With no end to protests, Nepal continues to suffer

The small bridge on a narrow stream that divides Raxaul (Bihar) from Birgunj (Nepal) is called “Friendship Bridge”.

Till two months ago, it was a busy thoroughfare, carrying two-thirds of Nepal’s import from India and the entire third-country imports of Nepal, but no more. A Madhesi morcha (forum) has blocked it since September 20, when Kathmandu adopted a new Constitution.

The queue of trucks, waiting to enter Nepal, has ironically reached 30 km away to Sagauli – where the English had redrawn the map in December 1815, dividing a section of Bihar into two national identities.

The section in Nepal, now referred to as Madhesi, is accusing the politics in Kathmandu, ruled by Hill Brahmins, for prolonged “discrimination”.  The people-to-people contact remains the same, if not stronger, as both India and Nepal agreed to a nearly borderless existence, in 1950.

Life in distress

Two hundred years since that Treaty of Sugauli, the entire set up is now being questioned, with Kasthmandu not yet ready to give in to the Madhesi demand, directly or indirectly blaming India for the entire trouble.

India is redirecting cargo through other border gates in UP, Bihar and West Bengal. But that is 70 per cent below average. It cannot be stepped up to normal until the Birgunj gate is open. And, a harassed Kathmandu is now offering citizens firewood instead of cooking gas.

Life is off-gear in Madhesh too. Those living in the border areas are visiting India for fuel. But the Madhesi morcha ensures no one can smuggle in more than a bare minimum. Blockades are created on all major thoroughfares running to the hinterland. Guests in top notch hotels in Birgunj are often without electricity as there is no fuel to run the generator when the grid supplies go off.

Prices of almost all essentials are nearly double. Petrol is selling in water bottles in black at three-times the Indian price.

“Life is better in border areas. But if you travel 10 km inside, things are really bad,” says Deep Verma, who is finding it tough to meet ends from his ₹6,000 salary.

Should Verma, a common Madhesi not affiliated to any political party, therefore demand a withdrawal of the blockade? No way.

“My mother is from India; so is my wife. As per the new Constitution, I am not eligible for holding top posts in the country. Here, all important positions, right from district magistrates to police officers, are held by people from the Hills, especially Brahmins. We are abused as Indians, dhotis. Even the term Madhesi is an abuse,” he said.

Verma is equally disillusioned with Madhesi politics, cutting across parties. “For years they have promised to end discrimination. There were two such agitations in the past and many agreements with the government. It’s a story of broken promises from all sides,” he says.

The allegation is not unfounded. Despite contributing one-third (including Tharus, who have close ties with India) of Nepal’s population, they are a minuscule minority in the police force, armed forces, and government service, says Manish Kumar Mishra, General Secretary of Terai Madhesh Student Front, a wing of Terai Madhesh Democratic Party (TMDP).

So what is happening to the high-level negotiation between the Madhesi leadership and the government? Jitendra Singh Sonal, General Secretary of TMDP, feels there is a “lack of sensitivity”.

Almost all Madhesi leaders that BusinessLine spoke to feel that the educated youth of Madhesh are on the verge of losing faith and taking to radicalism. “The government is sidestepping issues by blaming India and defining the movement as secessionist. They fail to understand that it is a civilian protest against the government. A failure in dialogue may show the entire political class in poor light and radical thoughts may gain popularity,” says Rajendra Mahato, Chairman of Sadbhawana Party.  

Under pressure from the local electorate, many leaders from Madhesh in other parties are found to have been changing floors and joining the movement. While officially only four parties are part of the ‘Madhesi Morcha’, in reality, there is everyone, from Maoist factions to the upcoming ‘New Force’ of former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.

But do they deny Indian support? All political leaders, be it a Mahato or a Sonal, are unanimous: India had a role to play behind every (successful) uprising in Nepal, including the Maoist uprising, right from 1950, but never with the Madhesis. What’s wrong if they support the Madhesi movement for once?

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