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Dealing with the Madhesis

As the bomb blasts last Sunday indicate, even though the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum has called off its agitation, calm might still elude the Terai region of Nepal. The Forum does not appear to have full control over the forces that have been active in the protests. A little known group has claimed responsibility for the explosions in which two persons were killed. Some of the groups fighting for the rights of the Terai people are chauvinistic and do not seem ready to give up the armed struggle. It must be remembered that even the cadres that have remained loyal to the Maoists’ central leadership have not taken to democratic ways so easily. The people of the Terai (the Madhesis) have a genuine grievance that they have not benefited from the democratisation process as much as their compatriots in the central parts of the country. Disgruntled sections could argue that the government should have been forced to concede more ground before the agitation was called off. But realistically speaking, a government busy preparing for elections to the Constituent Assembly cannot be expected to offer anything more than a promise to set up a high level commission to explore the ways and means of converting a unitary state structure into a federal one.

While the Forum has announced its participation in the elections, there is lack of clarity about what it intends to do about the Madhesi demand for greater representation in parliament. The people of Terai constitute half of Nepal’s population but were allotted less than 20 per cent of the seats in all previous parliaments. Even these seats were usually held by politicians belonging to the highland elite. The Forum has not clarified whether it will press for a larger share of seats in the Assembly. The Madhesis have always felt left out of Kathmandu’s scheme of things. Long neglect has fed the chauvinistic streak that some of them exhibit and it is imperative that their grievances are addressed. Nepal’s coalition government knows that all sorts of dubious elements, based in and outside the country, are fishing in the troubled waters. It also strongly suspects that a discredited royal house, which is trying desperately to retain some power, is involved in these manoeuvres. There is another reason why the coalition should address the problems of the Madhesis. The main roads to India run through the eastern Terai, where the agitation was most intense, and Kathmandu cannot just afford to let discontent brew among the Madhesis.

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