The third round of talks held Friday night between the government and
agitating Tharu community failed due to a deadlock over the issue of replacing
the term ‘Madhesh’ by ‘Terai’ in the interim constitution.

The talks could not progress as the government refused to remove the term
‘Madhesh’ from the interim constitution, said an agitating leader Laxman Tharu
after the talks.

The government was ready to replace ‘Madhesh’ by ‘Terai-Madhesh’. Tharu
community wanted the ‘Madhesh’ term removed altogether.

‘We can’t remove the term ‘Madhesh’ altogether,’ Peace Minister Janardan
Sharma said. 'In the name of giving rights to one (organisation), we can’t
deprive others’ of their rights.’

Various regional political parties based in the southern plains are against
removing the term ‘Madhesh’ from the interim constitution.

Madheshi Janadhikar Forum leader Jaya Prakash Gupta said on Thursday that his
party would start an agitation if the term ‘Madhesh’ is removed from the
constitution.

The talks started at about 8 pm and ended about 11 pm at the peace ministry
in Singha Durbar. Peace Minister Sharma has said efforts to solve the issue by
talks would continue on Saturday.

However, the agitators have said they would not hold another round of talks
with the peace minister.

‘We will take part in the next round of talks only if the government team is
led the Prime Minister,’ chairman of the Tharu Struggle Committee, Laxman Tharu
said.

Earlier, a meeting of various organisations participating in the
agitation held Friday morning had formed a two-member talks team including Tharu
and Lekhi.

Lekhi had boycotted the second round of talks on Wednesday saying his
organisation had not received a formal invitation for the talks.

The government team was represented by Peace minister Jandardan Sharma and
Water Resource minister Bishnu Poudel.

Pasang Sherpa, chairman of Nepal Adiwasi Sangh was present to help the Tharu
negotiators at the talks.

The previous round of talks held on Wednesday had failed as the government
could not agree on the agitator’s demand to guarantee a proportional reservation
in all public services for ethnic groups on the basis of population.

This issue was not raised on Friday as the talks could not progress ahead
from the first agenda-the removal of ‘Madesh’ from the interim constitution.

The agitation steered by Tharus and supported by various ethnic and
indigenous communities have made life in the Terai as well as hilly districts
extremely difficult.

Raj Kumar Lekhi, general secretary of Tharu Kalyankarini Sabha, accused the
government of not being serious towards their demands and announced to intensify
the agitation. nepalnews.com ta Mar 14 09