The Madhesis Of Nepal Socializing, Talking Soap, Poltiics, Progress, Issues Specific To The Terai In General, Or Whatever. Just Talking.
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It has been my opinion a federal form of government is the only way out for the Madhesi plight. So it was nice to come across this news item:
NC-D for semi federal governance
The Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D) Central Working Committee meeting Sunday underlined on the need to restructure the state machinery and stressed on the need to adopt a semi-federal way of governance in the country.
The restructuring of the state machinery includes regional autonomy, regional administration, regional parliament, decentralization and proportional elections among others.
“The NC-D, now differs with the NC in its political agenda and issues,” Annapurna Post Monday quoted Bimelendra Nidhi, leader of the NC-D as saying. “The unification move with the NC has terminated,” Nidhi added.
However, Homnath Dahal, NC-D spokesperson talking to Nepalnews said that the unification “has not yet terminated.” He said, “There is always a possibility in politics, however, it is true that the NC is not at all 'sincere and honest' for party unification.”
Dahal also said that the decision of “restructuring of the state machinery” can be taken as “NC-D’s political roadmap” which will be broadly consulted with party units and other parties.
The party stressing on the need to develop national consensus has decided to circulate the decisions among the party units. “The party sees a need of a broader consultation with all party units, other political parties, intellectuals, academicians and civil society for the purpose of restructuring state machinery,” NC-D said in its statement.
The meeting strongly criticized the government for the deteriorating security situation in the country. “Following the Bhojpur and Myagdi skirmishes, it is now clear that the government has totally failed to provide security in the country and the government does not have any political and administrative power to carryout elections,” the statement said. nepalnews.com pd Mar 22 04
Curioulsy I received an e-mail from Bimalendra Nidhi when he was in London a few weeks back. He had done a search on Google for "Janakpur" and had come across my website! The Nepali Congress has been a party with a strong presence in the Terai. One has long wondered as to why the Madhesis in the Congress have not come around to issues specific to Madhesis. Maybe things will change, as this news article shows.
I have been looking for that one place online where Madhesis can come, socialize, talk. I have tried several options, none of them have worked. Some got too diffuse, some too impersonal, some did not get enough traffic. So I am next trying this blog. I will have to invite you so you can participate. And you get to choose your username. All I need is someone's e-mail address to be able to invite them for membership here.
Last night I read this amazing document. It is Chapter 4 in the famous photographer Mahendra Lawoti's book that he e-mailed me a few weeks back in Word format. It deals with issues pertaining to 85% of the population in Nepal. Some excerpts:
The adoption of the majoritarian democratic political institutions, such as a unitary state (instead of a federal structure) and first past the post (FPTP) electoral system (see chapter 5, 8, and 9 for details), by the Constitution is one of the major reasons for the political exclusion of various socio-cultural groups in Nepal (Lawoti 2002). These structures set the rule of the game that favors the dominant group. The majoritarian institutions, which have been found to work in homogenous or non-plural societies but not to work in multicultural societies, give most of the power to whoever gets a bare majority and nothing substantial to minorities. In multicultural societies, it results into the dominant group enjoying power most of the time. In matters where differences along ethnicity, language, religion exist, the majority will always win in those matters while the minority will always lose.
Table 4.1: Constitutional Discrimination and their Impacts
1. Declaration of the state as Hindu (Article 4).
1.1 Promotion of Hindu religion; unequal treatment of other religions by the state.
1.2 Excessive propaganda of Hindu religion by Royal Nepal Academy, Radio Nepal and other state agencies while neglecting other religions.
2. Inequality between native languages
2.1 Nepali or Khas-Nepali has been declared 'the language of the nation' and official language; other native languages have been called 'national languages' (Article 6).
2.2 Constitutional provision for teaching non Khas-Nepali native languages up to the primary level only, but not beyond it (Article (18.2).
2.3 Compulsory imposition of Sanskrit in schools till 2003 (being planned to offer as an optional course).
2.4 Large & disproportionate state subsidy for promotion of Khas-Nepali and Sanskrit.
2.5 Unequal treatment between Khas-Nepali and other native language literatures and between devangiri and other native scripts.
3. Discrimination in citizenship distribution
3.1 Based on gender: acquisition from mother's lineage is not allowed & foreign spouses of Nepali women are not eligible for acquiring Nepali citizenship (Article 9.1, 9.2, & 9.5).
3.2 Based on language: only foreigners who learn Khas-Nepali language are eligible (Article 9.4a); foreigners who learn other native languages are not extended the privilege.
3.3 Based on community identity (application of Article 8a); more than 3 million adult Nepalis without citizenship certificates.
4. Restriction on registering political parties on the basis of religion, community, caste, tribe or region (Article 112.3).
5. Restriction on freedom of opinion and expression: laws can be made to impose restrictions on acts that may disturb relations between 'castes, tribes and communities' (Article 12.2.1).
6. Restriction on freedom to form unions and associations: laws can be made to impose restrictions on acts that may disturb relations between 'castes, tribes and communities' (Article 12.2.3).
7. Minority symbols and heroes not included as national heroes and symbols.
8. Overwhelming public holidays declared on dominant-group festivals. Some groups do not have any public holidays on their festivals.
9. Annexation of native place, river, mountain names and other titles by the dominant names.
10. Laws based on parbate Hindu male ideology.
10.1. Laws are based on patriarchy.
10.2. Divorce, Marriage, Inheritance laws are based on Hindu norms.
10.3. Criminal laws based on Hindu values, e.g. 12 years imprisonment for killing cows.
11. Discrimination in accessing education based on caste, community and religions.
11.1. State subsidized free residential education (up to Ph.D) in Sanskrit schools & University. Accessed mostly by male Brahmin.
11.2. The lack of state support to native language educational institutions.
11.3. The lack of recognition of education provided by Madrasaas and Buddhist Monasteries.
12. Discrimination in preserving different cultures.
13. Manufacturing and tampering of the Census data.
14. Excessive stereotyping based on caste, region, gender, ethnicity and religion.
14.1. Derogative sayings, morals, proverbs, and songs that denigrate women and minorities.
14.2. Prevalence of untouchability and restriction on accessing public spaces to dalit.
15. Restrictions on conversion (Article 19.1) but Hindus are free to claim others as Hindus.
16. Transmission of disproportionate radio programs in Khas-Nepali language.
17. Under representation and misrepresentation of minorities in media.
18. Public service exams based on dominant values and norms and in Khas-Nepali language.
Source: Lawoti (2002). Article numbers indicate articles of the Constitution.
There is no debate that the 1990 Constitution is far better than the undemocratic Panchayat Constitution in most respects. A few of its articles have even paid lip service to multiculturalism. It has provided considerable rights of association and freedom, which the marginalized socio-cultural groups have utilized to articulate their demands and mobilize for them. However, we should take note of two things. First, do the positive aspects of the Constitution, such as the guarantee of political rights and civil liberties provide equal rights to members of the dominant group and marginalized socio-cultural groups? Second, a democratic Constitution should be compared with other democratic Constitutions and not with undemocratic Constitutions. Only then can it be properly evaluated in terms of its democratic depth and breadth.
The marginalized socio-cultural groups have mobilized considerably but the majoritarian political institutions are incapable to accommodate them.
.....for the huge majority of people, the 1990 Constitution, which is responsible for their exclusion from the polity and has helped to make their life more miserable by contributing in the governance crises, may be one of the worst democratic Constitutions in the world.
