I am sharing here a posting of mine from 'Nepal Democracy Forum'. In it, I have talked about the flaws of Madhesi movement and it's future. Nepe ____________________________________________________ From: "Deepak Khadka" To: nepaldemocracy@googlegroups.com Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 11:05 PM Subject: [ND] Re: Hridayesh Tripathi speaks his mind What follows are first some highlights from my reply to X-jee's message and then the reply in full. Highlights: ● Madhesi movement might have to come the direction of embracing the achievements of April Revolution and supporting ongoing democratic transition as early as next 110 days. ● Madhesi movement is visionless at the moment. If one is talking about embryonic stage movement of some unknown Madhesi movement of future, here is the problem (rather the solution): a new state of Nepal is already born and kicking. ● Some Madhesi friends are in a mysterious denial about April Revolution. They talk as if Madhesi movement is a situation of a Suppressive State of Nepal vs Freedom Seeking Madhesh when the REALITY is that it is the Transforming State of Nepal vs Credit Seeking Madhesi Elites. ● [skip] ● [skip] ● Madhesi movement at the grass root level and in an uncorrupted form is indeed for Madhesi identity, dignity and right. However, at the political level, it is corrupted and off the mark. (A point of difference with Angaraj-jee) ● Madhesi movement is off the mark due to the vested interest of Madhesi elites and their apathy to the internally oppressed people of Madhesh ● The center lacks a good spokespersonship for communicating effectively to the mass about the transformation of the state and for exposing unreasonable aspects of ongoing agitations. ● [skip] Now in full. Dear X, [skip] As for the visionlessness of the current political/academic leadership/ support to MJF led agitation, I have nothing to refute [skip] I will only add that I might agree if you were saying that what we are seeing is an embryonic/infant stage movement for some unknown kind of Madhesi movement of future. However, the problem, rather the solution, is that a new state of Nepal is already born [skip] and is more mature and more ahead of the embryonic stage movement we are talking about. At this historical juncture, the situation is not like an oppressive state of Nepal vs freedom seeking Madhesh. The situation is rather a transforming state of Nepal vs credit seeking elites of Madhesh. [skip] There is certainly more than that going on in Madhesh. [skip] [skip].. [BASICALLY] identity, dignity and right of Madhesh is what Madheshi movement is all about. [The] operative word is "basically" and it implies to what there is at the grass root level in their uncorrupted form and I do see a huge gap (of content and intention) between this basic thing and the political demands of MJF.. [skip]I am producing a posting of mine (which I have already recycled multiple times in various forums) to prove that I am the first Pahade in this forum to "discover" that Madhesh revolt was about it's dignity and fair share but, at the same time, also to note that the political demands and the mode of agitation by MJF were what would be a corrupted articulation of that. Subject: My view on Madhesi movement Date: Feb 3, 2007 - http://groups.google.com/group/nepaldemocracy/msg/3a90d4d3bae0e3e2 Now the big question is why MJF (and I do not want to separate whom I have termed "academic support to MJF") is off the mark as I claimed ? Is it due to unfortunate individual incompetence of the people associated with it or is there other mystery ? I am not competent enough to talk about other people's incompetence. So, I leave it at that. However here are some facts, I would call enigmas, about Madhesh, that might explain the corrupted movement of MJF. One that comes right away and forcefully is the internal oppression in Madhesh by it's elites. Clearly and obviously, Madhesi elites neither have willingness nor have luxury to offer the same dignity and right to the internally oppressed people of Madhesh that they are asking from the ruling Pahadi elites. (I am saying "luxury" because the issue of Dalits if becomes prominent will dilute the cause Madhesi elites are fighting for). So they got to fight with the demands distanced from these enigmas. This might partly explain demands like resignation of Sitaula or fully proportional election system with Madhesis not further divided and in fact just about any demand MJF has put so far. This much on this. Now an enigmatic question to myself. How do reconcile with two seemingly contradicting observations I made. They are, first, I claimed that a new state of Nepal (determined to deliver justice and right to all) is already born. Then, I talked about Madhesh rising up for it's fare share. Why would Madhesh rise up if the state of Nepal is already on the road to deliver justice to Madhesh, no ? This is where I blame the center-- for it's failure to communicate effectively and convincingly to the mass about it's commitment and roadmap to deliver justice to Madhesis and every other oppressed and marginalized groups. It's true that the center is not a single and homogeneous entity, as we can clearly see, due to the presence of diverse protagonists with their multi-lateral conflicts at this not yet fully resolved transitional moment. So some imperfection in their function is expected. However, what is disappointing is that they have not been able to effectively communicate to the mass even the things that have been resolved or have been resolved to resolve later. The center has failed to bring the message of how the old oppressive state do not exist any more and how the new state is working towards bringing justice to Madhesi and all marginalized people. I have shared in a discussion in NANDRON forum my thought on what I have called center's "lack of spokespersonship": - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NANDRON/message/102 In the posting above, I have talked about center's failure to do two complementary jobs regarding the good spokespersonship on the ongoing agitations, (i) to communicate effectively of the center's resolve and work to transform the state and, (ii) to "expose" the unreasonable aspects of the agitations. Now that I am asking government to do what one might call propaganda war against the agitating groups, I don't know what might come to me. I hope it won't be a "fatwa", [skip] Finally, I would like to summarize my take on Madhesi movement with the following words: Madhesi movement, if somehow got salvaged, might be helpful but not really essential at this point of clarity and decisiveness of the transformation of the state of Nepal. DK ___________________________________________________