POLITICS OF CONTEMPT, CASUALTY AND CULPABILITY ...

1. A liberal policy of citizenship so that most of the citizenshipless people can get
their identity and fully participate in building this nation as bona fide citizens.
2. Official status for Hindi language as the ‘lingua franca’ that binds all Madhesi
together.
3. Employment quota for Madhesi in civil service and army, thereby bringing them
in the mainstream of national development.
4. A federal system of government to recognize their separate identity. 37
Within the framework of making Nepal a federal state through elections to the constituent
assembly, the Madhesi have raise their rightful demands for proper representation through
peaceful movement caused by the political centre’s treatment of Tarai yet as the
backwater of the national polity after Jana Andolan II. The sheer neglect and indifference
amongst the leaderships at the centre towards the simmering problems of Madhesi people,
continued discrimination as well as state repression bordering on the communal measures
(as evident in the Nepalgunj riots in December 2006) has made the situation most
depressing and desparate. 38 The peaceful protests over the promulgation of the Interim
Constitution on 15 January 2007 staged by MJF turned into heinous ethnopolitical
violence after it was allegedly provoked by the Maoists in Lahan. Meanwhile, the
“excessive use of force” by the government had resulted into the killings of 37 people in
January-February 2007 during the Madhesi uprising. 39 Again, the government’s
indifference has led to the Gaur massacre caused by the violent contention between the
Maoist and the MJF forces on 21 March 2007. The carnage and misfortune could have
been easily avoided had the Maoists controlled their inflated ego. 40 The tensions brewing
between the Maoists and different Madhesi groups on the one hand, and the government’s
provocative measures, 41 on the other, is gradually converting the situation in the Tarai into
communal as well as sectarian conflicts.
Consequently, the threshold of threats of ethnic cleansing is rising. Ever since the JTMM
led by Jwala Singh has posted a circular to the government officials of the hill-origins
(Pahade) to vacate the Tarai on 14 April 2007, most of the government institutions are
reportedly functioning without the head and other pahade officials. Many of them have
left their post and returned home as insecurity increased and the threat and fear of ethnic
turmoil rise. The governmental lethargy and inability to manage the challenges emanating
from the Tarai has encouraged several criminal elements. The eventual emergence of
some obscure but violent Madhesi organizations like the seemingly ferocious Tarai
Tigers, Tarai Cobra, and Tarai Army as well as Tarai Rebel groups have further increased
insecurity among the hill people living in the Nepal Tarai. Another militant group led by
Visfot Singh – a breakaway faction of the JTMM (Goit) – has emerged with secessionism
as its policy plank. Ironic indeed is the situation when the Prime/Defence, Home
Ministers belonging to the NC and the General-Secretary of the CPN (UML), though hill
Brahmins, are the representatives of the Tarai constituencies. They have shown scant
interests in pacifying the acts of fomenting violence in their own district constituencies.
However, they can no more turn their blind eyes towards this systemic challenge when
they are tasked to hold elections to constituent assembly.
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