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| Mural in Kathmandu with the slogan 'Long Live Marxism–Leninism–Maoism–Prachanda Path' (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English: Flag of Tarai-Madhesh Loktantrik Party - a political party from Nepal. The design, 2:3 dimensions, colours and construction details were based primarily on the template from nepalnews.com article from 28 December 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Madhesi Jana Adhikar Forum, Nepal (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English: Abhishek Pratap Shah is a Nepalese politician, belonging to the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Nepal (Photo credit: Mathew Knott) |
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| English: Flag of Madhesi Jana Adhikar Forum - a political party from Nepal. The design, 2:3 dimensions, colours and construction details were based primarily on Mjf-flag.PNG, where it was based on mprfnepal.org. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English: politician of nepal (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
- हृदयेश त्रिपाठी (उपाध्यक्ष तराई–मधेश लोकतान्त्रिक पार्टी)
(1) Unification Is A Must
50 MPs have to come together under the umbrella of one unified party. That is the starting point for Madhesi parties right now. It was the lack of one unified Madhesi party that killed the idea of one unified state across all of Madhesh. You can't talk about Ek Madhesh Ek Pradesh and be 30 political parties. It is not convincing. Now that we know there is not going to be Ek Pradesh in all of Madhesh, we know who to blame. We have to blame the 30 Madhesi political parties.
If all Madhesi parties had been one, that unified party would have competed with the Maoists in terms of its size in parliament. Don't blame the Madhesi voters. Take responsibility.
(2) Unification In Stages
The three Madhesi parties coming together is a good start, but the whole process has been taking too long. I get the impression Upendra Yadav has been dragging his feet. He tries to take too much credit for the Madhesi Kranti. People like Hridayesh Tripathy and Rajendra Mahato, and even Bharat Bimal Yadav and Rameshwar Raya Yadav were working night and day for Madhesi rights for a full decade and half while Upendra Yadav was busy with the UML and the Maoists. He does deserve credit but not all of it.
And Upendra Yadav is not the only left-leaning "Socialist" making the rounds. Hridayesh Tripathy was a Soviet trained Socialist before he was a Madhesi rights activist.
It is okay to have an awkward sounding name like Terai Madhesh Sadbhavana Forum or Democratic Socialist Forum, Nepal. To start with, that is. But both are odd names. A 300 member central committee might be the only way to bring everyone together, but that jumbo size is untenable and looks senseless on the surface.
There is a solution to both those problems. It is called going for a national convention and letting the democratic process decide things.
Democratic Socialist Forum, Nepal is a little bit of a biased name. You are picking two words from Yadav's party and none from Thakur's or Mahato's. That does not sound fair.
It would be best to go for a neutral name like Lok Dal. You want a party that could also grow into the hills. Or even a Sadbhavana Forum. My bias is for a two word short, sweet name. Nepal Sadbhavana Forum. NSF. The word Sadbhavana represents the decade and a half before the Madhesi Kranti, and the word Forum represents the first Madhesi Kranti.
(3) Party Democracy
The democratic process is the answer to pretty much every contentious issue. Who should be the parliamentary party leader? Hold an election. Who should be party president? Hold an election at the national convention. By applying the democratic process at the wada level, at the village/town/city level, at the district level, at the state level, at the national level all contentious issues can be resolved.
(4) Federalism
The Madhesi parties will want two states in the Terai. The Pahadi parties will try to create four states in the Terai. That is a tussle that will play out over the course of the year. And there the best bet for the Madhesi parties is if all 50 of their MPs are under the umbrella of one political party. Even the Maoists are not with the two states in the Terai idea. At the core of it, they are a Pahadi party just like the Congress and the UML.
(5) State Restructuring
Ensuring 49% reservation for the DaMaJaMa in all new entrances into the state bureaucracies was a major achievement. But now the Madhesi parties have to act watchdogs to that arrangement. Already the Nepal Army threw that aside.
The bigger part of state restructuring is to do with downsizing. If federalism is a superior form of government, and it is, then a federal Nepal should have fewer bureaucrats than today's Nepal. You create state level ministries, but you have to drastically downsize the national level ministries in the process.
The Nepal Army is bloated. It has to be brought down to about 10,000 soldiers. It is because what Nepal needs is more teachers, more health care workers.
The Nepal Police also has to be downsized. Policing will largely be up to the states. That is not a federal function.
(6) Nitishism
Once the country gets its constitution and federalism, and the unified Madhesi party is vigilant and proactive about state restructuring, 100% of the focus has to shift to what I am calling Nitishism. It is going to be all about development. And there Nitish is the top role model on the planet. You just imitate him and sweep election after election.
My fear is the Madhesi parties might finally unite too late, and then keep singing the Madheshbad song long after the train has already left the station and is now parked at the development station. If that happens, they will have to make do with a 20% vote share. And at that point I am not going to be blaming the Madhesi voters.
A unified Madhesi party might end up with 35% of the Madhesi votes compared to the 25% vote share of the fragmented Madhesi parties. But if that unified Madhesi party takes to Nitishism its vote share among Madhesis will rise to 50% and it will also be in a good position to make inroads into the hills and mountains.
If the unified Madhesi parties will beat the three Pahadi parties on Nitishism, it will at that point also beat the Pahadi parties in the Pahad itself. Will the Madhesi politicians be able to muster that political will? Only time will tell. That party will have a central committee that will be 20% Khas and 30% Janajati and 20% Dalit and 33% female.
And, by the way, Democratic Socialist Forum, Nepal would be a lousy name for a party.
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