Disgruntled royalist politicians voted against the charter on Wednesday, while some parties from the southern lowlands abstained.
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CPN-UML chairman K.P. Sharma Oli, who is being tipped as the next prime minister after Koirala demits office, said Nepal wants to have good relations with its immediate neighbour “within the boundary of dignity”.
This is the seventh constitution to be promulgated in Nepal in the last 67 years, the promulgation of the constitution signified Nepal’s transition from a Hindu Monarchy to a democratic secular republic.
President Ram Baran Yadav signed the Constitution and made the proclamation announcement which was greeted with applause by members of the Constituent Assembly in Kathmandu.
It is the first to be drafted by democratically elected representatives of Nepal’s people and follows a decade-long Maoist insurgency aimed at abolishing an autocratic monarchy and creating a more equal society.
Nepalese citizens celebrated the historic moments with firecrackers and lighting lamps across the country, according to Indo Asian News Service.
The CPI(M) said there has often been a big brother attitude to Nepal on the part of the Indian ruling establishment.
More than 40 people, mostly protesters, have been killed in recent weeks in clashes over the plan.
India extended its best wishes to Nepal yesterday on promulgation of the Constitution but urged that the Himalayan country should resolve through dialogue the issues on which differences remain.
While many in Nepal cheered Sunday’s adoption of a permanent constitution after a 10-year effort, some ethnic groups say their concerns that the seven newly defined states would have borders cutting through their ethnic homelands were ignored.
“Not only in Terai, there is some kind of reservation, some kind of unhappiness in the mountain region also”.
“India has always been strongly supporting constitution- making process in Nepal and we would like its completion be an occasion of joy and satisfaction, not agitation and violence“, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said, wrapping up his two-day visit to Nepal.
They feel power has been concentrated in the hands of the hill people.
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“We still hope that initiatives will be taken by Nepal’s leadership to effectively and credibly address the causes underlying the present state of confrontation”, the external affairs ministry in New Delhi had said in a statement. He said India would like Nepali leaders to fulfil their assurances that they would be flexible, for only this could lead to a durable and resilient Constitution.
