The movement needs to keep track of everything.
Already demonstrators have been subjected to arbitrary beatings, arrests, and tortures.
A few days back blank shots were fired.
Each incident of physical abuse and assault has to be documented. Preferably take digital photos and store them. We need faces so we can track down names once we democrats take over power.
Once we get names, we can track down where the orders came from, post-power.
The most vicious attacks always originate in the highest echelons of power. Those giving orders are to be held responsible.
To take over power without any constitutional provisions to do so is a coup and tantamount to treason. Appointees of an illegal government who might abuse the state machinery to physically abuse citizens must be going against many laws in many different books, domestic and international.
Maybe it is Tulsi Giri behind those half dozen shots fired into the air. Those are not warning shots to peaceful demonstrators. Those are Tulsi Giri counting the metal bars in his jail cell.
It is very important to have this mechanism in place so that people illegitimately in power think twice, thrice, four times, a dozen times, before they notch up the repression. There will be hell to pay.
We have to struggle for democracy peacefully but with utmost confidence. With intelligence. In a sophisticated fashion. We have to think power is only a few months away.
We have to be very clear and vocal about this will-get-even mechanism. This is the least we can do to ensure the physical safety of peaceful demonstrators.
Federalism: The Common Minimum Program For All Madhesis
Pahadi chauvinism is so evident within the democracy movement. Madhesis have to watch out for that. Even if the country goes through a Constituent Assembly, and we end up with a constitution that has no provisions for federalism, that will be another generation of Madhesis having to struggle. That will be such a waste.
We should work to make federalism an integral part of the political program of the movement. If that not be forthcoming, this movement will have to march on without me. I am not for a democracy that brings back the 1990s status quo. That structure was fundamentally wrong.
People wonder why I have a soft spot in my heart for the Maoists politically. They are as uncompromising on the federalism issue as I am. Maybe they are even more so than me. That means a lot to me. I return the favor by supporting their land reform plank. I support it 110%.
Powerlessness has its own structures. As you go up vertically as a Madhesi, through luck, happenstance, talent, hard work, through the cracks in the glass ceilings in the Nepali reality, you usually find there are only 5% or less Madhesis around you when there should be 50%. That 45% disparity leads to some curious psychology among the 5%. It is so hard to get them to claim their Madhesi identity, to organize, on behalf of themselves, for the sake of dignity, but primarily on behalf of the other 90% Madhesis who are still on the ground floor. This is also true of the Nepali social settings in the US where the Madhesis do not depend on Pahadis for their career advancements. The social and mental warps also engulf the social settings. That is such a travesty.
The current ongoing movement is the best political opportunity Madhesis ever had to attain political equality in one push. Let's not lose this chance. Take an active part in this movement from wherever you are so as to become a strong, vocal group that is an uncompromising pressure group for federalism within the democracy movement.
September 16 Protest Rally
The King In Janakpur
Words Matter
Madhesi Hum Lenge Sau Mein Pachas
Hridayesh Tripathy
The Kathmandu Media Ignores The Sadbhavana
Caste Discrimination Leads To War
Alliance Gathering At Queens Bridge Park