior Government of Nepal officers on federalism is particularly relevant, and will continue to be so as Nepal gets down to drafting a new Constitution which will be based on inclusive and institutionalized democracy and marry the aspirations of a pluralistic society within a federal set up. The multiethnic demography and presence of diverse interests and aspirations of Nepali people presents situation similar to India's more than 60 years ago, when we started to write our Constitution. We hope that the success and consolidation of India’s federal democracy can be an encouraging experience for Nepal.
As the senior civil servants of Nepal, you shoulder an important part of the historic responsibility to consolidate Nepal's democracy and successfully implement the letter and spirit of the new Constitution going to be drafted by the Constituent Assembly. If your experiences and observations during this visit could make some contribution in that direction, the purpose of our initiative will be served. I am happy to learn that the Indian Institute of Public Administration – a premier institute in India for the training of civil servants– had arranged a substantive programme for you. I hope that your visits and interactions would have given you an opportunity to closely observe India’s federal machinery at work along its various dimensions – ranging from legislative to judicial, administrative, financial and developmental federalism. I am sure that you would have drawn comparisons, and observe similarities, too, of conditions between India and Nepal, which would leave you with the option to use your own judgment as to which element best suits the needs of Nepal and which does not.
Let me reiterate that we highly value the recent initiative that we have launched for training-cum-exposure visits of GON officials under the India-Nepal Economic Cooperation Programme. Your visit is among the most important of them. Recently, we concluded an ambitious management development programme for Local Development Officers covering all 75 districts of Nepal. A group of 10 Finance Officers of Government of Nepal were also trained in India in April 2007. Similarly, in December 2007, a high-level delegation from the Public Service Commission of Nepal visited India to study the reservation policy in the recruitment for India’s civil services in the context of Nepal’s new legislation for making the civil services more inclusive.
We welcome similar federalism-related study visits by more groups of senior civil servants of Government of Nepal, with the belief that they have to play an important role in the consolidation of democracy and stability of Nepal in the coming months and years. We also stand ready to provide opportunities for study and exposure visits to the Nepalese civil servants in other focus areas, which we feel will further strengthen awareness of each others’ systems and reinforce the friendly, professional and close relations that characterize the interaction between the civil servants of our two countries. Given the close cooperation and a natural advantage offered by the similarity of conditions between our two countries, we are always ready to extend all possible assistance to Nepal’s transformation to a stable, peaceful and prosperous democracy.
(The author is an Indian ambassador. This is excerpt of the statement he delivered at the interaction with the senior officers of government of Nepal after their Federalism Study Visit to India)
