Bhutanese Legislators Outthink Indian Constitution Experts

      

By Govinda Rizal

A delegation headed by the chief election commissioner of India is in Bhutan's capital Thimphu to conceal their negligence, hide the deficiency of their intellectual ability diagnosed by the Bhutanese legislators and retrieve the constitution from the dustbin and place it back on the table.

The constitution that cost Bhutan a million dollars was commissioned to election experts and top judges of India's Supreme Court. This constitution failed implementation in the first instance. Last year, the government released funds for development of the constitution. The fund was to be used by the elected members of the parliament (MPs) to develop the neglected areas of their constituencies which the national plan had failed to recognize. There was no supporting provision in the constitution. It is still a matter of debate and a cause of conflict between the ruling and the opposition parties and between the two chambers. Lately, the local government bill 2009 (LG 2009) caused a major problem for the constitution.

The story began in 2001, when the former monarch decided to have a constitution for the state, the work of drafting was commissioned to Mr KK Venugoal, a constitutional expert and the senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India. A draft was prepared and distributed to the people on March 26, 2005. According to the provisions mentioned in the draft of the un-passed constitution election was conducted to elect members to the two chambers of the parliament; National Council (NC) and National Assembly (NA). The first sitting of the parliament passed the constitution with some discussion and few amendments.

Most elected members were new to the system and the psyche from the older regime was still fresh in their head. Not all the elected members were dumb headed as expected by the constitution makers. The constitutional feasibility for the national level election is yet to be tested as the first election according to the constitution has not taken place. A year after, during the third sitting of the parliament, a controversy surfaced over the modalities of election of local bodies.

Bhutan has three tiers of elected bodies. At the center there is NA and NC, at the district level there is District Council (DC). Below district level there is either Municipal Assembly (MA) in big towns or a Satellite Town Assembly (STA) in small towns as well as a Village Assembly (VA) in villages. As per the constitution, a district has one DC whose members are the elected representative of at least one MA that must be in a district and two representatives each from several VAs of the districts. The constitution further says the delimitation and changes in the boundaries of constituencies, villages, and municipalities must be agreed upon by at least two thirds of the MPs in the center.

The constitutional provision for the local election was found inappropriate and faulty. The LG 2009 failed to incorporate the constitutional necessities of at least one municipality in each district, citing it to be impractical. Article 22 clause 6 of the constitution of Bhutan mentions that the DC members are the elected representatives from the MA and VA. If municipalities are not created in some districts, their DC remains constitutionally incomplete. Instead of every district having an elected municipality, the new bill proposed that districts with significantly sized towns have class 'A' municipality, other districts without significantly sized population will get class 'B" municipality. The second class is promote-able to first class when the size increases over time. If the bill is passed, the differently categorized municipals will get different scale of support and treatment from the government.

The Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) wants the change and fixing of boundaries of local government to be done by the executive arm of the government that means through cabinet decision and Prime minister as the head of the executive arm can make it. Plus the ECB wants to put this action under the parenthesis of "one time measure", which means no future PMs shall have this right again.

The government wanted, through the LG 2009 bill, to bypass the constitution, which most members declined to accept. The members strongly objected to the bill, and it was rejected. All efforts to pass the LG 2009 bill failed during the third sitting and the rejected bill was sent to the monarch for consideration according to his conscience and the provision of the constitution.

The local bodies are without formal authority now. The elections of local bodies have not been taken after the transformation of rule from autocratic to constitutional monarchy. The tenure terminated members are doing extra duties in some bodies; most villages and districts are without responsible elected authorities. When there are no elected local and district level bodies, administrative works are brought to a complete halt; there are no alternative mechanisms to implement development activities at the district and village levels.

Practically, there is no presence of the government at the grass roots level. For an immediate salvation, the monarch called for an unusual, extraordinary joint session of the two chambers of parliament, with a clear message to pass the bill and to let the local election take place. It was also thought that after the bill was passed the LG election would take place. The unusual parliamentary session passed the faulty bill under royal pressure but underneath there remained the unsolved controversy.

The municipalities are not demarcated. To do so, the ministry of work and human settlement (MoWHS) is responsible. MoWHS does not have enough manpower, even for the survey; in case it needs to expedite the work, it has to depend on the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs (MoHCA) and the Ministry of Labour of Human Resources (MoLHS).

Even if the agreement between the ministries is done in the most efficient way, it will take a year to begin the work. With the difference still sharp and contradictory it was impossible to go ahead with local elections. There is so sign of coming of LG election within the horizon.

The fourth sitting of the NA will commence from 20th November 2009 and the LG 2009 bill that was passed through unusual drama in September 2009, less than three months ago, needs to be amended before implementation and passed again. There is a narrow chance that it will be passed for the second time if the provision of the constitution to have at least one municipality in a district and demarcation of boundaries to be approved by the MPs are bypassed.

The constitutional loopholes have tarnished the ruling party's image without its actual fault and involvement. No flavor of democracy but a wrong meaning of it is being passed to the grass roots level. At this juncture, the first party to take the major chunk of the blame is the Indian election commission, that was trusted with the drafting of the constitution. The Chief election commissioner of India Navin B. Chawla is in the capital to hide its intellectual deficiency diagnosed by the Bhutanese legislature and to retrieve the constitution from the dustbin and place it back on the table.

Govinda Rizal writes about Bhutan, from Kyoto, Japan