Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Terai

Laloo Yadav (Photo credit: bbcworldservice)

Nepali speaking Nepalis from the hills talk of Nepali speakers in places like Sikkim, Darjeeling, Assam and elsewhere as their own, and I don’t begrudge that. Cultural bonds are healthy. But by that same token, people in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh feel like my own to me. There are shared cultural bonds.

In my case, it goes way beyond that. I was born in India. My mother is Indian. One of my sisters is married to an Indian. I am as likely to dial the Indian country code as the Nepali country code. Main Laloo Ka Aadmi.

Nepalis who manage to come over to NYC are free to not work for Indians, but more than 95% freely choose to work for Indians. So it makes little sense for them to talk hate speech against Indians, which is the exact same hate speech they use against Madhesis. If Indians are your American dream, for you to talk hate speech against them is not only ungrateful, it is your problem, not theirs. I think that attitude, which is a mental sickness, is the primary reason why the overwhelming majority of Nepalis stay stuck in the jobs they start out with in the city. They prevent their own upward social mobility by engineering unhealthy attitudes towards Indians.

After democracy was reinstalled in Nepal in 1990, the Congress swept the Terai. All my relatives in Mahottari and Dhanusha became Congress supporters. My family was one exception. My father contested for parliament on a Sadbhavana party ticket. But that was preceded by the enemy behavior Basu Risal’s brother, the Vice Principal at the school, and Chiranjiwi Wagle’s cousin, a teacher, acted out against me at Budhanilkantha School. They were not alone. It was a rude shock to me. It took me years to come up with the vocabulary to describe my experience. You can see water with great clarity, but if you don’t know the word for it, what will you call it?

When the Sadbhavana party split for the first time, Hridayesh Tripathy, Rajendra Mahato, Rameshwar Raya Yadav, Sarita Giri, and others formed the Nepal Samajwadi Janata Dal. Tripathy was General Secretary, I was a Vice General Secretary. Technically speaking I was senior to both Rajendra Mahato and Sarita Giri at the time in the party. That was right before I came to America for college.

Over a decade later I became the only Madhesi in America to work full time for the Madhesi movement when it took off in 2007. Upendra Yadav and I had never communicated one on one before. But when he landed in Los Angeles a few months later for the ANA Convention, his first question to the people who went to receive him was, “Where is Paramendra Bhagat?” They took him to the hotel, he again asked, “Where is Paramendra Bhagat?” They ended up flying him over to NYC. I was with him pretty much every hour during the four or so days he was in the city before he flew over to Nepal.

The electoral setback of the Madhesi parties in the recent elections to the Constituent Assembly I have taken in stride. The pendulum will swing again. You can’t be 30 parties, and say Ek Madhesh Ek Pradesh, and expect the people to buy that. There is space for only one Madhesi party in Nepali politics. All 30 parties will have to become one. I believe they are working towards it. That act of unification alone will take their vote share from the current 25% to 35%. Post unification that one Madhesi party will sweep the state elections in the Terai.

Sushil Koirala’s performance has been poor. And some of the key UML leaders in government act nakedly corrupt, and are supposedly with open underworld ties. I already foresee a strong anti-incumbency wave against the NC and the UML in the next national election the country will see, which should be some time in 2015.

I want the NC to perform well. I want the UML to perform well. That elevates the standard of democracy in the country. If the NC and the UML perform well, the only way the Maoists and the Madhesis stand a chance of a comeback is if they do even better. That political competition is a good thing. But I have been disappointed by Sushil Koirala and Bamdev Gautam. Forget development, I am not sure they are even going to deliver the constitution on time.

What Nepal needs is a Modi, a Nitish Kumar, someone who will focus on the economy like a laser beam. Sadly I don’t see a personality of that temperament in Nepali politics right now. It will take a good constitution and a few national elections for the system to throw up such individuals perhaps.

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Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal

Image via Wikipedia

Jhala Nath Khanal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is now time to form a new government that would include all parties except the Maoists. Jhala Nath Khanal would be the right person to lead that government.

This is not a Katuwal issue. This is an issue of the Maoists having lost the confidence of the parliament. The Maoist government no longer has majority support. The MJF has to join forces with the UML, and the Sadbhavana. The NC has to support the new government by joining it. The TMLP has to join the new government.

Rule of law is supreme. How to integrate the two armies? Go to rule of law. How to sack or not sack the army chief? Go to rule of law.

In The News

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Bhattarai claims army firmly behind govt decision; NC ramps up support for no-confidence motion against govt
President unhappy with govt's sack order to Army chief, starts consultations
OHCHR urges parties to maintain restraint
Demonstrations for and against decision to sack army chief
Govt decides to sack CoAS Katawal; Khadka acting chief; Four coalition partners oppose decision
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Congratulations To Rajendra Mahto

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To: Koirala, Nepal, KC, Pokharel, Tripathy, Mahto And The Rest
Phone Interview With Rajendra Mahato

Photos

• Rajendra Mahto 5
• Rajendra Mahto 4
• Rajendra Mahto 3
• Rajendra Mahto 2
• Rajendra Mahto 1

Videos

Anil Jha, Nepal Sadbhavana Party 1
Anil Jha, Nepal Sadbhavana Party 2
Anil Jha, Nepal Sadbhavana Party 3
Madhesi Gathering In Prospect Park 1
Madhesi Gathering In Prospect Park 2
Ridgewood Dashain Party

I would like to publicly congratulate Rajendra Mahto, my friend of over a decade, for having been unanimously elected president of the Sadbhavana party. His election was the icing on the cake. The party's convention has also come up with some other major positive developments.

The party president's powers have been reduced, and that is a good thing. The party should get into the habit of holding extensive internal discussions before taking major discussions. The process of reaching decisions is almost as important as the decisions reached.

The party is going to go out of its way to make sure its central committee is inclusive of the Dalits and the Janajatis and women and youth. That is very good thing. The Dalits are in the Terai what the Madhesis are in Nepal. The Madhesi leadership must go out of its way to uplift the Dalits in the Terai. That the Dalits in the Pahad do not fare any better is no excuse. Similarly, the party must show that it is inclusive of Tharus. The party's central committee, I hope, is at least one third women.

Rajendra Mahto now has the powers to try to punish the Sadbhavana leaders who recently tried to snatch away his cabinet position. He could sideline them inside the party. But he should not give into that temptation. Those dissidents might still stay away, but on his part, the Sadbhavana's new party president must go out of his way to try and bring as many of those dissidents into the fold as possible. He should work extra hard to get people like Hridayesh Tripathy, Bharat Bimal Yadav and others to come into the party's new central committee. If he can not take that first step, it will become harder for him to forge a grand Madhesi Alliance with the MJF, Jwala, Goit and others. Now is the time to bring together all Madhesi leaders, inside the party and outside, under the slogan of Ek Madhesh, Ek Pradesh.

Hridayesh Tripathy had been using Anandi Devi like a pawn. That was wrong. Either Tripathy should himself contest to be party president, or he should be more respectful of those who do take up officer positions in the party.

The Sadbhavana has come up with a viable map for federalism: three states that get further divided into regions. So all of Terai would be one state, and there might be three or four regions inside that state. That model can work. This is better than the newest Maoist map that physically breaks the Terai into two by giving Chitwan over to some hill state. That can't be done. All of Terai has to be one state, it has to be one continuous geographic unit.

So I guess you end up with a Terai state, and inside that state you will have a Mithila, a Bhojpur, an Awadh, and a Tharuwan. I can live with that.

What really caught my attention though - since Mahto's election to the party president's post was a foregone conclusion even before the convention started - was that the party has said the Prime Minister of the country must be directly elected. That is a huge move. And this makes the Sadbhavana to be the first big party in the country to go for this. I congratulate Sarita Giri, the author of the party's manifesto, for making this major jump.

You would hold direct elections. And if no one candidate gets at least 50% of the votes cast, within a month, you hold a second round between the two top candidates.

To my mind this provision for a directly elected Prime Minister is the best thing to have come out of this recent convention of the Sadbhavana party. This would make for a better arrangement than what India, Britain and America have.

During the 1994-1996 period, there used to the Nepal Samajwadi Janata Dal. It had two MPs: Rameshwar Raya Yadav, and Hridayesh Tripathy. Sarita Giri and I were Vice General Secretaries to that party. Rajendra Mahto was a central committee member.

Rajendra Mahto's number one task right now is to show magnanimity and work hard to bring all the disgruntled leaders back into the fold. I think he should go ahead and show up at the homes of those leaders, people like Hridayesh, Bharat Bimal, and Rameshwar Raya Yadav. All of them should be urged to join the party's central committee. Heck, even Anandi Devi would look great in the party's central committee.

It also feels good to see Anil Jha playing such an active part in the Sadbhavana's leadership. Our friendship has been forged during our meetings during his two trips to New York City.

I am extremely happy that Rajendra Mahto is now party president of the Sadbhavana.

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The MJF Dispute: Got To Seek Middle Ground
No To Terrorism: Terai Army Is A Criminal Outfit
उपेन्द्र यादव: सरकार र फोरमबीच सम्झौता
The Madhesi MPs And The Idea Of A New Party
तराई बन्द नहीं संगठन िवस्तार किरए
जयप्रकाश गुप्ता: मधेस आन्दोलनका आग्रह
Goal Has To Be To Stay As One Country





In The News

महतो ँअध्यक्ष’ हुने Kantipur राष्ट्रिय कार्यसमितिको निर्वाचित २० स्थानका लागि ५७ जनाको उम्मेदवारी परेको छ ...... महाधिवेशनमा ८० प्रतिशत सहभागिताको दाबी गरिए पनि संख्या ठ्याक्कै भन्न नेताहरूले चाहेनन् । 'पाँच सयभन्दा बढी सहभागी भएका छन्,' महतोले भने । बेलुकी एउटा समूहले माईस्थान चोकमा महाधिवेशन धोका हो भन्दै केहीबेर नाराबाजी गरेको थियो । ........ प्रवक्ता सरिता गिरीद्वारा प्रस्तुत घोषणापत्र पनि सर्वसम्मतिले पारित भएको छ । राजनीतिक स्थिरताका लागि प्रत्यक्ष निर्वाचनमार्फत प्रधानमन्त्री चयन गर्ने घोषणापत्रमा उल्लेख छ । राजतन्त्रले मधेसीलगायतका समुदायविरुद्घ षड्यन्त्र गरेको भन्दै पार्टी लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्रको पक्षधर रहेको उल्लेख छ । 'संघीय शासन व्यवस्थाअन्तर्गत मुलुकलाई हिमाल, पहाड र मधेस तीन स्वायत्त प्रदेशमा विभाजन गरिनेछ,' घोषणापत्रमा भनिएको छ- 'प्रदेशहरूलाई भाषा, संस्कृति र जातजातिका आधारमा विभिन्न प्रान्तमा विभाजन गरिनेछ ।' ....... राजेन्द्र महतोले संविधानसभा चुनावबाट सबैभन्दा बढी मधेसी समुदायले लाभ उठाउने भएकाले यसमा खुलेर लाग्नुपर्ने बताएका छन् । 'पहिलोपटक जनताले आफ्नो हातले संविधान लेख्ने अवसर पाउनेछन्,' वीरगन्जमा रिपोर्टर्स क्लबको साक्षात्कारमा उनले भने- 'यसको अहिले सदुपयोग गरेनौं भने यो अवसरका लागि शताब्दीयौं कुर्नुपर्नेछ ।' ....... सद्भावना पार्टी संविधानसभाको निर्वाचनमा सहभागी हुन मधेसमा सक्रिय सबै मधेसी दल, सशस्त्र संगठनहरू र संघसंस्थासँग मोर्चा बनाउन तयार रहेको बताए ।
दलितको अठोट दुई युवती र एक युवक जिस्किँदै थिए । एउटीले "रोशन कार्की सार्की" भनेर युवकलाई जिस्क्याइन् ।

Mahato elected NSP-A chairman NepalNews The general convention of the dissident faction of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) underway in Birgunj has elected Rajendra Mahato as chairman of the party, unopposed. .... a five-member committee of NSP leaders is trying to choose 20 central committee members without voting. 37 candidacies were filed today for the 20 elected seats. ..... 21 other central members will be nominated by the party leadership.
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Nepal Sadbhavana Party (A) elects Mahato as chairman NewKerala.com The special convention of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandidevi), the biggest and oldest political party of the Terai region of Nepal, has unanimously elected Rajendra Mahato as the chairman of the party. ..... The session also passed the new party statute with a new provision of a chairperson, co-chairpersons, two vice-chairpersons and 41 central members ..... Mandal was ousted from the party and the two parties Nepal Sadbhavana and Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi) united a few months ago.
Minister Mahato to lead NSP-A, Karna settles for co-chairman post Kantipur Online, Nepal the party vice-chairman Laxman Lal Karna agreed not to fight for the party’s top post. ..... a no-confidence motion against party chairperson Anandi Devi Singh ..... The motion, which was lodged by 221 general convention representatives and tabled by party’s general secretary Anil Kumar Jha at the closed-door session held at the City Hall in Birgunj, was passed by clapping hands this afternoon. ..... The party has proposed that during the restructuring of the country, one national parliament and three autonomous regions with their own regional parliaments should be set up and the lawmakers in the national and regional parliaments should be elected through a mixed-electoral system. ...... The party has also proposed that the Prime Minister should be elected through the first-past-the-post system. ..... party’s Election Officer Mumtaj Ahmad informed that altogether 625 representative of the party should have been present in the convention. ...... Mahato claimed that 80 to 85 percent of the party leaders and cadres have participated in the three-day convention .... Senior party Vice-Chairman Laxman Lal Karna told a local FM station Thursday night that he also plans to apply for the party’s top post. ..... In the closed-door session, the party leaders and cadres have strongly raised demands such as annulment of unlimited powers given to the party chairperson, party unity, party policy and election manifesto in local Hindi language.

Senior politicians, civil society leaders discuss political crisis Kantipur UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress General Secretary and Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Maoist second-in-command Dr Baburam Bhattarai, leader of Nepal Sadbhavana Party-Anandi Devi Hridayesh Tripathi and other leaders of the eight parties and prominent civil society activists are involved in the discussion.
Maoists struggle to reschedule roundtable finding it increasingly difficult to hold their proposed roundtable conference ..... Although a Maoist source said Narahari Acharya of Nepali Congress and Pradip Giri of NC (Democratic) have expressed their commitment to participation, Acharya told the Post he has not received any invitation. "I have no knowledge of such a conference," he said. ..... the party will again hold discussions with the leadership of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) and other ethnic groups for their participation. NEFIN and the Federal Democratic National Forum have already declined to attend the Maoist 'roundtable'.
JTMM-G cadres torch Matrika Yadav’s jeep Five days ago, Yadav’s bodyguard Bibek, had runaway in the vehicle along with one AK-47 rifle, and Rs 500, 000. He was also the driver of the jeep (Ja 1 Pa 503). .... A former JTMM cadre, Bibek had joined the Maoist party a year ago. .... Bivek is said to have rejoined JTMM. ... The JTMM-G, which waging an armed agitation for a separate Terai state, is a renegade faction of the CPN-Maoist.
CA polls must to ensure rights of Madhes: Minister Mahato Rajendra Mahato Saturday underscored the need of active participation in the upcoming Constituent Assembly elections to ensure the rights of Madhesi people. ..... time had come for the two-decade-old dream of the party to be materialized. ..... "Now no one can stop the gun-powder of Madhes from being exploded," said Minister Mahato. ..... the party would unite all Madhesi and pro-Madhesis for the decisive fight ..... the election of the 20-member central working committee of the party couldn't take place after all the candidates who had registered their names for the post withdrew their names unanimously ....... stating that the current circumstances within the party was not suitable for such elections. ...... Laxmanlal Karna, Narsingh Chaudhari, Paramanand Yadav, Bishnu Narayan Chaudhari and Ram Naresh Yadav would nominate new members within few days, said senior NSP-A leader Anil Jha. ..... The nomination would be as inclusive as possible by appointing Dalit, women, youth and indigenous people's representative ...... Altogether 57 persons had registered their names for the central working committee earlier. ...... The Mahato-led faction had unanimously passed no-confidence move against the party chairman Singh on Friday. The NSP-A leader Mahato has a strong hold in the party.

Sarita Giri: Madheshi Movement In Defense Of Democracy And Madheshi Nationalism

Madheshi movement has forced the politics of the country towards a new direction. The dynamics generated by the movement have been so powerful that it has compelled the eight parties to accept the need of amending the interim constitution within thirty five days of its promulgation. The step itself is admittance of the fact that political negotiations concluded earlier are flawed and inadequate. Earlier the dominant political elites chose to call it a regressive movement. Later on, they called it unforeseen and unexpected. But that does not entail the truth.

The Madheshi movement is neither unexpected, nor unforeseen nor regressive. It is very much in defense of democracy and Madheshi nationalism. It is for the political acknowledgment of Madheshi nationalism within the widely divergent Nepali nationalism.

The movement is as old as the democratic movement in this country. But till now the movement has been defined as an ethnic movement and the intrinsic nationalist aspirations of Madheshis have never been emphasized. But the way the movement is enduring against all odds, speaks loudly of the deeper meanings and emotional values that Madheshi people are willing to assign to the movement. It is due to Madheshi’s nationalist aspirations that an assurance of enhanced representation for Madhesh on the basis of population increase is not able to arrest or stop the movement.

The seeds of the movement had been sown in the year 2008 when Tarai congress was formed within Nepali congress. The development at that stage made obvious the discriminatory and domineering tendencies of the hill elites towards Madheshi elites in a political party. The current madheshi movement has made obvious again the same domineering, exclusionary and subordinating attitudes prevailing against madheshis in almost all mainstream hill- centric political parties. Consequently, for the first time in the history of Nepal an autonomous Madheshi movement has emerged from within the people. Thus a careful analysis of the movement is essential.

The movement is essentially a nationalist movement and it embodies deep cry for political acknowledgement of Madheshi’s identity and culture and political equality. It embodies goals of the creation of a new inclusive nation-state and democratization of politics. In the past, the process of democratization has always been thwarted by dominant hill elites to maintain their relentless political grip over the image and reality of the Nation . That in turn has made both democracy and nation building, failed projects in Nepal.

I intend to argue that the success of democracy and nation building will depend very much upon the successful conclusion of the ongoing Madheshi movement. I would also argue that the hill elites, of varying beliefs and ideology across the political spectrum have failed in institutionalizing democracy in the country so far not merely because of their exclusionary nationalist project but also because of other specific trends and tendencies associated with their origin, life circumstances and resulting psyche. I would propose that madheshi perspectives provide the best solution for crises of democracy and nation building in this country from political as well as economic angle. Adoption of federal principle for restructuring of the state is the first essential step in the direction.

Democracy as a political system can never survive for long if psychological, economic and cultural elements are not conducive and political structures not proper. The failure of democracy in Nepal so far is failure of hill perspective and hill psyche altogether. The hill people are mostly familiar with subsistence mode of life. They have never enough in the hills to support their lives and dreams. The culture of war making and migration is a consequence of that. They lack skills of entrepreneurship in lack of surplus in the hills. In lack of surplus, labour has not much meaning in the hills. Thus the labor in the hills gets its value either by migrating or by joining warfare. Consequently the hill people lack basic aptitude and attributes for capitalist development by nature.

Their sense of nationalism is also disjointed because their attachment with their place of birth is emotional rather than both material and emotional. They understand that their space of origin would not provide them enough to fulfill common human aspirations. Colonization of the Madhesh and strangulation of madheshi identity became essential. Exclusionary nationalism became the foundation of Modern Nepali state. Even the democratic hill elites founded democracy on the foundation of Gorakhali nationalism. Before the advent of democracy, the design of Shahas and Ranas for Nepali state have been imperialistic and feudalistic in nature. The political elites after 1990 have further built on that.People in Nepal have experience of very limited democracy so far even in democratic rule. Thus the country suffers from three types of hegemonic traits : exclusionary nationalism, colonialism and feudalism. Consequently, seizure of power in Kathmandu and control of land in madhesh have remained indispensable for the emerging hill elites from 1950 onwards. While the seizure of state power provided the base for political nationalism, the colonization of Madhesh provided the economic base for reinforcing hill centric rule of the country. Thus from the very nbeginning, Madhesh has been placed at the service of the hills.

And still democracy led by hill elites had not able to work. According to democratic hill elites, the king has remained the main obstacle for democracy. But the explanation is not adequate. In the new scenario, the leaders of different political parties and the king found themselves as rivals but the hill nationalism is the common interest that bound them together. Also at times, when rivalry among them for power become very intense, they do not loose sight of this very vital interest. The hill democratic elites have not abstained from making the king active and authoritarian when they have perceived a threat to hill nationalism or when things had gone beyond that control. They have done so on occasions in the past when rivalry among them for power had become very intense. Not surprisingly, power in the past has kept shuttling among the hill political elites including the king even in democracy. But the commonality of interest has kept the old network and old politics has remained intact throughout. Even today some parties are eager to keep the king as the lion in the cage who should be freed to wander and hunt for prey in most arbitrary and authoritarian manner, but should be brought back into the cage when mission is accomplished. The most ironical or interesting part of the design is that the lion will be made to blame for all the mischievous deeds without responsibility and will be caged and guarded by the same elites against any harm. “The king must live on despite of everything and anything” in the design of semi democratic hill elite. Therefore, from 1950 onwards, Nepal has democratic version of old Bharadari politics rather than genuine democratic politics where king also has been a key player but with tacit consent of other elites.

Not much has seemingly changed after Jan Andolan II. The same dynamics of political game are still active. Nepali people are worst affected by such games played in the name of democracy as such political games thwarts the power to go to the people in real terms. And large section of hill elites do not intend the power to go to people in real terms as that would damage the prospects of maneuvering and brokerage in the realm of power . Thus the institution of monarchy is indispensable for them. They need monarchy to keep in place the conspiracy theories as that shield them from accepting responsibilities for wrongs done by themselves. The traditional hill elites would like to throw the King only when they would believe that they would be the ultimate winner in this country of diverse nationalities.

The emerging madheshi and janajati movement for democratization and assorted Nepali nationalism could be such a threat to them. So one should not be surprised if the democratic exercise of constituent assembly election will be suspended in the face of emerging new political movements. Though the king and darbariyas will be blamed in the name of conspiracy theory but such an act will serve the common interest of all the hill elites and of those madheshis who are co opted by them.

The madheshi movement has emerged as the most serious challenge to all traditional hegemonic interest. After the emergence of the modern centralized state, the hill elites, through the control of state power are virtually in control of natural resources such as forest and water resources. But they have badly failed in managing these resources for economic development. It is basically because of their “capture and seizure” mentality in the realm of governance. Because they fear that development of water resources and loosening of control over forest to local political units would empower madhesh and madheshi, the development of water resources is suspended. In this scenario, near absolute dependency upon foreign aid to run the state is a need of the Hill elites.

In case of land they have faced resistance of Madheshis from the very beginning. The rise of communist movement led by hill elites is a response to that. Regarding land holding congress has not been much different from the communist parties. Madheshi jeemidars or landlords participated in the political revolution led by Nepali congress in 2007 because they wanted to get rid of Rana's autocratic control over land in Madhesh. It was essentially a bourgeoise revolution as its success paved the way for having private property in land for the first time in Nepal. But the success of the revolution did not bring freedom and power to them. B. P. Koirala wanted to pursue radical land reform program along the principles of democratic socialism. His targeted was the land in madhesh and the madhesi elites. His whole idea was to institutionalize peasant economy in Madhesh as in the hills. Madheshi elites asked the question that was B.P.willing to have the same egalitarian approach for sharing of political power? The answer was a big no. Thus Tarai congress was formed within Neplai congress in form of protest. Land is the base of existence of Madhesis in Nepal. Because of their bonds with land Madheshis are more nationalist than any other hill group. It is not only emotional as in case of hill people but also material as the land only has provided sustenance and nourishment to larger mass of madheshis of any class against all sorts of onslaught of the state. When B.P was keen on pursuing radical land reform, the madheshi elites were disgruntled. King Mahendra and his allies understood the discontent and capitalized on that. The royal coup was by and large unopposed in the Madhesh. But after imposing his absolute rule he initiated land reform programs that would essentially weaken the madheshi elites. King Mahendra himself was not sympathetic to the Madheshi elites as he had become aware of rebellion potential of madheshi eleites in 2007 revolution. His inner attitudes towards them was essentially not different from democratic hill elites. He used land reform and citizenship act to weaken and alienatete all madheshis. Most of the land seized by the state has either been given to hill migrants known as sukumbasi or are with the state. Madheshi landless people were not identified by the state. The dual ownership of land was another severe blow to the productive capacity of agricultural land. Because of dual ownership, people stopped investing in agriculture. Land disputes arose dramatically. The citizenship acts barred huge number of madheshi peasants and tenants to claim for land rights in the new regime. Over period of time agricultural farms in Madhesh gradually turned out to be a means of subsistence rather than surplus product A country which has been food exporter earlier became a net importer. Population as well as poverty increased because of wrong land management policies. Land reform program in the past has served no other prurposes (such as industrialization or economic growth) than weakening the Madheshis and strangulating Madhesh.

The worsening economic situation within the country and waves of democracy in eastern Europe towards 1990 brought political awakening in favor of democracy in the country in 1990. As a consequnce of 1990 movement Communists (led by hill elites) emerged as a formidable new force. Revolutionary land reform agenda has been now their political agenda. But it would be naive to say that it was no more the agenda of Nepali Congress. Prime -minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has agreed to reduce the ceiling to 4 to 5 bighas from 11 bighas in Madhesh. It was due to the movement led by Nepal Sadbhawana Party and supported by madheshi elites across parties that the government dropped its agenda.

And now in 2007 they are the Maosits who have designed to march ahead with their agenda of revolutionary land reform. It has explicitly been mentioned in the Interim Constitution. This time too, Nepal Sadbhawan Party (Anandi Devi) has written note of dissent against the revolutionary land reform program . The aim behind such an agenda is obviously to enhance the control of hill centric state over madhesh. This is the context against which the current Madheshi movement and its demands of republicanism, autonomy, self determination and federalism should be understood. It is false to call the present resistance movement merely as regressive movement. Madhesi movement has brought forth some of the essential traits of Madhesh.

Madhesh because of its land, culture, agricultural economy, and enterprenurship skills has been able to contain all forms of extremism, be it that of the king or of any political ideology. And that is something that provides the best possibilities for success of democracy in Nepal, in case of madhesh is integrated on the basis of equality in the New Nepal. But the prior condition would be that madheshi are given political power on equal basis.

The concept of class struggle or class conflict will not have much appeal for madheshis as long as their nationality is not acknowledged within the new political framework. Madheshis participated in large number in the Maoist movemet not merely due to class appeal but because the movement gave them new hope for emancipation and equality. The large chunk of caders and leaders of Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha and Madheshi Janadhikar Forum have had linkages with Nepal Communist Party (Maoist). Madheshis are not willing to surrender their national struggle for the sake of class interest. It is the call of nationalism which is bringing all madheshis together. A correct approach towards the movement will keep the country intact and pave way for economic development and sustainable democracy. A wrong or biased approach might lead the country towards bloody ethnic conflict.

Sarita Giri

Central Committee Member(Nepal Sadbhawana Party –Anandi Devi)

22nd March, 2007

Sahana Pradhan, Sarita Giri, Chitra Lekha Yadav, Pratibha Rana
सरिता गिरी: अशान्त मधेस, नया नेपाल

Three Parties: Congress, Communist, Sadbhavana

Poudel hints of NC unity soon "There is a possibility of unification within two-four days"

I think it will be great if the two Congress factions will unite and become one political party. Looks like it is about to happen. That unified party will still have some major work to do in terms of inner party democracy and social inclusion.

Girija Koirala has a huge stature. He is the only head of state on the planet today who has met Mahatma Gandhi in person. I was once detained in Kentucky for 35 hours and there was a TV set inside the large room I shared with about a dozen inmates. I will never known what it means to have spent 10 years in jail. Good for me.

The April Revolution is the first I ever participated in. This was Girija's final.

This unification will make possible a smooth transition of leadership to the next generation inside the Congress.

Such a unification will put an enormous pressure on all the communist parties in the country to become one, and if they do, that will be great. I hope they do. Complete arms management and a total transformation of the Maoists from a parallel state to a political party - no militia, no extortions - will make such a unification possible. The ball is really in the Maoists' court.

The reasons for the two Congress factions to become one are largely national, but the reasons for all communist parties in Nepal to become one are global. Nepal is about to become a democracy of state funded parties. Lenin or Mao could not have thought of a more classless democracy. This will make Nepal the number one democracy on the planet. That is huge, and has immediate implications. The Maoists in India are going to shift from guns and violence to taking a stand that India also become a democracy of state funded parties. Becoming a democracy of state funded parties is the true cure to India's number one security threat: the Maoist insurgency. China is also going to come under a huge pressure to transform itself into a federal democracy of many state funded parties where the Chinese Communist Party is still overwhelmingly the largest. And you are going to see all the communist parties in India, including their Maoists, become one.

I am not a communist. The label I wear is that of a progressive. But when I do my math, I am looking at a possible scenario where the Nepal Communist Party is the largest party in Nepal, and the Chinese Communist Party is not only the largest party in China, it perhaps occupies 80% of the political space to start with, and the Communist Party Of India is the largest party in India.

This looks like a communist revival to me. And I am not worried. As long as multi-party democracy and the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights are kept sacrosanct, the idea of state funded parties and elections are what the progressives in America fantasize about.

So this communist transformation and resurgence is not going to be bad news for the anti-communists, the non-communists, except to the ideological kind, the inconsolable hawks, and they don't matter. The non-communists will always have the option to try and beat the communists at the polling booth. And that healthy competition will be good for the masses.

That leaves out the third camp in Nepal. Just like the Madhesi Kranti has been more complicated than the April Revolution, it is easier to unify the two Congress factions, and create a single communist party in Nepal, than it is to try and organize the third front, and that third front I would like to call the social justice front. That third front is my natural home, so I have to put in the work.

The first step would be to get all the people talking to each other. You show up without any preconditions. The only precondition is that you are willing to engage in dialogue.

The second step would be to decide to see there is space for a political party that will try to turn the playing field level for the traditionally marginalized, the Madhesi, the Janajati, the Mahila, the Dalit.

What do you call that party? I would propose we call it the Nepal Sadbhavana Party. That way you start with already having a name, the party is already registered and established, that will also give an excuse to unify the two Sadbhavana factions. Heck, Badri Mandal - the Mandale - got kicked out of the other Sadbhavana a long time ago. And if Badri Mandal was Gyanendra's Deputy Prime Minister, heck Deuba was Gyanendra's Prime Minister, but looks to me like Deuba is about to become the leader of the unified Congress. Let bygones be bygones.

So you decide to settle on the name Nepal Sadbhavana Party. The good thing for groups like the MPRF, NEFIN, and the Dalit Mahasangh will be that since you did not make a fuss about the name, you get to make a fuss about other things, like who will be the leaders, what will the central committee of the unfied party look like, things like that.

Who will be the leader? The Sadbhavana got the name. So it is only fair Upendra Yadav becomes the party president. General Secretary: Hridayesh Tripathy who gets to continue as Minister. Vice President: Om Gurung/Pasang Sherpa. Vice President: Dalit Mahasangh person. Vice President: Sarita Giri.

Central Committee: 40% Madhesi, 40% Janajati, 20% Dalit, 1/3rd women in each category. Or it could be 35% Madhesi, 35% Janajati, and 10% also Khas, if you can find any Khas. But don't try too hard.

Then you go for the agenda. The MPRF, NEFIN, the Dalit Mahasangh and the others have coalesced around a three point agenda: (1) Home Minister resign, (2) Form probe commission, and (3) Proportional elections to the constituent assembly. The Sadbhavana is not against any of this, but it is not standing by it. So how do you work things out and end up with a common agenda? There has to be some give and take.

Hridayesh Tripathy should work on Girija Koirala. Get the Home Minister to resign right away, get any other Congress person of your choice to become Home Minister, and if you like Krishna Sitaula so much make him Defense Minister in the next, interim government. Also form a probe commission. That is a no brainer, that has to be done. And if Hridayesh Tripathy can not get Girija Koirala to come around to this, the Sadbhavana would walk out of the eight party coalition.

As for the third agenda item, that is tricky. We can try and get parties like the UML and the RPP to come along with us. But we have to be open to a few different options. I don't want to get too specific. Let the leaders discuss, explore, and decide.

ANONYM: Association Of Nepali Organizations In New York Metro
Joint Movement
MPRF: A Few Scenarios
Further Compromise: Mixed Election With Reservations
5 Point Demand: Compromise Formula So Elections Can Be Held In June

But our goal has to be to go into the June elections full force. All agenda items that we can not get the Congress and the communists to agree to now, we use those against them when we go to the people. We turn them into election issues. That should be to our electoral advantage. To expect the Bahuns to do it all for us is mental slavery. We should go into power ourselves, and we have to do it ourselves.

One Communist Party, One Congress Party, Total Two Parties
The Idea Of One Communist Party In Nepal
Janata Dal Constitution
Party Unification, And One Person One Vote Principle

So basically the unified Sadbhavana will halt all protest programs, try and stay in power, try and get the other parties to come along on the three agenda items, but failing to do so, it turns them into election issues and goes to face the electorate full steam. In short, our total focus shifts to the Mahasangram of the elections to the constituent assembly.

YouTube: Trishul

TRISHUL - aap ki mehki hoowe 02:59
TRISHUL SCENE - amitabh tells all 03:36
Trishul Trailer 01:04
TRISHUL - thoo mere saath rahe ga 03:32
Mahobbat Bade Kaam 04:38
O Sanam 03:05
Janeman Tum Kamal 03:30

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