By B. K. Rana
The 17th
World Indigenous Peoples’ Day was observed all over the world with different
programmes on 8th of August this year also. This 8th
August is something for the Indigenous Peoples - IPs around the world to
demonstrate solidarity among themselves for their fundamental rights that are ‘denied
or snatched away’ as they believe. The Nepalese IPs in other words Aadivasi Janajatis of Nepal
The Maoist Peoples War broke out of prevailing poverty and social injustice in the country, it is what the people believe in. The Maoist ‘skillfully used’ these people to reach at the helm. Securing the most votes, they present themselves the major political force in the country. As the King makers today, they made the caretaker prime minister Jhal Nath Khanal their ‘man’ at the helm and let him quit as well.
Dr. Krishna Bahadur Bhattachan, Nepal's one of the most vocal scholars of international standing for the 'minority rights' was a speaker at
a porgramme live-cast from Hong Kong organized by the Ethnic Nepalese Federation of Hong Kong on
the World Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Below we post Dr. Bhattachan’s video interview, in which he paints a dreadful picture of the country as no political party including
the Maoist itself is serious about the issues of IPs of Nepal. He has lashed out the Maoists also for having misled the IPs of Nepal, alluring them to carry gun and shed blood trading false
promises and hopes of self-determination, autonomy and federalism. 'The issue of
ethnic federalism is the main hurdle for conclusion of peace process but the major political parties are not serious about it' - he points out in the interview.
NEPAL: DEADLINE FOR CONSTITUTION MAKING LIKELY TO BE MISSED AGAIN
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[On 21st July, Kathmandu saw the spectacle of the Maoist affiliated trade union closing and padlocking of Kist Medical College, evicting all patients, even those in the ICU, maternity and pediatric wards to leave the hospital and what is more the labour union singing and dancing after accomplishing this feat!]
By
S.Chandrasekharan.
Frustrated by lack of progress and being let down by
the Maoists with whom he got into a secret deal just to become the Prime
minister, Jhalanath Khanal had no option but to tender his resignation on 14th
evening at the end of the central committee meeting of his party.
By this resignation, Nepal
Despite many meetings, the Nepali Congress and the
Maoists are unable to come to an understanding as to who should lead the next
government . Within the Nepali Congress itself, Sher Bahadur Deuba is again
seen to be nursing ambitions to become the Prime minister, though he has proved
to be incompetent not once but thrice!
Khanal in declaring that he would quit by 13th August
if no progress was made in peace process, constitution writing and constitution
making, had to resign as his party colleagues also advised him to tender his
resignation in the absence of any “life line” being thrown by the Maoists. The
problem was that Khanal trusted the Maoists too much and now had to pay the
penalty.
It was in the early hours of 29th May this year that
the three main parties- the Maoists, the Nepali Congress and the UML gave the
interim constitutional assembly a three-month extension to complete the peace
process and the drafting of the new constitution. I had said at that time that
if past record is any indicator, no progress can be expected unless the Maoists
showed some sincerity in pushing the integration process and the constitution
making.
The Maoists made no move to expedite the process. The
excuse was that they were busy with their central committee meeting! Instead of
expediting the peace process all that the party did was to take a whole month
to make a fresh list of ministers for the cabinet after the old ones were asked
to quit. The new list given to PM Khanal on the 25th of last month was supposed
to have representatives of all the three factions in the party and despite his
misgivings. Khanal was coerced to induct the new ministers on the 5th of this
month!
The Special Committee for monitoring the integration
process made no progress either. No recruitment of surveyors has been made so
far. The survey teams were supposed to visit the PLA camps and decide on the
number of people for integration, rehabilitation and for discharge (golden hand
shake).
The Maoists refused to allow the recruitment of
surveyors in the absence of a clear agreement on integration modality, norms,
number, rank determination policy, rehabilitation, golden hand shake policy
etc. But they were not willing even to come for the meeting for the whole month
and a half as they claimed to be busy with their central committee meeting!
They have also made it clear that they will not accept anything but a
“combative” role for the PLA cadres!
There has been no progress in constitution making
either. The special committee formed under the chairmanship of Maoist chief to
resolve the contentious issues have not met for the last one month as the chief
was also busy with the central committee meeting of his party
There was an attempt to form a “Constitutional State
Restructuring Commission” and the Speaker of the Constituent Assembly Nembwang
was very keen. But this was shot down by the newly formed Madhesi Group which
suspected that the attempt was to give up the federal units altogether. Instead
they suggested forming a group of experts within the assembly to suggest names,
boundaries of the 14 federal units to the Constituent Assembly for state
restructuring and distribution of powers.
In the meantime, the Nepali Congress has once again
gone back to demanding only seven regions and not fourteen as had been agreed
to, earlier. The seven would include two in Terai, four in the hilly regions
and one province in the Kathmandu valley. This
would avoid demarcation of boundaries on ethnic lines for fourteen provinces
which everyone knows is going to be very painful and contentious!
The net result is that the three months given for
extending the life of the interim assembly has been wasted totally and the
Maoists and to a lesser extent the Nepali Congress are to blame for this
stalemate.
In all likelihood, the Constituent Assembly may be
extended for another three months, but nothing dramatic is going to happen
unless Maoists decide to push for progress. Present uncertainty perhaps suits
them better. One view is that if they take over the administration by rotation
by consensus probably there can be some progress. But to me even this is
doubtful.
On 21st July, Kathmandu saw the spectacle of the Maoist
affiliated trade union closing and padlocking of Kist Medical College, evicting
all patients, even those in the ICU, maternity and pediatric wards to leave the
hospital and what is more the labour union singing and dancing after
accomplishing this feat!
For the first time, the representative of the Dalai
Lama who has had his office all the years undisturbed was abruptly arrested and
detained for many hours. The reason was said to be that he had an “informal
meet” with the press!.
This is what one can expect when the portfolios of both
home and health are held by the Maoists and with a weak prime minister who has
no control over them!
