Bhutan King promises draft Constitution

Recounting the process of ushering democracy in Bhutan, the King said it began in the early 1980s when the government decided to go in for decentralisation of powers and set up district development committees. A decade later, village development committees were set up.

‘‘We started teaching our people to vote. After that we started having secret ballot. And in the seven years after 1991, I gave my executive powers to the Cabinet. Much like the Swiss system, members of the Cabinet get to become Prime Ministers on rotation… and now we will get a Constitution,’’ he said.

As an example of how it works, Bhutan recently placed a complete ban on smoking, because one after another, the district development committees passed such a resolution. ‘‘I smoke but now I have decided to cut it down, and will try to give it up… cigarettes are available but there’s a 100 per cent sales tax and import duty on it,’’ said Wangchuk.

On the refugees in Jhapa district of Nepal, the King claimed that a majority of them were not Bhutanese citizens. ‘‘When our people went there (Jhapa) for joint verification on December 22, 2003, the team was attacked…We must remember this is a Maoist stronghold…but still, if there is a single Bhutanese citizen there, then we don’t have to accept him. The law itself protects him.’’

While discussing the country’s relationship with its neighbours, Wangchuk said he was optimistic about resolving the differences with China over boundary. He said the two countries shared a 450 km-long border and the differences were over a small portion.

He, however, delinked Thimpu’s decision on not having full diplomatic ties with Beijing from the boundary question. Bhutan, Wangchuk said, had decided not to have full diplomatic ties with any of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council of which China is a member. And as for China being invited to the SAARC summit, he said this was a ‘‘new issue’’ and that none of the members had firmed up their views on it.

But what if India were to become a permanent member of the UNSC? The King was quick to reply: ‘‘This (policy) can’t apply to India. It would be like divorcing your wife.’’