Janata Samajbadi Party's Consistent Electoral Promises on Constitution and Economy Since 2074 BS

Kathmandu. The Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal (formerly the Federal Socialist Forum Nepal) mentioned the following in its manifesto issued five years ago, ahead of the 2074 House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly elections: “While the Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre) have a positive outlook on the overall process of constitutional amendment, the situation, which was becoming normal, has been disrupted due to the narrow and single-ethnic totalitarian view of CPN-UML. Therefore, we have no alternative but to agitate for constitutional amendment/rewriting.” 

In that manifesto, the party further detailed the necessity of constitutional amendment/revision to institutionalize fundamental aspects of inclusive democracy such as changing the form of governance, establishing federal structures, restructuring the justice system into a federal form, strengthening constitutional bodies, forming bodies like the Lokpal, ensuring the rights, entitlements, and identity of oppressed communities, ending gender discrimination in citizenship, clarifying the interpretation of secularism, and establishing social justice. Thus, it stated that constitutional amendment has become the main issue of the current struggle and solution. 

For the upcoming by-election on Falgun 21, JSP Nepal has emphasized the need to form a high-level constitutional review commission comprising constitutional experts to institutionalize political, economic, social, inclusive, and cultural democracy, and to amend/revise or rewrite the constitution based on the commission's recommendations. 

This party is competing in the elections for the third time. Its electoral issues have remained the same since the 2074 elections. Since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2072 BS, JSP Nepal has been demanding its rewriting and amendment, and it has put this agenda forward as the main platform for the upcoming election on Falgun 21. 

Matters of Economy

Apart from constitutional amendment, a similar trend of continuity is seen in the party's commitments regarding other development plans. As mentioned in the 2079 commitment paper, JSP Nepal had announced the formulation of five, ten, and 25-year development plans, emphasizing rapid economic growth along with the creation of an equitable society. Furthermore, commitments were made at that time to develop 50 percent of the Gross Domestic Product as fixed capital, achieve continuous double-digit economic growth within five years, raise per capita income to five thousand US dollars, free people living below the absolute poverty line from poverty, and limit the proportion of multidimensional poverty to a single digit. 

In the 2079 elections, JSP Nepal had prioritized the development of agro-based industries to transform the traditional subsistence-based agricultural economy into a modern, self-reliant industrial economy. It was also announced that agricultural farms would be developed by scientificizing, mechanizing, and commercializing agriculture, achieving self-sufficiency in food items within two years. 

The commitment in the 2079 manifesto also included taking a policy to effectively implement ongoing irrigation projects and ensure irrigation facilities across the country by diverting water from major rivers like Sunkoshi-Kamala, Bheri-Babai, and Karnali within five years. During the same period, a commitment was also made to eradicate poverty within five years and open a chemical fertilizer factory in Nepal for agricultural development within two years. 

JSP Nepal also committed in 2079 to raising the threshold for transactions based on Permanent Account Number (PAN) from 2 million to 5 million rupees, becoming self-reliant in energy within five years, making hydropower the main export product, and generating 10,000 megawatts of electricity in the next five years. A commitment was also made at that time to provide unemployment allowance to unemployed citizens. 

In the 2074 elections, JSP Nepal made almost similar commitments. The manifesto back then stated, ‘While formulating development plans, emphasis will be placed on achieving rapid economic growth along with building an equitable society, and for this, five-year, ten-year, and 25-year plans will be formulated.’ Commitments were also made in the 2074 elections to become self-reliant in energy within five years, develop 50 percent of the GDP as fixed capital, achieve double-digit economic growth, double the per capita income, and free people living below the absolute poverty line from poverty. 

Goals were also set to make the country economically self-reliant and transform it into a developing country within 10 years, and to reach the level of developed countries by maximizing the utilization of the country's resources within 25 years. 

As a continuation of past commitments, JSP Nepal has set some targets for the upcoming election on Falgun 21. It has announced plans to reduce the population below the poverty line to 10 percent within the next 5 years, raise the literacy rate to 90 percent, complete the Postal Highway project within the next 5 years, and bring the Kathmandu-Nijgadh Expressway into operation within the next 2 years. 

Matters of Agriculture

In the agricultural sector as well, there has been little change in JSP Nepal's commitments. In the 2079 elections, the party stated that it would prioritize the development of agro-based industries to transform the traditional subsistence-based agricultural economy into a modern, self-reliant industrial economy, scientificize, mechanize, and commercialize agriculture, develop agricultural farms, and achieve self-sufficiency in food items within two years. Furthermore, it committed to effectively implementing ongoing irrigation projects and adopting a policy to ensure irrigation facilities across the country by diverting water from major rivers like Sunkoshi-Kamala, Bheri-Babai, and Karnali within five years. 

However, these points were mentioned almost identically in the 2074 manifesto as well. The commitment to prioritize the development of agro-based industries to promote the traditional subsistence-based agricultural economy into a modern, self-reliant industrial economy, to scientificize, mechanize, and commercialize agriculture, and to develop agricultural farms to achieve self-sufficiency in food items within two years, was kept in the 2079 commitment paper without any change. The commitment to effectively implement ongoing irrigation projects and ensure irrigation facilities across the country by diverting water from major rivers like Sunkoshi-Kamala, Bheri-Babai within five years was also an old one. 

JSP Nepal has reiterated similar commitments in the agricultural sector for the by-election on Falgun 21. The party has announced making agriculture competitive, sustainable, and commercial through scientific land consolidation, cooperative farming, and modern technology. Commitments were expressed to implement a scientific land consolidation program for this purpose, expand cooperative-based collective farming, rapidly expand mechanization and irrigation systems, expand modern storage and cold storage systems, ensure fair pricing and market management for produced goods, develop and promote special agricultural zones, and guarantee returns on agricultural production. An ambitious plan to create fifty lakh jobs within the next year through the promotion of 'Vertical Farming' has also been put forward.