Pahadi Bias Colors Global Media

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Op-Ed Piece Sent To The New York Times

• This is not an ethnic riot. This a Madhesi Movement that has to be compared to the civil rights movement in the US in the 1960s. It has to be compared to Nepal's own April Revolution. This is chapter two.
  
• One police officer did get killed. And that should not have happened. But the police have killed at least 13 Madhesis so far. They have injured hundreds of Madhesis. They have gone inside hospitals to beat up the injured Madhesis.
  
• The Pahadi political leaders have been talking of mobilizing the army against the Madhesi.
  
• The Madhesis are not descendants of Indian migrants. Madhesis are the indigenous people in the Madhesh. The history of the Madhesh goes back thousands of years. Janakpur, which is going to be the capital of the Madhesh state, was the capital of King Janak of the ancient times.
  
• They do not make as much as 30% of Nepal. They make up somewhere between 40 and 50%.
  
• It is not thousands who have been denied citizenship papers. The number is more like six million. Practically half of all Madhesis have been denied citizenship papers.
  
• The reason is not because they could not prove Nepali nationality. The reason is Pahadi bias that sees Madhesi as not Nepali but Indian. This denial has been a structural violence on Madhesi aspirations going back decades.
  
• Koirala's talk of dialogue is as misleading as King Gyanendra's was during the April Revolution. (Gyane In April: 3 Speeches, Girija In Magh: How Many?) Koirala has to fulfill the basic demands of the Madhesi Movement, and that is the only option. Or the movement will continue.
  

I denounce Pahadi journalists like Tilak Pokharel who mislead the world through their access to the global media houses. And I denounce the global media houses for not making the effort in this day and age of easy communication to try to get down to the bottom of facts.

Tilak Pokharel's prejudices that have fed this New York Times article prove how deep seated the anti-Madhesi prejudices are among the Pahadis of Nepal.

You are looking at 13 million Madhesis in Nepal who have waged a nonviolent struggle for equality in the land that has been inhabited by them for centuries, millenia.

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Ethnic Unrest in Southern Plains Undermines Peace Pact in Nepal
SOMINI SENGUPTA, New York Times
Published: February 1, 2007

NEW DELHI, Jan. 31 — A fragile peace was fraying in Nepal on Wednesday, as ethnic violence went on unabated on its southern plains, a police officer was hacked to death and the prime minister was prompted to call for an end to the bloodletting.

The United Nations chief envoy to Nepal has already warned that the trouble in the plains, the Terai region along the Indian border, endangered the possibility of landmark elections this summer.

The violence broke out two weeks ago when the majority people of the Terai, the Madhesis, complained about the way the voting districts had been drawn for the elections. Madhesis have long been aggrieved by the domination of Nepal’s politics by ethnic communities from the hills.

The Madhesis, descendants of migrants from India several generations ago, make up as much as 30 percent of Nepal’s population. Until late last year, thousands were denied citizenship rights because they could not prove Nepali nationality.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said in a televised address on Wednesday evening that he would push for Nepal to have a federal system of government, one of the Madhesis’ chief demands.

“Given my age and my health, it could very well be my last message,” said Mr. Koirala, who is 84. “I make an appeal to all to stop all strikes and agitations that have been launched in some parts of the country, and resolve the crisis through dialogue, and maintain peace and harmony in the country.”

Ten people have been killed in the last two weeks in protests over the redistricting. Several towns in the Terai have been under curfew. Blockades called by some Madhesi groups have brought several southern towns to a standstill. The police arrested three former ministers of the royalist government on Tuesday, including the onetime home minister, Kamal Thapa, accusing them of inciting violence.

By putting the planned elections in jeopardy, the troubles threaten to unravel a delicate peace deal intended to end more than a decade of Maoist conflict that has claimed an estimated 13,000 lives. Under the accord, signed in November, the Maoists joined the government and agreed to sequester their weapons under United Nations supervision.

Elections are to be held in June to choose an assembly to draft a new constitution. The outcome could decide whether Nepal’s monarchy will survive. The Maoists have made its abolition the centerpiece of their platform.

No dates have been set for the polls, which would be the first in Nepal in eight years. Ian Martin, the United Nations secretary general’s representative in Nepal, said Friday that the election schedule “can only be jeopardized if the situation in the Terai continues or escalates.”

Tilak Pokharel contributed reporting from Katmandu.

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