Black Sheep of Nepali Politics

I was surprised to see recent comment from Rajendra Mahato, leader of Nepal Sadhbhawana Party (Anandidevi) and Minister of Industry and Commerce. In his own words :

'people of hill may live in Madhes only if they agree to be ruled by Madhesis.'

This is one of the most irresponsible comment I had seen so far. And I know the source where it came from. His party is simply losing grounds to MPRF, MJF and JTTM, and his political career is at stake. This type of comment is not expected from a Minister and a responsible leader. The motive of giving such comment can be nothing more than inviting confrontation between the Nepali communities.

Mr. Mahato was once a powerful leader of NSP, a prominent party with good public support in the Terai region. Now, no one talks about NSP. And still, there are two NSPs. So, they are facing identity crises now. Thanks to their actions in the last 12 years of democracy. None of the Terai issues were put up strongly by NSP, they simply did only the opportunistic politics. In actual, they never believed in power of mass of the Madhesias in Terai and the recent movement surprised them like the Jana-andolan II surprised the whole 7 parties.

More to this, while being a leader he may represent a party but when he is a minister he should take the responsibility of all Nepalis. So neither his sentiment of ruling or being ruled is justified nor driving away Pahades from Terai. I would give him a title for his comments, the Black Sheep of Nepali Politics.

Regarding his statement, this is all I have to say. There is no question of ruling and being ruled. We are no longer in a monarchy or any other autocracy. We are a democratic country and in any future course, we will be having functional democracy either federal or not. The government will be formed by election under that democratic setup and it will be government of the Nepali People, not Madesias and not Pahades. CA will decide either we get republic or liberal monarchy. Active Monarchy will not be accepted in any way and republic is the general public demand, but if anyone choses to fight the election with liberal monarch system, we can give him a chance. But in any case, the decision of Nepali People will be final.

The federalism has gone once and for ever. We will decide the type of governance, we will form the government and it should function in our mandate. Any thought will be welcome, but not to run government by intuition and get favor by nomination; but to express in a coordinated manner and to ask for public mandate on it.

I want to attract the attention of our leaders. You guys are not the rulers, instead our leaders. We follow you, respect you and pay you, and give you the authoritative power in the government to take our country forward, not to rule us. Do not try to fool us or rule us. If we can take you to Singha Durbar, we can bring you to street also.

I seriously comdemn his comment and put forward my demand of sacking him from the ministership. We want a collective government and a progressive government, not a irresponsible and opportunistic government. This government seems to be of the people who held no public support, and they are there just because they once had. We need to move forward to Constitution Assembly election as early as possible and give the authority to the new powers.

I sense big conspiracy being played to delay CA elections by the 7 parties. They know their fate very well. Nepali Congress is the sole party representing Democrats and all know that. So it has its life but no way it can be the major force atleast in the coming election. The clear majority will go to Maoist, and MJF and JTMM may establish themselves as regional political force (I don't say communal). We can have better demographics representation, but communal will be dangerous. Hope MJF and JTMM finds a good way to settle down and be able to solve the genuine demands from the Terai grassroot, while controlling the wrong doing activities being done in their name.

Nepali politics is in real crossroad now and we all Nepali must be aware of any game played to disturb the society by the losing forces. It is the responsibility of all of us to make sure that the transition goes well.

Lastly, I like to remind all Nepalis that Nepal has always been a hospitable place. Nepal has record of being only non-secular country in the world respecting all religions and only country in South Asia with no ethnic or communal clashes. Lets keep this always. Lets not get agitated with comments from irresponsible people like Minister Mahato (Hope he reverts back and does responsible politics).

We need Peace to develop and for that we need unity. Our unity has always been our strength and we have the honour of being the only country never ruled by external forces. Thanks to our bravery and unity. Let us not let our ego kill our pride. Our Nepal our Pride. Long Live Unity.

Burning Madesh and Quiet Pahadis

I just came across a blog "Democracy For Nepal" by Paramendra Bhagat. Mr. Bhagat seems to be very deep into Nepali politics and he has written really good articles.

Among them I got my attention to this article.

Why Are The Pahadis Quiet?

Well, I was quiet while Tarai was burning. There was a genuine struggle going on, there were criminal activities going on under its cover and there was State acting harsh on the revolutionaries. I never thought of contributing anything to this struggle. But I had never asked myself, WHY?

Now, I had that question in my mind for last one hour. The reason was I did not want any more political struggle in Nepal. I just want to take rest. I don't care whoever be in power. I just want to give sometime for the freshly emerged political circle the 8 parties (Maoist and 7 Democratic parties). The political parties plus maoist have better representative equality in terms of social or demographic communities than any previous powers. It shows that the change is happening and Nepal is moving forward. We just need to work sincerely from our side and give enough time for the parties to work.

Many of my friends from Madesh may not agree with me. They may still say that the social issues need to be sorted out. That is a fair claim. But it is also not the end of the political struggle path. We have many such issues. Nepal is very much diverse in terms of language and culture, if we go forward with Federal setup we will have at least 50 states; and if we go with reservations then even with the full seats on quotas, someone will not be getting his share.

The real problem is the lack of sufficient seats in basic and higher education, and in job. We have less scholarship or regular engineering and medical seats than most Indian states (may be all). We have a economy almost stagnant for the last 10 years. Before that also we were almost always in war for 50 years. Frankly speaking, we have nothing to share or distribute.

So, I appeal to all the Nepalis of all caste and creed, to please refrain from any further political struggle. Let us give sometime to this newly emerged forces. Let us work and create a better Nepal with a economic revolution. Let us give Political Revolution once and for ever.

Long Live Our Unity. Jai Nepal.

Burning Madesh

I think, we are getting wrong from the very basic. I dont agree the Madhesias being discriminated. It is the normal nepali being discriminated in Nepal. It is all due to feudalism that existed for years.

Nepal was a good place for the Ranas, Shahs, Pandays and Thapas, who had their representation in the government till Rana rule existed. After that Koiralas came and so do Adhikaris etc.. by virtue they all belong to Pahade Brahmin and Chettriyas. (Not everybody in these castes also benefitted)

I have never received any special treatment from our government or the non-government bodies, may be because I did not have strong jack in the power posts. So do many of my Pahade Brahnmin friends. We struggled our course and whatever we are today, it is just because of our hard work.

I seriously feel, Nepali politicians to be very intelligent people. They find one or the other ways to inflate people and have one or more revolution in every ten years. But these people are neither serious of the actual problem nor they get fully successful. Neither was Rana rule completely wiped out in 2007, nor was democracy fully established in 2046. Even now I fear whether we will be able to establish a Democratic Republic Nepal. This is a dream, a distant dream.

When someone talk about being humilated by people calling them Madhesi, I remember myself being irritated when someone call Khatha. Rais and Limbus are often called Chepte. Gurung are called Bhede and Newars are called Pate. It is actually not about these words. The reality is we have been left behind economically. We are poor. It is a reality, we all must realise this. We all Nepalis are poor, we have hardly any identity in the world other than being from the himalayan country or from place of Gautam Buddha. We have done nothing in the last 100 years and we take our frustrations to the street in various names, sometime democratic struggle, sometime Republic struggle, sometime social equality struggle and sometime anti-struggle movement.

Shame to all of us Nepalis. Hope things change in future.

Jai Nepal