Where is the Tarai movement heading: to fulfill political ambition or solve people’s issues (Nepalekhabar Special)
Kathmandu: The Madhesh agitation has been crippling life across the country for nearly three months but it seems the agitators are confused about their demands and creating rumors rather than being serious about their agenda.
The Madhesh agitation started expressing dissatisfaction over the new constitution but the agitators are not clear in which provision of the new constitution they have reservation as most of the points raised by them are addressed in the new constitution. The leaders of the agitating parties have been making different statements regarding their stance. For example, earlier they claimed that the provision of citizenship is discriminatory but now they are saying they do not have reservation over the provision of citizenship. The main issue at the moment is delineation of the federal states, which could be discussed and necessary action taken by the parliament. Rather than being engaged in the dialogue process, they have been asking to fulfill whatever they demand before sitting for talks. If the government fulfills all their demands, what is the issue of holding dialogue with them?
Their strike is marking a heavy toll in the national economy, which was badly hit by the April earthquake. The leaders of Tarai based parties lack common sense and rather than engaging in debate, they are remaining adamant. People, especially the poor, have been facing difficulties due to shortage of petroleum products. The people who earn bread and butter from daily work have become jobless as most of the industries and business have shut down due to the ongoing crisis. Similarly, they can’t afford to buy electronic appliances to overcome the fuel crisis. However, the politicians of the Tarai are yet to pay heed to the plight of these people, rather they are working to fulfill their political ambitions sacrificing the poor people as they have been giving orders to the people not to stop agitation while enjoying luxuries themselves. The leadership of Madhesh, who are agitating at the moment, is not ready for debate on the constitutional provisions; rather they have a standard statement that the new constitution has discriminated against the people of the Tarai so it should not be accepted.
The leaders have been saying that they are getting support from India in their movement and they are taking responsibility of the undeclared blockade imposed by India. Similarly, one of the top leaders of agitating coalition, Mahanta Thakur, said that they oppose the government’s move of signing MoU with China to bring petroleum products and stated that petroleum products should be imported from India only; what does his statement imply? Is he a leader of Nepal or India? Similarly, the agitators burned the flag of China, what does this again mean? The leaders have been acting as advocates of India. To my understanding they are the leaders of Nepal and they should resolve discriminatory provisions against Nepali people, not Indian. They are currently creating chaos in the country but they cannot fool people all the time – this is similar to the strategy adopted by the Maoists during the Maoist insurgency which later failed and forced them to come to the mainstream as people did not accept their hate politics.
The Madhesh based parties have played important role to unite the country and reduce our dependency to India. People may face problems for some time, but they are gradually developing coping capacity, which could be counterproductive to India and other Indian puppets. The new constitution is adopted by 85 percent democratically elected representatives, so, it has incorporated rights of all sections of the society. The Madhesh based parties have been confusing the people by spreading rumors about the new constitution but time will come when people read the constitution and question the Madhesi leadership on how they were discriminated. This may result in the leadership migrating to the place to whose tunes they are dancing to. If they really believe in people’s power why don’t they demand a referendum on the issue of delineation of the federal states? They don’t demand for it as they know that whatever they are demanding are not practical issues and they are agitating just to fulfill their political ambition in the name of people.
The constitution is not the final product, it could be amended if some issues need to be addressed but the process should be democratic as people have the chance to evaluate lawmakers during the periodic election. The 21st century is the era of information and technology, so the people cannot be kept in the dark for a long time. People will be clear about the provisions of new constitution once the major parties organize debate about its provisions at the grass-root level. The parties can debate about the boundaries of federal states by showing more scientific ways but they cannot impose their will by creating humanitarian crisis. They announced walking out from the parliament and later come to vote in the election of the Prime Minister. Similarly, the government agreed to fulfill their pre-condition of talks but they are yet to open the blockade, which hints that the remote control of their agitation is not in their hands and it will soon be exposed to whose tunes they are dancing.
They are taking advantage of current state of confusion and failure on the part of political parties and civil society to sensitize people about the provisions of new constitution; which will not last long. They must pay a high price for taking the country hostage in the name of rights. They should have publicized the discriminatory provisions of the new constitution and gone to the people to get their support, rather they are just forcing people to come to the agitation and not allowing people to read the new constitution. They are just running to fulfill their political ambition rather than for the rights of people. If they were really serious, they could have opted for other forms of protests rather than troubling the people. If they really want to empower people they should stop the ongoing agitation and sensitize people about the provisions of new constitution including the discriminatory provisions so that these provisions could be amended through the legitimate way.
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