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Don’t wanna break up
AUG 12 -
The present political impasse has several factors hindering the formation of a unity government or even a majority government, the call for “One Madhes, One Pradesh” being not the least significant one. In dialogues with both contenders for the prime ministerial post, the Madhesi Morcha has raised this issue as the stumbling block. Other demands or conditions of the Morcha are more or less acceptable to either the NC candidate or the Maoist candidate, but both candidates have indicated that they cannot accept the one Madhes call as a pre-condition. Without the Morcha agreeing to vote for one side or the other, the nation is not going to get a valid government. It is thus important to review how potent the call for one Madhes has been.
While it is a good development to have a general awakening of any segment of the people, the campaign needs to be judged on the basis of its impact on the health of the nation. The call for Madhesi rights is not a new one. It was born on an organised level with the birth of the Nepal Sadbhawana Party along with the restoration of multiparty democracy in the early 1990s. The NSP fought for greater recognition of the Madhesi people’s rights in national governance. After Jana Andolan II, the Madhesi agitation for a fair deal intensified, and it later picked up the call for a completely autonomous region by specifying “One Madhes, One Pradesh”. The space occupied by a single NSP has now been taken up by several other Madhes-based parties.
Politically speaking, the action generated by the different parties has contributed to increasing mass awakening in the Tarai. The Tarai was under-represented in the national decision making structures and not at all represented in the defence outfit. Although there was abundant representation in the technical fields of government service, there was only a fragmental representation in the administrative and security services. So, it is natural to demand a more fair access to those vital areas. The present political agitation is a vital factor in strengthening this process. It must not only be recognised, but also encouraged. This calls for larger national support.
However, the Madhesi agitation has taken a wrong direction. It suffers from a series of misconceptions. From the very outset, the NSP was devoid of a long-term political ideology of defining the ends and means. It was raised as a protest against hill domination. But no philosophical explanation was ever thought out about the role of the state vis-à-vis its citizens which would have given the NSP the fullness of a political party. In the absence of that philosophical component, it remained a grievance redressal group with transitory goals. That besets the newer parties: the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forums, the Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP), the new versions of the NSP and other marginal parties.
The second main flaw of the Madhesi agitation is that it lacks a national goal and has a regional shape and colour. Its leaders act as if they are not part of the nation but represent only the Tarai and its people. Leaders like Mahantha Thakur, Hridayesh Tripathi and Jaya Prakash Gupta, who were part of the larger national apparatus in their earlier roles, have identified themselves only with the Tarai after joining the Tarai movement. Other leaders had no national stature before the movement. So the Madhesi agitation has become a breeding ground for regionalism without a conscious aim for a unified nation. Can we expect a national leader from such a political cauldron?
The third main flaw of the Madhesi movement is that it has no leader who can command wholehearted respect from all the Tarai dwellers. Although the loudest slogan is that of a unified Madhes as a separate province, there is no visible thread of credible leadership that can put the concept into action. Only a small belt from Parsa to the west of the Koshi is the hotbed of the Madhesi agitation, with only occasional flare-ups in other towns in the west. The most conspicuous feature of the movement is that there has been no attempt at unifying the diverse groups and agitations. There is internal discord among several parties. The Forum was faced with the awkward situation of having to split while the discontented among the rank and file joined government. Several groups in the Tarai including Tharus and Chure Bhawar residents have strongly opposed the idea of one Madhes.
The movement smacks of separatism. The movement grew in hatred not only against those hill people in power but also against those who just belong to the hill races. The people of hill origin who have settled in the Tarai for ages have not been spared. Innocent individuals have been targeted, abducted and killed at random. There is fear across the whole of the Tarai and people of hill origin have started migrating in fear of their lives. By contrast, no person of Tarai origin has ever been hurt in the hills for being from the Tarai.
Saving the nation is more important than any part thereof. The Madhesi leaders could endear themselves to people of the hills if they would work to strengthen the nation. It is high time they thought of higher and nobler objectives than merely chiming separatist slogans. The Tarai is as much dear to its citizens as the hills and mountains because we are an integrated nation. The Nepali people can welcome a leader of any region if he/she has a high, national ideal and character. We need leaders of vision to maintain the solidarity of the nation. If national solidarity is maintained, regional solidarity will be automatically sustained. There will be no solidarity of the regions, if the solidarity of the nation is at risk.
knsad66@yahoo.com
Posted on: 2010-08-13 08:02
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