मैं एक प्रवासी मधेसी, एक प्रवासी नेपाली। न्यु यॉर्क में रहता हुँ। नेपाल में काठमाण्डु जो है, दुनिया में न्यु यॉर्क वही है: राजधानी। कोइ जनकपुर से काठमाण्डु जाता है तो नहीं कहते अरे घर छोड़ के चले गए। मैं जब जनकपुर से काठमाण्डु जाया करता था तो रात्रि बसमें भर रात का सफर होता था। तो अभी दिल्ली से न्यु यॉर्क के डायरेक्ट फ्लाइट में बारह घंटे तो ही लगते हैं। उतना दुर तो नहीं।
मैं प्रवास में ना होता तो सन २००५, २००६ और २००७ में जो मैंने काम किया वो शायद न कर सकता। लोकतंत्र के लिए। फिर मधेसी क्रांति के लिए। मेरा रोल क्या? मैंने जो किया उसे पत्रकारिता नहीं कहते। मुझे एक डिजिटल एक्टिविस्ट (digital activist) कह लिजिए। किसी संगठन में पद तो दुर की बात, सदस्यता तक नहीं। अगर मैं नेपाल में होता तो जसपा अथवा जनमत पार्टी के केन्द्रीय समिति में होता। तो जसपा अथवा जनमत पार्टी के किसी भी केंद्रीय सदस्य से मैं कम योगदान करता हुँ वैसा तो मुझे नहीं लगता। वो भी कोइ पद लिए बगैर। तो नेपाल में रह के जो पद लेते हैं उसे भी आप भराबुला कहेंगे, जो पद न ले उसे भी, तो वो तो नाइंसाफी हुइ। पद लेनेवालों की कमीं नहीं। हम बगैर पद के ही ठीक हैं। अपना काम कर रहे हैं। राजनीतिक विचार, रणनीति पेश करते रहते हैं। सुनने वालों पर कोइ प्रेशर भी नहीं रहता कि मेरा किया ही करो।
उजाले के गति में सुचना प्रवाह होती है। बहुत लोग जुड़े रहते हैं। लेकिन ये भी है कि आप सिर्फ न्यु यॉर्क टाइम्स और वाशिंगटन पोस्ट पढ़ के अमेरिकी राजनीति नहीं समझ सकते। उसी तरह सिर्फ ऑनलाइन न्युज पढ़ के नेपालकी राजनीति समझी नहीं जा सकती। तो लोगों मिलने का काम तो वहां के फुल टाइमर लोग तो करते ही हैं।
नेपालके राजनीति में मैं देखता हुँ एक से एक काबिल लोग सब हैं। सन २००५ और २००६ में लोकतंत्र के लिए खटने वाले अमेरिका के नेपाली लोगों में से मैं अकेला फुल टाइमर था। दिन रात सुबह शाम हप्ते में सात दिन। मेरा ग्रीन कार्ड था, एक्सपायर हो गया पता भी नहीं चला। उसके बाद से अभी तक जो सब हुवा है नेपाली राजनीति में मेरे को कभी ग्लानि नहीं हुइ। लोकतंत्र एक नीट एंड क्लीन व्यवस्था नहीं होती। अधिकांश मेडीओकर (mediocre) लोग ही प्रधान मंत्री बनेंगे। वैसा होता है। नेता लोगो का रोल होता है। जनता की भी रोल होती है। सिस्टम बनाने में वक्त लगता है।
मैं नयु यॉर्क शहर में लेकिन नहीं। मेट्रो एरिया में हुँ। एक छोटा सा गाओं है। इतना छोटा की मुझे जहाँ जहाँ जाना होता है पैदल ही पहुँच जाता हुँ। मेरा न अपना घर है न गाडी। अमेरिकन ड्रीम कहने वाले कहते हैं: घर और गाडी। मैंने कई मर्तबा प्रयास किया टेक स्टार्टअप शुरू करूँ। अभी एक किताब लिख रहा हुँ। फिर से एक बार प्रयास करूँगा टेक स्टार्टअप। मेरे को लगता है नेपाल, बिहार, भारत, अफ्रीका के अरबो लोगो की सेवा करने की सबसे अच्छी रास्ता शायद वही है। इसलिए।
I just got off the phone with Karma Gyalden Sherpa. It was a half hour conversation.
Karma has been my favorite Nepali in New York City since I showed up in town a few years ago. The Madhesis have to seek an alliance with the Janajatis to achieve equality in Nepal and the Nepali diaspora. He is not one of those "Bahun ko jhola bokne" Janajati/Madhesi, his phrase. I like that about him a lot. He has a warm personality. He has a high emotional intelligence. He has been running the largest, most vibrant Nepali organization in New York City for a few years now.
I missed the meeting yesterday evening where the Adivasi Janajati Mahasangh and the UNDF tried to work out the details for the Prime Minister's program on the 25th. I might have been late: it was to have been my fourth event of the day (Nepali Picnic, Poetry Festival, Science House MeetUp). And I also ended up at the wrong location. But I did meet someone who was on his way back from the meeting. I debriefed him on the sidewalk by the Satya Narayan Mandir in Jackson Heights.
I talked to TekGurung on the phone an hour before I talked to Karma. It has been decided Karma will chair the event, and Tek will give the welcome speech. I think that is a happy middle ground.
I also wanted to ask for five minutes of speaking time, but before I brought up the topic Karma said he had made a few decisions as chairperson. One, the emcee will only announce the names of the speakers, otherwise sometimes the emcee's introductory speech ends up longer than the speaker's, there will be few speakers, maybe four or five, each speaker will have a strict time limit, and mostly the program will be a question answer session. The floor will be opened to the general public. He said among the few speakers there will be one Madhesi, one Dalit, only one Janajati. ANTA has been asked to furnish the Madhesi speaker. And that the entire event will be live streamed worldwide on the web.
I said I was very happy with the arrangement, that he had thought everything through. I dropped the topic of seeking five minutes for me. I am happier that I will get a minute during the question and answer session. I am also going to try to meet the Prime Minister at the Columbia University event a few days before that.
Karma and I talked about many other things to do with Madhesi and Janajati rights besides this one event. We concluded by agreeing what the Janajatis of Nepal need is their own political party.
As to ANTA, this is what I said to a friend a few days back.
There are more than 3,000 Madhesis in America. Of those less than 100 are members of ANTA. We have to go beyond ANTA to grow Mission Madhes. Can we get 500 members? That is what we need to ask. I urge you to start with making a list of all Madhesis you personally know who are in America, and get them to work on similar lists.
20 Districts In MPRF's "One Madhes" Republica Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardiya, Banke, Dang, Kapilvastu, Rupandehi, Nawalparasi, Chitwan, Parsa, Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Saptari, Sunsari, Morang and Jhapa.
Paramendra Bhagat to chitiz Aug 25
Tekji.
My bio data.
Paramendra Bhagat is president of a digital democracy organization called Hamro Nepal that has the largest Nepali mailing list in the world at over 8500 members. He is now working to launch a global organization called Mission Madhes. He was one of the most active Obama volunteers in all of New York City in 2007 and 2008. He came to the US for college in 1996. Within six months of landing he got himself elected student body president at the number one liberal arts college in the South, a record in college history. In Nepal before that he had been Vice General Secretary to the Nepal Samajwadi Janata Dal that had split from Gajendra Narayan Singh's Sadbhavana. Hridayesh Tripathy was General Secretary and Rajendra Mahto was a central committee member. He runs a blog called Democracy For Nepal that you might have heard of. He worked full time for Nepal's democracy and Madhesi movements in 2005, 2006 and half of 2007.
On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 10:52 PM, chitiz tamu wrote: > Parmendra jee, > > I would like to wel-come you from Madhese as a speaker on the topic of "New > Constitution and Burning Issues of Nepal" on Aug 30, Sunday at 11:30 P.M. > Yak Restaurant, Jackson Height. Please send me your your bio-data within 5 > to 7 sentences. > > Thank You, > Tek Gurung
America has a special place in the world, and so it does among the Nepalidiaspora. The ANA convention that takes place every July 4 weekend, this year in San Francisco, is an event thousands of Nepalis from all across North America make a point to make a pilgrimage to. It is landmark social event. Many look forward to it for good reason. I don't think I will make it, I will likely stay put in New York City, but the oncoming event has made me think again about some of the issues I have thought about before. Why should Nepalis in the diaspora get organized? To what end? How? How much progress have we made? Without expressing disrespect towards those who did the early work, how can we ask the tough questions and level the tough criticisms that will help take our diaspora organizations to new heights?
(1) Homesickness/Bonding
I think the number one reason we talk so much about Nepal in the diaspora is homesickness. It is self interest. Bonding has to happen. The identity has to be claimed and nurtured while the dollar chasing goes on.
(2) Cream Of The Crop
Even those who are not super duper educated are entrepreneurial to have left Nepal. It takes much initiative. Much is asked of those to whom much is given. The diaspora seeks to give back. I think the best giving back would be if the diaspora could invest big time in Nepal. I hope the leaders in Nepal create such an environment. I am for both the service and the profit motive.
(3) Immigrant Rights
Immigrant rights are far behind where globalization has already taken us. We try and get organized to make our modest contributions to the cause of immigrant rights.
(4) Networking
We can help each other out. We can share expertise and experiences. We can pool resources. Although it gets me that not enough of us have gone for hard core entrepreneurial pursuits. It helps our careers here in the diaspora when we network among ourselves.
These are some of the reasons why we need organizations like the ANA. But I have to be honest about something as a Madhesi. To be a Madhesi in the Nepali diaspora is like being a Madhesi in the Nepal Army, or the Nepal Police or in the state bureaucracy in Nepal. You represent a community that is anywhere between 35-45% of Nepal, but is less than 1% of the Nepalis in America. I think it is more like 0.1%. I have felt much more at home giving my time to digital activism for the Madhesi Movement back in Nepal than I have mingling with the Nepalis in America, especially when you routinely encounter the prejudice, the chauvinism, the attitudes, the whole nine yards.
Good thing in Nepal we have a constituent assembly for the first time in history, and we are working to reinvent the Nepali identity because, so far, the Nepali identity has never been inclusive of me and people like me. Maybe the new Nepali identity we will create will.
But then it is that same dissatisfaction that also helps me see the stark fact that the Pahadis on the global stage are powerless like the Madhesis on the national stage in Nepal. Maybe we can empathize with each other. Maybe we can seek and find common cause.
Some of the deficiencies of our organizations are that:
They seem to have no desire to go mass based. There is too much living room politics going on.
Too much elitism. No major membership drives. Elected officers end up from the same small group of people who all know each other. It is like a game of musical chairs.
Not enough transparency and democracy within the organizations.
Our sights are too low. There is seldom talk of immigrant rights.
No reach out to create a larger South Asian, Asian solidarity. Too much inward looking.
Not enough constructive, respectful engagement with our counterparts back home. You can't help people you look down upon.
The few umbrella organizations are in name only. Most organizations act autonomous. Not enough talk, not enough coordination.
I absolutely don't see the Beer Gorkhali thing on immigrant rights. We almost never bring that up as a topic.
I think progress on all these fronts would start with injecting democracy and transparency in the way we operate our organizations. And then we will have to lift our vision to seek equality for us in the diaspora. We will have to forge alliances. We will have to claim the Blac identity, Black Latino Asian Coalition.
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