The new Constitution of Nepal incorporates "all aspects" of universal democratic values and norms, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa said today against the backdrop of discontent among the Madhesi community over it.
Thapa, who holds the Foreign portfolio as well, said the landlocked Himalayan country has entered a new phase of economic development after promulgation of the Constitution.
He also underlined the importance of democracy whose absence, he said, fuels rebellion.
Thapa, who had accompanied Nepal Prime Minister K P Oli during a visit to India last month, identified democracy, free market and culture as the "three pillars" of peace.
"Very recently after 10 years of violent insurgency and another 10 years of chaotic transition the Constituent Assembly of Nepal has granted and promulgated a new Constitution. We have now entered into a new phase of economic development and prosperity.
"The new constitution incorporates all aspects of universal democratic values and norms. We are totally committed to a liberal economy based on free market," he said addressing the Global Leadership forum, organised by the Art of Living Foundation, here.
Speaking on the occasion, Pakistan's former Minister
Sherry Rehman said her country was fighting one of the "largest inland wars" against terrorism and doing it "alone".
Rehman also highlighted the refugee crisis, including in Pakistan, saying that such inequality will incubate fear, conflict and add to the vector of economic and social conflagration.
Rehman was speaking in place of former Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani, who could not make it to the event.
"Inequality going to be a huge divider and an instigator for conflicts...This is not the global leadership that is making the right decisions. This is not the world that is working," she said.
Apart from Thapa and Rehman, the other speakers who spoke on the topic 'Creating a Peaceful World of Tomorrow' include former Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Yoser Thinley and former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.
Without taking names, Thinley denounced the exchanges of military threat among nuclear-powered nations which, he said, amounted to "insanity". Focus on "wrong goals" is propelling the society in the direction of a "catastrophe", he said.
