The Economist seems to think so. Is this a desperate measure by the Monarchy to save itself or is it another blame game that we are so good at playing? ######################################### Source : - http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8597143 Nepal A second front Jan 25th 2007 | KATHMANDU From The Economist print edition Ethnic violence threatens Nepal's new-found peace THE peace process in Nepal passed important landmarks this month as former Maoist rebels joined an interim parliament and started putting their guns into storage. Yet even as a final settlement to that insurgency remains distant, the country is faced with another cause of violence: ethnic strife in its southern plains next to India, a region known as the Terai. The two conflicts are connected. Ten years of Maoist insurgency have made many Nepalis more assertive and convinced some of the merits of political violence. Also, the peace process will involve a constitutional assembly, for which elections are due in June. The ethnic group known as Madhesis, who dominate the Terai, fear they will be cheated. Nepal's censuses have always underestimated Madhesi numbers. Ethnically and culturally, they are indistinguishable from the Indians across the border. They probably make up more than 40% of the population but are barely represented in the bureaucracy, army or police and their “Nepaliness” is constantly questioned. Ahead of the elections there is a drive to give millions of Madhesis the citizenship they lack, allowing them to vote. But Madhesi politicians complain that constituencies are gerrymandered so that “one hill vote is equal to 20 Terai votes”. The Terai is volatile. A breakaway faction of ex-Maoists, the Terai People's Liberation Front, is waging a violent campaign for independence. In December a campaign for Madhesi rights in the town of Nepalganj turned into communal violence as hill-people sacked and burnt Madhesi businesses in a two-day spree, condoned by the local authorities. This week there were demonstrations, daylong curfews and five deaths in the central Terai after a Maoist shot dead a Madhesi protester. Fanning the flames is the monarchy, all-powerful a year ago in what was the world's only Hindu kingdom, but now at risk of abolition. By sowing communal tension, the palace may hope to postpone the election. Consistent accounts place royal agents in the Terai stirring things up, as well as in India, appealing to religious fanatics by linking the future of Hinduism, Madhesis and the royal family. Hridesh Tripathi, a cabinet minister who leads a Terai-based party, says it is to be expected that the palace “will use all forms of conspiracy”. The Madhesis' grievances give the plotters some fertile ground.