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Global Media Ignoring Madhesi Movement In Nepal

By Paramendra Kumar Bhagat

Right after the king's coup, international support came pouring in for the democracy movement in Nepal. No notable political leader in Delhi, or Jakarta, Washington, London, or Beijing, no leader in Patna or Lucknow, no leader in South Africa has issued a statement of support to the Madhesi Movement in Nepal.

The Madhesi Movement has been demonized. It has been called the work of the royalists. Some Rana army general actually wanted to send in the army into the Terai to put the "unrest" down. The Madhesi Movement has been called the work of the Hindu supremacists in India. Not Vajpayee, not Advani, none of them have issued a statement of support to the Madhesi.

They say Upendra Yadav is a Yadav playing caste politics like in India. Neither Laloo Yadav of Bhiar, nor Mulayam Singh Yadav of Uttar Pradesh has issued a statement of support.

A few days back I received a report from a Madhesi human rights activist in Nepalgunj like I received the video from Nepalgunj early in January, the video that many credit for the wildfire of the Madhesi Movement. The report did not make it sound like there had been a communal riot any more than there was during the last week of December. It was Pahadi on Madhesi violence. There were reports of numerous khukuri wounds.

A day later the local human rights community as a whole issued a report that condemned the communal nature of the MJF protests. Pahadi human rights activists are not neutral, it seems like. Pahadi media reported on the incident. The reports are routinely biased.

Madhesis get called Indians, but Indians are not aware the Madhesis exist. There is no outcry across the border.

It has been amazing for me to watch the Pahadi clutch on the global media. The Nepali representatives of the big global media houses are all Pahadi Bahuns. And they use their megaphones to demonize and ridicule the Madhesi Movement. It is amazing that in this day and age of instant communication the global media houses can so get taken for a ride when the counter viewpoints are only an email or phone call away.

Every democracy movement the Nepali Congress waged in Nepal was on the back of the Madhesi. After 1990 the Terai has been the primary base of the Nepali Congress, the largest party in Nepal. But the Congress leaders have taken the lead on trivializing, demonizing and disrespecting the Madhesi Movement.

The UML is for proportional elections to the constituent assembly, and it would benefit enormously by siding with the Madhesi Movement at this juncture, but the UML has not broken ranks with the parties in power, even when the Maoists and the Congress have actively sidelined the UML. You can't side with the Madhesi Movement. That is a big no no.

People complain of acts of vadalism during the Madhesi Movement. There have been a few, sure. But for the years and decades before the Madhesi Movement, there were no acts of vandalism at all in the name of any Madhesi Movement. Were you listening to the just demands of the Madhesi then?

People talk about loss of property, but they don't talk about the loss of lives.

The April Revolution lasted 19 days and produced 21 martyrs. The Madhesi Movement lasted 21 days and produced 38 martyrs. Those 38 have not yet been declared martyrs by the state.

People talk about the statues of the Pahadi notables that got destroyed in the Terai. They don't talk about the loss of lives.

19 days and 21 martyrs got rid of an entire regime. 21 days and 38 martyrs have not been worth the job of a Home Minister. The Pahadis in power intend to add salt to the Madhesi wounds.

Girija says he does not know who to talk to even if he were to want to talk to. He does not recognize the MJF, or its leader Upendra Yadav.

The Sadbhavana spent a decade badmouthing the Madhesi saying the Madhesi people vote for the oppressors but not for those who will liberate them, namely the Sadbhavana. Today that Sadbhavana has abandoned the Madhesi. The Sadbhavana (Anandi) does not want the Home Minister to resign. 38 deaths of the 21 glory days don't mean much to the Sadbhavana (Anandi) either.

The Pahadi parties in power have managed to mobilize some of their Madhesi henchmen in their sister organizations to try and sabotage the ongoing Madhesi Movement.

The Madhesi Movement reaches out to the great social justice revolutions in human history, it reaches out to the civil rights movement in America, it reaches out to the anti-apartheir movement in South Africa. Both those movements were terribly lonely when they were being waged. Today the Madhesi Movement in Nepal is lonely. History is repeating itself.

The Madhesi Movement has been appealing to the global media, to the global power centers, to the US Congress, to Patna, to Delhi. The Madhesi Movement has been appealing to the Madhesis in power in Kathmandu.

The Madhesi Movement has the Madhesi people, and little else. And if history is any guide, that is enough. The Madhesi people are sufficient unto themselves.

The Home Minister will resign. A probe commission will be formed.

The Madhesis are going to get a Madhesh state in a federal Nepal.

Half of the constituent assembly is going to be Madhesi. Two thirds of it is going to be Madhesi and Janajati.

The path is uncertain, the doubts remain, they keep mounting, victory is not at all guaranteed. But then if history is any guide, that has been the story of all liberation struggles.