Dhruba Adhikary: Your Typical Pahadi Liar

Dhruba Adhikary in Asia Times: Nepal Rioting Threatens Political Transition
Part 1, Part 2

The disturbances that mountainous Nepal is currently facing in the southern plains, called Terai, threaten to blossom into a separatist movement as in Sri Lanka. ........ spread like a wildfire. ...... Spontaneous demonstrations across several Terai towns ...... took an ugly turn when mobs began to attack the lives, homes and properties of people with hill origins. ...... In some district centers, government offices were burned, others stormed and ransacked. In some cases, mobs with spears, knives and sticks attacked police stations unprovoked, killing police officers trying to defend themselves. ...... On Wednesday, demonstrators in the eastern district of Morang took a sword to the head of a police officer and threw him into a nearby pond with his limbs tied. Demonstrators were among a dozen people who have lost their lives. ...... Initial restlessness among the Madheshis was visible in the western town of Nepalgunj. ...... a perception that Madheshi natives have always been under-represented in Parliament ...... Terai is not the only perceived victim of discrimination; there are several dozen ethnic groups in the hill districts, some of whom live in the remotest parts of the country. The claim that the Terai region is under-represented in Parliament in not exactly correct, either. An analytical report published by the Kathmandu Post disproves the Madheshi claim. And, since most of Nepal's road networks and industrial activities are based in the Terai, it is unrealistic to say that the region is neglected from the national perspective. ........ Members of the Madheshi community, including the members of the interim legislature representing various political parties, contend that agitation in Terai is spontaneous and an expression of pent-up anger against exploitation and discrimination, and is not directed to Terai people with hill origins (often alluded to as Pahaades). ....... This contention is not credible to the authorities, nor to most of the leaders whose political parties are constituents of the governing alliance headed by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. In a televised address to the nation on Wednesday to deal with the "Madheshi grievance", Koirala minced no words about who the suspects could be: "After analyzing the recent incidents, I want to caution you all that regressive forces are attempting to take advantage of the situation." ........ The Maoist supremo, Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka Prachanda), and his deputy Barubarm Bhattarai have publicly shared the government perception of a conspiracy, adding that Hindu fundamentalists from India are also active behind the scenes. ....... "They are carrying many truckloads of people from Bihar, India, to foment violence in the Terai," Bhattarai said in a recent radio interview. ...... According to Prachanda, two of the militant Madheshi groups that have surfaced in recent months are headed by people who were earlier expelled from the Maoist party. And the leader of a "forum" of the Madheshi community was once detained in India for being a member of the Nepali Maoist movement. ...... While Indian authorities, said Prachanda in a televised debate last week, handed over two of three detainees to the Nepali army, the third one, Upendra Yadav, was set free without any condition. He was allowed to stay in India for the next six months, and now he is the person who heads the "forum" for Madheshi rights. The Maoist leadership once again claimed in a press conference on Thursday that the Indian establishment is conniving, if not overtly cooperating, with the groups carrying out violent deeds in the southern plains. ........ Indian Ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee has described as "rumors" the media reports that India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was involved in the Terai mayhem. ........ people who welcomed India's support of the pro-democracy movement last year do not believe that the ruling class in New Delhi is unaware of what is happening in Terai. India is the only country that has a consulate in Nepal outside of the capital city, Kathmandu. Birgunj, where the Indian diplomatic mission is located, has been in the midst of what a local journalist described as a "highly inflammable" situation since last week. "A lot of vested interests are active," Chandrakishore Jha, editor of a local newsmagazine, told Asia Times Online. He did not elaborate. ......... Back in Kathmandu, there is a strong perception that New Delhi has instigated a directionless, and often leaderless, violent movement ....... Analyst Madan Regmi, writing in the People's Review weekly, used strong words to criticize the UN for glossing over the reality and becoming servile to New Delhi. ....... What is New Delhi up to? Since Nepali rulers have always shied away from entering any agreement to place Nepal under the Indian security umbrella, often citing their need to balance relations with China, New Delhi might have devised an alternative scheme to achieve its objective. One such alternative could be to fan a secessionist movement in Terai........ Professor Mahendra Lama of Jawarharlal Nehru University does not find reason to disagree with such a view even if it sounds alarming. In an interaction program held in Kathmandu on December 26, Lama alluded to a small but strong minority view in New Delhi that advocates the following: "If Nepal has to be managed effectively, it should be allowed to disintegrate." ......... In a book titled The Call of Nepal, a former British embassy defense attache in Laos, J P Cross, recalls his conversation with an Indian embassy diplomat in mid-1970s (around the time India "liberated" Bangladesh and annexed Sikkim) when he told the author, "sincerely if a little drunkenly, that by the year 2000 Nepal would be part of India for all intent and purposes. He proceeded to tell me the weak points about all levels of Nepalese administration that India would rectify." ....... events in 1980s and thereafter did not encourage the Indian leadership to embark on a mission that would put the Indian military face to face with the Chinese in an additional area covering nearly 1,500 kilometers. Third, the global scenario that emerged after September 11, 2001, required India to explore other alternatives, including the one referred to by Professor Lama.

This is such shameless hogwash on the part of Dhruba Adhikary.

For me it started with a New York Times article that got forwarded to me by Dr. Binod Shah. I could not believe what I was reading. This was the New York Times. Tilak Pokharel is someone I have met in person a few times in NYC. The guy was feeding lies out of his teeth to Somini Sen Gupta, a journalist of sound reputation and some renown, and she was lapping it up so gullibly.

Pahadi Bias Colors Global Media

I immediately jumped into action. I was not able to find Somini Sen Gupta's email address anywhere so I wrote to my friend Sree Srinivasan, the dynamo behind SAJA, South Asian Journalists Association. He relayed my complaint to Gupta.

Then I got an email from Rashmi Shukla of Voice Of America Hindi Service. She wanted to interview me, she said. Earlier today she called me up.

Yubaraj Ghimire had told her what is happening right now in Nepal is the doing of the Maoists, and it affects "only" 20 or so districts, and that it is "not true" that the Indians and Indian origin people are being driven out of the country.

It felt surreal being at my end of the phone. I was flabbergasted. Ghimire was lying out of his teeth.

And then I opened up an email from Jai Mehtaji who is in Toronto. Do you read Asia Times online? He drew my attention to Dhruba Adhikary. Someone needs to write a rebuttal to this guy, he said.

I googled up the newspaper and the name. I mean I have been aware of the paper, but I have not been a regular reader.

And Dhruba Adhikary's article reads outright Goebbelian, Stalinist. This is not journalism. This is propaganda hack work.

Dhruba Adhikary, Yubaraj Ghimire and Tilak Pokharel are some of the top names in Nepali journalism. The media houses they have been speaking through are some of the top global names. That is what makes this whole thing scary. This is too mainstream. This should be happening on the fringes, if at all.

In November I went to the Academy Awards of Business event in NYC. (Carly Fiorina: "The Academy Awards Of Business") At my dinner table I found myself sitting next to a big shot journalist who asked me if I knew who Yubaraj Ghimire was, considering I was from Nepal. I said I did not know him personally, but I know of him, and I do know people who know him very well. This guy is huge.

And he is lying out of his teeth. Why? Is it deliberate? Or is the Pahadi prejudice so strong that maybe he does not feel he is lying? What is going on?

Just look at this article by Dhruba Adhikary. This guy is nuts. He is giving every bad name he can find in the dictionary to the Madhesi Movement in Nepal. This movement has to be compared to the civil rights movement in the US in the 1960s. This is like the Quit India movement. As a Madhesi I have been waiting for this all my life, and finally it is happening.

There is a big reason why this movement has been so spontaneous. Every Madhesi in Nepal has experienced what Nelson Mandela calls "a thousand little indignities." The Madhesis just know.

The Pahadi-Madhesi dynamic is the fundamental dynamic in Nepal. King Mahendra was Saddam, he is gone. His son Gyanendra is about to be gone. The political class in power right now are like the Sunnis of Saddam. 20% of the country wants to rule over 80%. That is not going to happen. That is what this is all about.

The Pahadis dominate the political parties, they dominate the bureaucracy, they dominate the police, the army. They dominate the media, they dominate the NGOs. The ratio is 95:5 against the Madhesi for the most part.

Madhesis are 40% of Nepal. 30% are Janajati. 10% are Dalit. 20% are Bahun, Chhetri. But then there has never been a fair cesus in Nepal. Noone knows for sure what is what.

Pokharel, Ghimire, Adhikary: they are all Bahun names. The Bahuns know that if you establish a one person one vote democracy in Nepal, the Madhesis will rule. The Madhesis have the numbers. And that drives them nuts. They want democracy, but that democracy has to be limited, distorted, prejudiced. The cards have to be stacked against the Madhesis. The Madhesis may have the crumbs, but they may not sit at the dinner table. That is what this movement is about.

They have blamed the royalists and India and the Hindu supremacists. They can't believe it that it can be the Madhesi. They grew up thinking the Madhesi are cowards. Cowards don't revolt. Cowards don't organize civil rights movements. It has got to be India, it has got to be the BJP, the RSS, the VHP. It has to be the king and his men working behind the scenes.

I hear Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani are offended, and for good reason.

The Madhesi Movement goes against their fundamental worldview, it goes against all their social values. It goes against all they learned growing up.

And they are offended.

What gets me is how the big global media houses are being taken for a ride. This is a big story that is not being told. This is a huge story that is being fundamentally distorted in this day and age of instant communication.

I urge all the big media houses to get firsthand information.

Call the Leaders Of The Madhesi Movement. Go Direct. Skip the biased Pahadis. Find out for yourself. Dig up the truth. In plainspeak, do your work.

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