Nepal: Make a New Constitution Inclusive

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had been concerned with the misuse of the State power. So, he wanted to appoint a trust-worthy person to an officiating prime minister while he went to the US for medical checkup. He did not appoint his party vice-president Ramchandra Poudel to the deputy prime minister to turn over the power for some time. PM Koirala also was the president of his party. He also could not fill out the 26 slots the government had to. He cautioned his deputy Bamdev Gautam of misusing the State power. The parliament has started deliberations on the budget. The CA also has been working smartly to craft a new constitution as scheduled. The CA members have started debating on the system of governance. Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Mahesh Acharya was stopping the extraction of stone and boulders from the Chure Hill. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Law Narahari Acharya registered a bill on contempt of court at the parliament provoking strong reactions from the media people.

Trusting Prime Ministerial Power
Kathmandu, June 17, 2014: Before leaving Kathmandu for the US for medical checkup, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala cautioned Deputy Prime Minister holding the portfolio of Home Minister Bamdev Gautam against inappropriately using the State power and resources in his absence in the country. Some leaders of CPN-UML complained about the CPN-UML leaders in the government using the State power and resources to influence the upcoming general convention of the party. Turning over the office of Prime Minister to deputy Prime Minister Gautam, Prime Minister Koirala advised him to make decisions prudently.

However, Acting Prime Minister Gautam did enjoy only the limited authority, he could not call a cabinet meeting, and make decisions. He could make some decisions on the cases in an extraordinary situation in the country. Prime Minister Koirala also had asked his colleagues in the government and in the party to watch DPM Gautam making decisions.

PM Koirala did not appoint vice-president of NC Ramchandra Poudel to the deputy prime minister for making him acting prime minister during his absence. Local media had reported that PM Koirala was appointing Poudel to the senior deputy prime minister. However, it did not happen.

For not being able to fill out the 26 slots in the CA, PM Koirala blamed CPN-UML for not submitting the names of the people to be nominated. Each party entitled to have the number of slots proportional to the votes they had received in the elections to the CA held on November 19, 2013

Contesting For Chair Of CPN-UML
CPN-UML senior leader Madhav Nepal and Parliamentary Party leader KP Sharma Oli are contesting for the chairman of the party in the general convention of the party to be held on July 3-9, 2014 in Kathmandu. Vice Chairman also Home Minister Gautam has been the strong supporter of the candidacy of KP Sharma Oli for the chairman of the party. Supporters of Madhav Nepal have alleged the six ministers out of eight ministers representing the CPN-UML in the coalition government have been using the State power and resources in favor of Oli.

Supporters of Madhav Nepal charged the Ministry of Health appointing 1,000 staffs on contract with the objective of garnering the support for Oli. Obviously, the Ministry of Health did so following the direct intervention of the Minster for Health, according to the cadres of Madhav Nepal.

Deputy Prime Minister Gautam has been enticing the party cadres into supporting Oli promising jobs at the National Investigation Department (NID), the supporters of Madhav Nepal said. Several dozen positions have been vacant at the NID. Home Minister Gautam has already appointed Jit Bahadur KC as the acting chief of the NID through a cabinet decision on Monday, June 16, 2014. DPM Gautam has placed his man in the right position at the right time to achieve his goal. KC takes the office of the chief of the NID after the current chief Moti Gurung retires shortly. Some CPN-UML feared that DPM Gautam and other CPN-UML ministers in the current government might put pressure on the bureaucrats to make decisions that favor Oli. (Source: myrepublica.com, June 18, 2014)

The Council of Ministers has appointed Jit Bahadur to the head of the National Investigation Department with effective on the day KC was designated as the acting head of the office. (Source: gorkhapatraonline.com June 17, 2014)

MPs Asking For More Money
Kathmandu, June 18, 2014: speaking at the parliament at the budget discussion, the greedy lawmakers have asked for more money than what they have been receiving for the development of their respective constituency from the so-called MP (member of parliament) Development Fund. Currently, each MP has been receiving one million rupees a year. Now, they have been asking for one hundred million rupees.

Only one very sincere MP Gagan Thapa has opposed not only the increment of the sum of money to be given to each MP but also the current amount given. MP Thapa said, “MPs have not been able to properly utilized even the one million rupees; so, not a single rupee should be given to the MPs.” He also said that it was sad the development expenditure had been low.

MPs advocating for the increment of the sum of money given to each MP for spending at the respective constituency said that they needed the money to meet the people’s aspirations for development, and to meet the promises made to the voters at the time of elections. (Source: gorkhapatra, June 19, 2014)

According to the people’s opinions aired by the Radio Nepal at the 7:00 AM news bulletin on June 19, 2014, common people have said that MPs are demanding more money for compensating their election expenses; MPs are not going to do anything good out of the money; some of them might distribute the money to the political cadres. Common folks don’t believe that MPs would properly utilize the money given to MPs.

MP (member of parliament) Development Fund is rightly named whether it is done deliberately or unwittingly. The fund is surely for the development of the MPs not for the development of the respective constituency each MP represents even though MPs claimed that the money was entirely for development of their respective constituency.

If we take a look at the Auditor General’s annual auditing report, most of the MPs have inappropriately used the one million rupees they received for the constituency development in the past. The Auditor General annual report has clearly stated that the MPs have not kept the accounts of the money they received and spent properly. MPs also could make fake bills. Most of the MPs have never thought of handling such a large amount: one hundred million rupees if the finance minister were to agree on giving them. Their demand for one hundred million is too much for a single MP to handle. In addition, MPs are not accountable to anybody.

The job of MPs is to make laws. They need to pursue the crafting of laws favorable to the fast socio-economic development of the country. They need to understand the prevailing laws are needed to change immediately, as these laws hinder the socio-economic development rather than facilitate it. They need to change those laws made during the Panchayat regime. Those laws were mainly intended for controlling the activities of the people and for controlling the development of the common folks.

MPs could not legitimately be development workers. They are the lawmakers. They should stick to crafting laws not going to their respective constituency with a large purse of money and distributing it to the people or keeping it in their respective bank account. MPs have no legitimacy to run any development work taking the taxpayers’ money.

State Policy On Development
Jomsom (Mustang), June 18, 2014: most of the farmers in Lete, and Kowang have converted their apple farming into the corn, buckwheat, potato and so on farming, as the apples did not produce good results for the farmers. The apples have been reduced to smaller size. The taste of apples has been deteriorating. (Source: gorkhapatra, June 19, 2014)

The District Agriculture Development Office (DADO) of the Mustang District needed to provide the technical services required by the apple farmers. If the apple plants have been deteriorating then the district office should immediately bring other apple plants to replace the old one with. Obviously, the DADO has not been doing its duty on delivering the technical services to the farmers. In such case, the DADO has no justification for staying there. The farmers have to resort to farming the traditional low value crops because of the DADO’s incompetence.

The government policy on agriculture has continued to keep the farmers subsistent. Farmers could own only a small plot of land for agriculture following the Land Reform Act introduced by the Panchayat regime for keeping the farmers subsistence. Large-scale commercial development of agriculture has not been possible due to the land ceiling. Large farmers cannot invest in agricultural equipment, machines, and tools, as the land available does not justify for such large-scale farming.

The government needs to immediately lift the land ceiling to create an environment conducive to large-scale commercial agricultural production. Currently, 65% of the Nepalese population has been in agriculture, according to the Stat statistics. The government needs to take them away from the most unproductive farming following the agriculture policy. Why the MPs don’t pursue such thing rather than talking much about the increment of the sum of money for the so-called constituency development.

The State has been giving the top priority to the agriculture since the State has adopted the central planning in 1950s. However, the agricultural productivity has not been increasing. The year-round irrigated land has not increased. Farmers have not received fertilizers at the time of planting seasons. Private companies have been barred from providing farmers with fertilizers. The State has been providing subsidy of more than Rs 6 millions on fertilizers annually. All the subsidy money has gone as the water poured on sands.

Bhaktapur, June 19: As many as 32 agricultural roads targeted to complete in the current fiscal year are still incomplete even by the end of the fiscal year 2013/14 (2070/071 B.S). Only three roads among 35 such roads have been completed so far, according to the District Development Committee (DDC) of the Bhaktapur district.

Chief Engineer at the District Technical Office Bhaktapur Ganesh Lal Koju said the construction of the roads was delayed due to the non-availability of construction materials, as the crusher industries remained shut down in protest across the country. “Completing the construction of the roads by July is still the possibility, as the construction materials including stones and pebbles are available in the market," Koju added.

The roads awaiting the final touch have begun to crumble at different places making difficult to transport construction materials thereby inviting the chances of freezing the budget of this fiscal year, locals said.

Bhaktapur DDC has allocated from Rs. 500,000 to Rs. 1.8 million to the 35 roads as per their length and other construction cost. The roads link the district headquarters with the villages. (Source: Gorkhapatraonline.com, June 19, 2014)

The State policy on other areas also has been obstructing the development of the country. For example, the Infrastructure Development Company Private Limited has not only received any budget from the government but the government also stopped the financial institutions willing to fund the company for constructing the Kathmandu-Hetauda Fast Track Highway with four short tunnels on the way. Even in early 1990s, foreign company specifically a French company had come to Nepal to invest in this highway but the concerned ministry wanted a handsome sum of money of commission for allowing the foreign company to invest in this highway.

The State policy on hydropower development has been equally disgusting. The investment in the large hydropower stations has been impossible. Such large projects require large investment the State could not currently mobilize. So, large foreign or local companies needed to invest in such projects. However, the government policy has been on encouraging small projects of a few megawatts. Such hydropower plants are neither financially efficient nor cost effective in producing electricity than large hydropower plants.

Nepal did not lack rich people. For example, Binode Chaudhary is one of the richest men in the world. He was the richest man of the poorest country. He was mentioned as one of the billionaires in the international prestigious magazine. He could have invested a few hundred million dollars in Nepal. He did not do so. He knew the investment climate is not favorable in Nepal. He has a small noodles factory in Kathmandu just to mention his investment in Nepal. MPs need to be concern for such things happening in the country rather than squeezing as much money out of taxpayers they can.

The Panchayat regime had formulated such development polices to keep the Nepalese industries and other development infrastructures as small as possible believing that the large business corporations or companies would be challenging to the authority of the then rulers. The sad story has been that even after the reinstatement of democracy, and even making Nepal a republic, the politicians have not been able to change their mindset of controlling everything by the State.

Debating On System Of Governance
Kathmandu, June 18, 2014: members of the constituent assembly (CA) started debating on the system of governance. The NC members said that the presidential system would be expensive, and the elected president could be a dictator. Their arguments were that a person contesting for a seat in the parliament at one constituency had to spend millions of rupees. Any candidate for the office of president would need a huge sum of money, as his constituency would be the entire country. So, they said that the parliamentary system would be the most appropriate one for Nepal. Prime minister elected by the parliament would be the chief executive, and the president would be the constitutional one following the parliamentary system. (Source: gorkhapatra, June 19, 2014)

These members of the CA either are naïve of the American President Barack Obama mobilizing the resources collecting from $10 a person to millions of dollars from his supporters or the CA members simply don’t want to understand it. Thus, the money is not the problem if they like. If we were to have a very good and sincere person as a candidate for the presidency, people would contribute to his election as much as they can.

The directly elected president would have a free hand to run the administration for the fast development of the country for five or four years of a term depending on how many years the CA members would set for a term of a president in Nepal. S/he has to directly go back to the people after a term of office is done. So, s/he would need to work sincerely and effectively and efficiently.

Concerning the elected president tuning into a dictator, we have seen the USA has the presidential system in place for more than 200 years but it has not happened. About 50 presidents have run the administration. None of them had turned into a dictator. The system was so designed none could violate the law of the land. If anybody including the president does means s/he is subject to the punishment.

If we were to follow the parliamentary system, the prime minister elected by the parliament would be vulnerable to the MPs supporting him/her to elect to the office of prime minister. Such an elected prime minister is not directly accountable to the voters. S/he is accountable to the MPs. Such a person would think of how s/he would get elected from her/his constituency next time. S/he would not think of in term of the entire country.

Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had repeatedly complained that he could not move fast as the people anticipated because of the coalition partners. He had been vulnerable to the members of the CPN-UML and even to his own party members. His colleagues had criticized him for not making fast decisions, and not moving fast, too. If anybody were to garner a majority in the parliament Prime Minister Koirala would needed to leave the office immediately. The next prime minister would be accountable to the MPs that had elected him. S/he would not be directly accountable to the voters as the directly president would have been.

We have seen how the MPs have been sold and bought in the mid 1990s when none of the political parties had a majority in the parliament. At that time, a leader aspiring to hold the office of prime minister had to entice the MPs of three different political parties to have a majority in the parliament. S/he had to pay a large sum of money for a single vote in the parliament. This had been one of the reasons for the corruption in the administration of that time. The corruption had been the main reason for the development process not taking root in the country despite the millions if not billions of dollars spent on development in the country.

If the Indian newspapers were to believe the same practice of sale and purchase of MPs had happened in India, too. So, it is the parliamentary system that has made MPs commercial products rather lawmakers. The funniest thing is that even the unelected person could be a prime minister in India.

So, if our CA members were to introduce such a faulty governance system then they could choose the parliamentary system of governance and pushed the country to backward rather than forward.

The world has been the witness of the recent conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq. The Russian minority people in Ukraine has been fighting for their fundamental rights to be inclusive in the State administration when the government that came up after the street mobs fired the duly elected government in Ukraine attempted on repressing the Russian minority denying the use of Russian language in the State administration. The Sunni rebels and Kurds also have been fighting for inclusion in the State administration. The recent news has it that the US administration has asked Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to form a more inclusive Iraq government.

In a telephone conversation Wednesday, June 18, 2014, Vice President Biden "emphasized the need for the prime minister, and all Iraqi leaders to govern in an inclusive manner, promote stability and unity among Iraq's population, and address the legitimate needs of Iraq's diverse communities," said a White House statement. Al-Maliki: a Shiite needs to include Sunnis and Kurds as he forms a new Iraq government, officials said. While noting that Iraq has a democratically elected government, White House spokesman Jay Carney said "there's no question that not enough has been done by the government, including the prime minister, to govern inclusively and that that has contributed to the situation and the crisis that we have today in Iraq." (Source: Usatoday.com, June 19, 2014)

CA members and Nepalese political leaders should take into account the recent happenings in the elsewhere in the world for the inclusive administration while crafting a new constitution. If they were not able to meet the aspirations of all Nepalese people for inclusive administration, they would certainly invite one conflict after another causing political instability. The current two-thirds majority the NC and CPN-UML could garner has been the mandate the people gave them for crafting a new constitution that should make the administration inclusive, and institutionalize the federalism, as the people have wanted.

Congress will play a smaller role in the new dispensation. It is only just the second-largest party in the Lok Sabha, parliament’s lower house. Because it has less than a tenth of the seats, even the status of official opposition leader may depend on a nod from the government of Narendra Modi, the new prime minister. And why should he stretch a point to please Congress? When it swaggered over national politics, from the 1950s to the 1980s, it often denied others the perks of formal opposition, the better to crush them. This week Mr. Modi began unpicking other parts of its power, demanding the resignations of several Congress-appointed state governors (ceremonial jobs, but with big powers in a crisis), so that his own loyalists can replace them. Piece by piece, Congress’s entrenched dominance is being undone. (Source: Congress after the cataclysm, Economist.com, June 21, 2014)

The Nepalese political parties currently holding the two-thirds majority in the parliament should pay serious attention to the electoral defeat of the Indian National Congress (I). The Nepalese political leaders needed to clearly understand why the voters had given them the mandate of the two-thirds majority. Voters did not give them the mandate for imposing the will of the political parties but to meet the people’s aspirations for institutionalizing the federal democratic republic of Nepal with correct numbers of federal provinces their names and the power delegated to them.

Conservation Of Chure Hill
Kathmandu, June 16, 2014: the Council of Ministers has appointed former Secretary Rameswore Khanal to the Chairman of the Rastrapati Chure Tarai Madhesh Preservation Development Committee. (Source: gorkhapatraonline.com June 17, 2014)

Kathmandu, June 18: A day after the government declared Nepal’s Chure mountain range as a conservation zone, community forest user groups on Wednesday, June 18, 2014 warned of a series of protest programs against what they have dubbed as yet another attack on the people’s rights to the natural resources.

Community forest users also boycotted an ongoing conference that they had jointly organized with the Department of Forest (DoF), demanding that the government withdraw its decision to declare the Chure mountain range as a conservation zone.

Representatives of both Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal (FECOFUN) and Community Based Forestry Supporters´ Network Nepal (COFSUN) walked out of the conference hall accusing the government of depriving communities of their rights to local resources. The FECOFUN and COFSUN were co-organizers of the workshop, which was expected to shape new policies and strategies for community forestry.

"It is biggest onslaught ever by the government on communities´ rights to natural resources," said Ganesh Karki, the recently elected chairman of the FECOFUN, "Handing over communities rights to a single government agency is not acceptable to us." Karki also accused the government of not consulting them before declaring the Chure mountain range as a conservation zone.

“While inaugurating our conference, Forest Minister Mahesh Acharya said the government will never exclude community forest users," said Karki. "But, on the same day, he tabled a proposal in the cabinet to declare the Chure mountain range as a conservation zone."

Karki said the FECOFUN is now consulting with other stakeholders to decide the nature of protest programs that will be announced very soon. "We will continue with our agitation until the government relents," said he.

Apart from declaring the Chure mountain range as a conservation zone, the government also has appointed former Finance Secretary Rameswor Khanal as the all-powerful chief of the Chairman of the Chure Tarai Madhesh Conservation Development Committee. "No matter how powerful he will be, he will not be able to preserve the Chure," said Karki. "An announcement made from the Singha Durbar will not save the Chure hills. It is the local people who could save the Chure. But, the government has ignored them in declaring the Chure conservation zone."

Earlier on Tuesday, Forest Minister Acharya had told the parliament that the government decided to declare the Chure mountain range that covered as many as 36 districts between Mechi and Mahakali as a conservation zone.

“In the past, we have seen how we get stripped of our rights when some particular area is declared a conservation area," said Bharati Pathak General Secretary to the FECOFUN. "We are not going to let the same thing happen this time around." (Source: myrepublica.com, June 18, 2014)

Kathmandu, June 18, 2014: speaking at the parliamentary session on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Mahesh Acharya said that the government would stop export of crushed stone extracted from the Chure hill starting on July 17, 2014. He also said that the Chure hill has to be conserved in view of the lives of five million people living there. He also said that the government would adopt a special policy on conserving the Chure watershed areas.

Federation of Community Forest Users has objected to the government setting up ‘Rastrapati Chure Tarai Madhesh Conservation Development Committee’ with the full authority. The federation has objected to it because instead of transferring the Chure forest to the forest users for conserving, the government set up the committee making the former Secretary to Ministry of Finance Rameswore Khanal as a chairman going against the forest law; Chairman of the federation Ganesh Karki said that the government set up the committee in the name of Chure conservation and promotion going against the principles of the community forest. (Source: gorkhapatra, June 19, 2014)

Siraha, June 18, 2014: even before the government has enforced the ‘Rastrapati Chure Tarai Madhesh Conservation Development Committee’, the Soil Conservation Office at Lahan has asked the forest users’ committee for the commission for releasing the money intended for erosion control at the local streams, the locals complained about. The locals asked the Soil Conservation Office for the money to make retaining walls at the Sarya stream to stop the soil erosion caused by the monsoon floods in the stream. Former chairman of the Village Development Committee Jagadish Shah complained about the Soil Conservation Office demanding 20 thousand rupees. (Source: gorkhapatra, June 19, 2014)

It is clear that the government stopping the extraction of stones and boulders at the Chure hill is encouraging the misappropriation of the State resources. The news in the State-run newspaper gorkhapatra has already made it clear that how the local State employees asked for the commission on giving the money for soil conservation.

It also would increase the smuggling of boulders and stones. The rate of smuggling would be twice the rate of current extraction and export of the stones. It would destroy the Chure hill rather than conserve it. The State protection and control are the main instruments for corrupt officials and people to make more money than from the regular official businesses.

If the government were really serious about conserving the Chure hill, the government should let the local people take up the conservation. They knew better than the government officials about the preservation of the forest. The conservation of the forest is directly affecting the lives of the local people as the Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation said in the parliament on June 17, 2014.

Even if the Minister Acharya were to sincerely pursue the policy on stopping the extraction or smuggling of stones, the streams flowing from Nepal to India would take the stone across the border to India. The Chure hill is geologically the recent origin. Most of the soil and boulders are loosely cemented by soil or mud. A title rain would make the boulders fall down. Then the streams would take them to India. They could not stand the monsoon rains.

The best alternative is to let the local people manage it properly. Proper management of the forest on the Chure Hill, and well-managed extraction of stones would conserve the Chure Hill rather than the committee the minister was setting up. So, the government needed to sincerely adopt a new policy on preserving the Chure Hill environment, and managing it properly rather than trying to hold it firmly, which might be impossible.

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav also has been worried about the conservation of the Chure Hill. The poor president must have heard the very negative story about the denudation and deforestation of the Chure Hill. President Dr Yadav was a professional medical officer. He went to the politics. Now, he is the president of Nepal. It is natural that he has been concerned with the Chure Hill but setting up the committee and stopping the extraction of boulders go totally against what the president has in mind to do. So, the president needed to review his concern about the Chure Hill for better management and wise conservation rather than stopping all sorts of the activities on the Chure Hill. As long as people will be living there their activities will continue whether those activities are positives or negatives. All these things depend on the government policy on it.

In the distant district called Dolpa where local people’s and the Buffer Zone Management Committee’ interests in managing the natural resource conflicted. The government opted easy way to resolving the conflict through the crackdown on the opposition of the local people. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reported in its weekly program.

“In this week’s program, we begin tracking a brutal crackdown by the police on a village in Nepal’s Dolpa District. Buffer Zone Management Committee and the Dolpo community disagree on the management of a natural resource. But, rather than dialogue, the State has responded by unleashing violent policemen, who have killed and injured members of the local community” said the AHRC bulletin. (Source: AHRC TV releases the 32nd episode of the Human Rights Asia Weekly Roundup, June 20, 2014)

Bill On Contempt Of Court
Kathmandu, June 19, 2014: Lawyers and journalists have taken exception to a bill on Contempt of Court Act recently registered at the Parliament.

Speaking at a program jointly held by the NBA and the Constitutional and Judicial Journalists Forum, former president of Nepal Bar Association (NBA) Bishwakanta Mainali on June 19, 2014 underlined the need for promulgation of a law in order to protect the judiciary, as it does not have other weapons to enforce its orders. However, former president Mainali said that it must not curtail the rights of lawyers and journalists.

Vice-president of NBA Tikaram Bhattarai underlined the need for revising the bill. “If this bill is endorsed by the Parliament without any change, freedom of speech, press freedom and right to information will be affected,” said he.

NBA Secretary General Sunil Pokhrel also called on the concerned authorities to change the bill, stating that the bill intended to victimize lawyers and journalists in the name of restricting contemptuous acts.

Senior journalist Harihar Birahi objected to the bill stating that the government and the parliament wanted to subdue journalists and lawyers and bar them from criticizing judges for their wrongdoings.

Presenting a working paper, advocates such as Hari Phuyal and Dinesh Tri-pathi each ruled out the need for promulgation of the Act, but journalist Bikas Bhattarai said promulgation of the Act was required with some changes in the provisions. “Section 4(B)(D) of the bill goes against the Interim Constitution and precedents set by the Supreme Court in various cases,” he said. (Source: Thehimalayantimes.com, June 20, 2014)

Kathmandu, June 20, 2014: media people and agencies have objected to the bill on contempt of court the government registered at the parliament.

The Press Chautari Nepal had held a protest rally in Kathmandu on June 20, 2014. Chairman of Press Chautari Nepal Rajendra Aryal said that the bill on contempt of court with the provision made for not allowing the protest against the wrong doings of courts was unacceptable.

Former President of Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Shiva Gaunle said that the government intended to curb the freedom of expression making the provision for not allowing any comments on judges and the staffs of courts in the bill on contempt of court.

Acting President of F Khilbahadur Bhandari demanded the government annulled the bill on contempt of court, as it made the provision for controlling the freedom of expression. (Source: gorkhapatra, June 21, 2014)

Kathmandu, June 20, 2014: following the strong reactions from the media person the bill on contempt of court the Ministry of Law registered at the Parliament Secretariat for parliamentary deliberations has provoked, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Law Narahari Acharya attempted to calm down the media people stating the bill was just registered at the parliament for deliberations and necessary amendments would be made after the deliberations. "It is early to comment on the proposed bill at this point. Let’s not jump into any conclusion. We will discuss it with the journalists and other stakeholders if required," he told ‘Republica’.

Following the provision made in the proposed bill, any court can send him/her to jail for a year or impose the penalty of Rs 10,000 for the ‘contempt of court’. However, if the accused apologizes and accepts his/her guilty, then, the judges could release him/her using their discretion. (Source: myrepublica.com, June 20, 2014)

ENDS

© Scoop Media