Miscellaneous
Major parties reach out to Tharu, Madhesi leaders
In the wake of the Kailali incident, three major parties have stepped up their engagement with Tharu and Madhesi constituencies, but framework of possible agreement still remains unclear.Kamal Dev Bhattarai & Roshan Sedhai
In the wake of the Kailali incident, three major parties have stepped up their engagement with Tharu and Madhesi constituencies, but framework of possible agreement still remains unclear.
A meeting of four parties on Wednesday decided to hold first round of talks with Tharu, Madhesi and Janajati leaders before preparing terms of agreement. Top leaders entrusted Prime Minister Sushil Koirala to invite the agitating parties by sending out a formal letter to them.
While Tharu leaders stress that meaningful talks is the only way forward to resolve the ongoing crisis in Tarai, leaders of other Madhes-based parties have set preconditions for talks.
The Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Lokntantrik (MJF-L) has proposed eight-province model—three in Madhes and five in hills—for addressing the demands of Madhesi and Tharu communities.
According to the MJF-L proposal, one province will incorporate Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari and Udayapur and Siraha districts and two other provinces should be carved from Dhanusha to Kanchanpur.
MJF-L leader Jitendra Narayan Dev, however, said his party could adopt flexibility in promulgating a new constitution. “We are ready to go for two provinces in Madhes. Let’s see how the talks pan out,” Dev told the Post.
Madhesi leaders believe the protests in Kailali will end if densely populated Tharu areas are incorporated into a Madhes province.
Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha, a coalition of four Madhes-based parties, want the proposed Province 2 to be extended up to Jhapa in the east and districts east of Chitwan be declared Tharuhat/Tharuwan province. It has also expressed reservations over the citizenship provision.
Despite assurance from the major parties to address legitimate concerns of Madhesi and Tharu constituencies, the task appears much difficult given their position, mainly that of the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, according to leaders. The UCPN (Maoist) seems ready to go for two provinces in Madhes as proposed by the Madhesis and Tharus. Senior UCPN (Maoist) leader Baburam Bhattarai said that there could be an agreement if the Tharu cluster in Kailali district is kept intact.
“About half a million Tharus live in Kailali district alone, so incorporating this population into a hill province does not provide a solution,” Bhattarai said.
Divided opinions both in the NC and UML camps over the split of Kailali district
has created problems in charting out a clear framework, sources said.
According to Bhattarai, demands of both the Madhesis and Tharus will be addressed if two provinces—one in the east of Nawalparasi and another in the west—are incorporated into Madhes. However, the NC and UML have already rejected this proposal. Senior NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML Vice-chairman Bhim Rawal on Monday ruled out the idea of splitting Kailali district.
Soon after the four-party meeting on Wednesday, PM Koirala talked to Chairman of Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party Mahanta Thakur over the phone. PM asked Thakur to stop all protest programmes in Tarai to sit for talks, but the latter insisted on the implementation of past pacts.
“I told him that talks is meaningless unless the government shows readiness to follow the past agreements with the Madhesi communities. How can he expect us to sit for dialogue when our people are dying? I told him to first prepare an environment for talks,” Thakur told the Post.
Thakur said he had assured Koirala that he would relay his message to other Madhesi leaders. According to Thakur, the morcha would make its position clear after holding consultation with other parties in the alliance.
The top leaders of the major parties also held talks with cross-party Tharu CA members and other Tharu leaders to address their demands.