The Kathmandu Media Ignores The Sadbhavana

I tried to collect photos online for a collage of the democratic coalition. I am surprised - perhaps I should not be - I can not find a single photo of Hridayesh Tripathy.

Bijay Kumar might be one of the few mainstream journalists in Nepal who has given Tripathy his due. He has featured Tripathy at Dishanirdesh quite regularly.

I tried to capture a still image from the video archives at Dishanirdesh, but so far have not been successful for technical reasons.

But then Bijay Kumar himself has been sidelined by the current regime. His program has been shelved. If the junta ever needed to show its true colors.

I emailed both Hridayesh Tripathy and Rajendra Mahto requesting they email me their digital photos.

My childhood friend Rajesh Gupta, more technologically proficient than me, is also making a go at extracting a still image from the Bijay Kumar archives. Let's see if he can do it.

It's such a shame.

The Sadbhavana has been unique in highlighting the political plight of the Madhesis. Most everyone else does not even seem to have the vocabulary. Not even the Madhesis in the other parties, including the prominent ones.

The new constitution will have to accord the Madhesis political equality at the outset, the cornerstone of which will have to be (1) federalism, (2) all parliamentary constituencies demarcated on near equal population, and (3) due recognition of Hindi as the lingua franca of the Terai.

Enough is enough.

Nothing is more laughable than the remnants of Pahadi chauvinism within the democracy movement. So you want my support for what? It is not democratic unity to keep mum on the Madhesi issue. It is not democratic, for sure, and it sure is not unity. A political system that does not accord political equality to Madhesis is not democracy, it is sham.

Okay, Gupta's efforts too failed. So the collage is sans Tripathy.

• Defending The Sadbhavana
• Defending the Sadbhavana (II)
• Tackling Ethnic Issues In Nepal
• Ethnic Issues (II)
• The Sadbhavana Dilemma (September 7, 2004)
• The Madhesi Identity Outlets (July 2, 2004)
• Federalism For Nepal: The Only Solution (July 1, 2003)

And some of the video clips:

• Part 15: The king is an obstacle to the democrat Bahuns, those Bahuns are an obstacle to the DaMaJaMa.
  
• Part 16: (Hindi and Maithili) What can the Madhesis do for Madhesi rights?
  
• Part 17: (Maithili) Madhesi hum lenge sau mein pachas.
  
• Part 18: (Maithili) The Sadbhavana is a litmust test for the Madhesis who have made it.

There is prejudice, internalized prejudice, and anti-prejudice. It is a triangle. Many Madhesis through their internalized versions present but a mirror image of the prevalent prejudices.

Here is a news clip from July 17.

The media’s ethnic gap Nepali Times, Nepal .... an anguished email from a well-known author and editor, a pahadi janajati, citing a small news item which reported that no journalist turned up for a press conference called by madhesi students. He was agitated by this gross discrimination..... The media influences public knowledge and opinion both by what it reports and what it leaves out...... the grievances of a handful of madhesi university students being beaten up .... one more example of the perhaps unconscious collective effort of the pahadia dominated press to erase madhesis from the media and thus from public knowledge and national discourse .... the press on the whole did not report on the first ever national conference on the tarai, focusing especially on the madhesis...... conference was held in a well-known hotel, press releases were faxed and it was attended by several journalists..... no serious reporting on the discussions of the conference nor even a mention of the dukkha of being a madhesi .... Journalists do write or speak about the madhesh or tarai but mainly as a location down south where negative events occur. The madhesis themselves hardly figure in the stories. Or as one madhesi journalist bitterly complained during a conference, the national press usually ignores madhesis except to portray them in bad light. A reputed organisation which has published a series of landmark books on the media’s coverage of dalits and janajatis has not yet brought out a publication on the media and madhesis....... pahadi media gatekeepers are doing injustice to madhesis ....

Logic For The Maoists

These are the things the Maoists themselves have said:

• That their ultimate goal continues to be a classless utopia, but that the goal could take a hundred or more years to realize.
  
• That even if they were to come to power, their transformation of the state to that end would be peaceful. They basically are ditching the Mao line that power flows through the barrel of a gun.
• As to how to come to power. Their first choice is to get the seven parties to come along for a common goal of a Democratic Republic. If that be not forthcoming, they are willing to settle for a Constituent Assembly to draw a new constitution for the country, and if the Assembly were to keep a Constitutional Monarchy, they will be fine with that.
  

So there are only a few points of contention left:

1. Whether or not to go for a Constituent Assembly. The parliamentary parties, especially the two big ones, were not for the idea for the longest time. But now they have come around to it. But the Monarchists are still not for the idea. As to how to get the Monarchists to come around to it remains a struggle. The longer the Monarchists hold on, more they stand to lose.
   
2. How to enter the Constituent Assembly. Here the Maoists are unclear. They are going to have to disarm for that. As to how to disarm, on that point I myself am unclear. But I am open to the idea of third party mediation. Disarming can be done in several ways. And of course the army will have to be sent back to the barracks before elections can take place.
   
3. Who will conduct those elections? I think an interim government should. Here Girija has been posing a problem. This whole House revival thing has the ring of a Baptist revival.
   

For now it would be best for the Maoists to take the initiative to engage in trust building measures. I wish the democrats took the initiative, but I believe the Maoists might swamp them electorally after peace, so the Congress and the UML are leery of engaging the Maoists more than they have done so far.

On their part, all the above stands of the Maoists have only been taken by the central leadership. They of all people need to understand they need to adopt their new platform through a party convention. They, after all, have taken a fundamental departure from classic Maoism. That has to be formally codified. Because if they don't, they are making it hard for people like me who have been working against the global demonization of the Maoists to make headway. If the Maoists do now believe in the peaceful tools of state power, how come they have not said as much in any of their authoritative documents? That is a valid point.

Whichever camp - the Maoists or the democrats - takes greater initiatives to engage in trust-building measures now will reap the larger rewards once peace is achieved. Because the Nepali people sure are watching. And they do understand.

The Maoists should not become enemies to their steps 3,4,5 and 6 by not getting creative with steps 1 and 2. And if they do take the lead, they stand a strong chance of emerging the largest party within a multi-party framework. After all, is that not what they want?

It is like the Gagan Thapa dilemma. He has the guts to challenge the king for the democratic cause, but he gets confused when it comes time to challenge Girija's autocratic ways inside the Congress.

The Maoists have been willing to die for their cause. But now when their goal is in sight, will they make some smart, peaceful moves to make all those sacrifices worth it?

The current political paralysis has to be undone. One camp has to take the initiative.

Some of the things the Maoists could do to seize the initiative:

1. Engage the cadres of the seven parties at the local levels in dialogue. Prove that they can work freely wherever. For this you do not need the permission of the central leaders of the seven parties.
   
2. Call for a party convention to adopt the new party program of a peaceful transformation.
   
3. Halt the military campaign, and aid the seven party agitation in all the urban areas. By just staying out of the way.
   
4. Start training your cadres for the transition. Peaceful grass roots organizing is different from wielding the gun. Teach them new skills.
   

I mean, you can not say you do mean to lay down your arms and engage in peaceful, progressive exercises of power, and then turn around and give the world hell about disarming!

The UML is about to totally go republican. The Congress is heavily tilting that way. But neither of them will ever compromise on the basic disarmament issue.

In The News

• Seven-party meet to continue Monday NepalNews Nepali Congress (NC) president Girija Prasad Koirala, CPN (UML) general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, NC (Democratic) acting president Gopalman Shrestha, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NEPP) chairman Narayan Man Bijuckche and Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandi Devi) general secretary Hridayesh Tripathi and United Left Front’s Chandra Prakash Mainali attended the meeting.
• UML meet continues NepalNews ..... the UML leaders stressed that the party should opt for a democratic republic...... Jhala Nath Khanal, reportedly, demanded that the party go for an early general convention so as to reorganize it from an ideological, political, theoretical and organizational point of view.
• NC Leaders Suggest Organizational Reform Kantipur ..... pressed for the election of 75 percent of central working committee members, including vice-president of the party..... Currently, NC general convention elects 50 percent of the central committee members and the rest are nominated by the party president...... also suggested reservation for underrepresented groups— women, Dalits, Janajatis and people from underdeveloped regions— in the party's central committee. ..... Ram Chandra Poudel, Narahari Acharya, Dr Ram Saran Mahat, Arjun Narsing KC, Mahesh Acharya, Lila Koirala, Aamod Prasad Upadhaya, Radheshyam Adhikari and Chandra Bhandari..... the party's central committee members be given more responsibilities in party activities to decentralize power traditionally concentrated in the party president. ....... election of the vice-president in the party would clear the line of leadership succession for the future....... Narahari Acharya suggested that Koirala should clear the way for younger leaders to contest for the party presidency. He also informed Koirala that he would contest for the presidency.