Land Of Total Democracy

Bhutan's first draft constitution has all the prospects to be a key to the nation's prosperity in times to come. Especially noteworthy is its proposal for allowing the citizens as many as twenty-one fundamental rights including rights to information, privacy and freedom of press, radio and television and other media of electronic dissemination of information. This is in stark contrast to the present political scenario in neighbouring Nepal where the king seems to be toying with democracy. The proposal under Article 9 of Bhutan's draft constitution for state encouragement for fostering private sector development through "fair market competition" is a definite indication of the landlocked kingdom's desire to adopt, and adapt to, the economic changes the world market and the individual national economies are going through. Another highly appreciable feature of the draft is the proposal to make it mandatory for the democratically elected government to ensure that a minimum of 60 per cent of the country's total land should be under forest cover at any given time to check degradation of the country's fragile ecosystem. If and when the constitution is put to effect, Bhutan is expected to kick-start its new era of democracy. However, it has to guard against any form of disruption that may lead it to the present predicament of Nepal. In any case, the Wangchuk kings of Bhutan over the years, have proved to lack for good the erratic mindset of some of the Nepal Shahs.