You are directly associated with constitution writing. What have you been doing?
Political disagreements have affected the CA. But it isn't that the CA has done no work. Eight thematic committees have already prepared concept papers, and these have been discussed in the CA. Three other committees are in the final stages.

The Committee on State Restructuring and Redistribution of Resources is preparing a concept paper on federalism, while the Maoists are declaring federal provinces. How should we understand this?
They are bypassing the CA. The Committee has the right to say what kind of federalism we will have. If not, anyone can declare whatever provinces they want.

What difficulties will the declaration of ethnic provinces pose?
The decision to go for federalism was premature. And it was a mistake to declare autonomous provinces without having done this homework. What kind of problems did the old system solve, how will the new system solve them, and what new problems will it throw up? It's possible to name provinces after ethnicities, languages and so forth, but remember, no single group has a majority so it's not possible to give primacy to anyone. That's why proportional representation on the basis of population is the best.

Will the constitution be written on time?
If there were a commission on federalism, then the necessary technical work would have been easier. It would have been easy to end this disagreement. The same holds for the legislative system. Right now, we're seeing new problems. But despite all this, there isn't much more of the constitution left to write.

Do you think you should still be a CA member after 28 May?
First, we must see how much of the constitution can be written by the deadline. Then, we must calculate how much delay political disagreements have caused. After all, for the first six months, we weren't even allowed to write the agenda.

READ ALSO:
Constitution 2010, Nepali Times coverage of issues related to writing the new constitution