Awakening of Madhesh: Silent past,Flaming Present and Uncertain future
by a United Nations Student Alliance member
* Nepalese government collects 77% revenue from madhesh and spends only 18% there.
* 42%madheshi population has less than 9% representation in parliament.
* Election constituency are arranged in a manner that allocates minimum seat to terai region inspite vast population.
* Madheshi people have suffered discrimination in every way from socio-economic to regarding any oppertunity.
* Offending and abusing madheshi people publically is a common sight in Nepal from offices to educational institutions.
* Hilly people control all important government positions and posts where as Madhesi people occupy less than 5% with negligible participation in the national security forces.(not because they dont deserve,because they are discriminated)
* Madheshi protests are not targeted against any certain community & they have the moral support of intellectual mass in Nepal
* Time and again politicians have abbused madheshi rights issues for their super-ficial election agenda.
* Further violence sparked because goverment used excessive force to supress the peacefull protests.
* They government left no stone unturned and even succeded to defame the protests as backed by royalists or hindu fundamentalist forces which is totally untrue.
* The international community including media are looking into the issue from government's perspective and turned a blind eye and deaf ear.
* The Madeshi people are aware enough to take this issue to the International Court of Justice.
In contrary to a common misbelief that madheshi people migrated from India sometime in history,Terai has been their home not only since centuries but since milleniums.Thats far before a country named Nepal or India existed.They are mistaken as minority not because of their portion of population but due to unrepresentation in the administrative and socio-economic arena of the nation.Since centuries Pahadi(hilly) people have supressed and discriminated Madheshi people.It was because the capital city was in the hills where madhesi people had negligible presence.Besides,governance and authority was never decentralised in Nepal outside the capital. Offending and abusing madheshi people publically is a common site in Nepal from offices to educational institutions.Hilly people control all important government positions and posts where as Madhesi people occupy less than 5% with negligible participation in the national security forces.(not because they dont deserve,because they are discriminated)
Madhesh is the bread basket hence the backbone of national economy.Everything from agricultural products to consumer goods is supplied from Terai .Nepalese government collects 77% revenue from madhesh and spends only 18% there.42%madheshi population has less than 9% representation in parliament.Election constituencies arranged in a manner that allocates minimum seat to terai region inspite vast population.Terai people had active participation in the People's revolution of 2007,2046 and 2063BS(60,90&06AD) .Madhesh acted as the major hideout and planning centre for democratic Leaders.However time and again politicians have abused madheshi rights issues for their superficial election agenda to gain votes. In fact nobody cared about their issues rather tried to supress their voices.Their patience broke when the post April revolution interim consitution failed to address their genuine issues and simply ignored them.Pahadi community backed up by police and government attacked on madheshi people, vandalised and set fire on their shops and houses in the western town of Nepalgung .A few days later a maoist cadre shot a right activist for no reason.When madheshi people stepped to peacefull street protests goverment chose excessive force curfew and bullets to to solve the problem.The government left no stone unturned and even succeded to defame the protests as backed by royalists or hindu fundamentalist forces which is totally untrue.Killing of 19 bare handed citizens and injuring of thousands is a worst political scenario.Human rights watch figured out that most deaths occurd by bullet shots or fatal head injuries during curfew hours slapped in the cities with madheshi Majority.Prachanda stated ,"I am not ready to talk to a strenghthless organisation.He also suggested to mobilize the army against them.He did not consider the united voice of 10 million people to be strength rather seeked military solution to the problem.There is a special reason why Prachanda wants to supress JTTM or MRF,It was him who armoured them for his purpose a few years back.Now he fears this may unstabalise his nascent political image.This is the best example how madheshi people are used and later forgotton by politicians in Nepal. Madheshi protests are not targeted against any certain community & they have the moral support of intellectual mass in Nepal The Madeshi people are aware enough to take this issue to the International Court of Justice .
The international community including media are looking into the issue from government's perspective and turned a blind eye and deaf ear..I fear frustated youths who are fade up of the state's behavior towards them may turn more violent.If this problem is not solved from its roots nobody can be sure that madheshi people wont fight a war for an independent country in future.Here the state has two options,either eliminate all kinds of discrimination and give them proportional representation now or wait till armed militias are formed and madheshi people turn into tamil tigers and the country turns into hell once again.May peace prevail.
Pankaj Karna
United Nations Student Allience
Prakash Bom: Federal Governance Structure Is Mandatory for Proportional Electoral System
SPA & Maoists are focusing more on proportional electoral system than restructuring Nepal with federal governance structure. The proportional electoral system based on population might create further complications because proportional electoral system must also consider other criteria such as human development and country’s geographical disproportional regions. If the political parties and ethnic groups seriously wish to establish ‘Federal Governance System’ then they must comprehend the principles of federalism and its structure fundamentals. It is easy to strive for it with protests and politicizing slogans but hard to conceive its structure for the nation. Nevertheless, it needs great deal of consultations, discussions and dialogues in the national and international level. We have to acknowledge our past political discipline, government practice and their legacy within our mindsets and the soil of the nation as honestly as we can. Our legacy is centrally built setup on the controlled arbitrary system. Such system belonged to the primitive government practices like the feudal oligarchic, dictatorial and totalitarian governance systems. Democracy cannot last long under such systems. The historic evidence of it is the frequent failure of past democratic governments of Nepal trying to function with such primitive governance setups. In the democratic evolution the nation has reached climax with the need for the restructuring the nation that can address the mandate for the complete democracy with the protections of the civil liberty of all with the national integrity. Nation can risk neither her integrity nor people’s civil liberty with all that political hodgepodges. It is time for the political leaderships, ruling elites, legal experts and members of civil societies to sit and consider the federal governance structure fundamentals that can address the national crises. In federal governance system there are governments within governments. However, there are no autonomous regions self-governing on their own. All the governments of a federal governance system in every level must comply with the Constitution of the nation, federal bills and their amendments. The federal government or the central government in the capital of the nation has rigorous responsibilities for the national security, national policy making, foreign relations establishment and the protection of Constitution and justice. The state or regional, district and city local governments have to manage their local affairs for administration, law enforcement, justice and development under the federal national policies, regulations and mandates. The Madhesi revolt for the federal governance and proportional electoral system might be good for the nation if the Madhesi leaderships seriously understand what they are really rebelling for. If the consequence of it can establish the federal governance system with its structure fundamentals the achievements of the movement will be grandeur and historic. The seriousness of the Madhesi leaderships depends on how genuinely they are willing to discuss the issues with the government and leaderships of SPA and Maoists. This needs national consensus not only for the achievements of Madhesi issues but all the national issues of diverse ethnic communities. The Madhesi issue now has become the national issue. The Madhesi leaderships must understand the federal governance is the need of the new democratic Nepal. Thus all leaderships, ruling elites, law experts, and people of Nepal must understand the Federal Governance structure fundamentals. The greater the number of the federal governance system’s state or regional or district or city local governments stronger the national bond among the local governments; more proficient the decentralization of state power and responsibility; and lesser the chance for a state or region to breakaway or separate as an independent nation. This is how the union of a Federal Nation can be built up from the grass-root levels of local governance to sustain the significant of electoral democracy. The criterion of the permanent residence of a local government has to legislated by the federal government. Citizens of Nepal must have right to change their residency from any state or region to other state or region.
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