Prashant Sood | 15 Jan, 2016
Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli has expressed
confidence that his country's new Constitution would be suitably amended to
address the concerns of the Madhesis agitating in the Terai and a solution
found to the issue before his visit to India next month.
"We have presented a bill in parliament... The Constitution is going to be
amended," Oli told reporter in an interview at his office in Singha
Durbarin, Kathmandu.
"We have agreed to treat special privileges as fundamental rights. This is
democracy... Sometimes in a democracy, such things happen and we have to
tolerate (them)," Oli observed while talking about the more than
four-month-old anti-Constitution agitation by Madhesi political parties and
indigenous groups.
The Madhesis have been agitating for the past more than four months in the
Nepali Terai against "discriminatory provisions" of the country's new
Constitution, which was promulgated on September 20. The protestors blockaded
the India-Nepal border entry points hindering movement of vehicles carrying
supplies of essentials to the landlocked Himalayan nation -- and thus resulting
in acute shortage of food, fuel and medicines, among others.
Asserting that the fuel and gas crisis in Nepal in the wake of the Madhesi
agitation was slowly improving, Oli hoped that the situation will be "completely
normal" within a few days.
Oli, 63, who is also chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified
Marxists-Leninists) [CPN-UML], however, made it clear that the proposed changes
in the Constitution to address the issues raised by the Madhesi parties were
against his own conviction and he was only agreeing to them for the sake of
democracy in the country.
He maintained that there was no discrimination in the new Constitution,
promulgated on September 20 last year, and the effort therein was to develop a
competitive society with provisions to bring the backward communities to the
forefront.
He said that under the new Constitution, there was 45 percent reservation in
stipulated areas for Backward Communities and they could also be part of the
open competition.
Referring to the over four-month old agitation by Madhesi parties over
provisions of the new Constitution, he said the "supplies were stopped
unnecessarily".
Oli has alleged that the shortages were the result of an "embargo imposed
by India". However, New Delhi maintains that supplies of essential
commodities have not been able to move across the border because of the Madhesi
agitation.
Oli said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was widely hailed for his vision
when he first visited Nepal in 2014 but there have been severe shortages of gas
and fuel supplies from India in the wake of the Madhesi protests.
"Modiji came for the first time as prime minister and delivered his speech
in the Nepali parliament. Not only his words, his body language was showing
that he is speaking from the heart, manifesting his friendship with Nepal. The
Nepali society was so happy and relations between India and Nepal saw a new
height. But afterwards there was no gas, no diesel, no petrol. That sort of
situation happened."
Oli said "the situation is improving gradually and I believe in a few days
it will be completely normal".
Asked if a solution would be found to the issues raised by the Madhesi
protestors before his visit to India next month, Oli said emphatically: "Yes."
He also said he had "good expectations" from the visit -- his first
abroad as prime minister.
Nepal's southern plains have been simmering with protests against the new
constitution, with over 55 people, including agitators and police personnel,
killed during the agitation by the Madhesi community.
The Madhesi protestors are demanding, among other things, a redrawing of the
boundaries of the provinces as proposed in the new Constitution and representation
in parliament on the basis of population.
Nepal's Left government has held more than a score of rounds of talks with
leaders of the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha, which is spearheading the
agitation, but without any breakthrough so far.
Oli said there were complaints about exploitation in Terai but the real reason
was landlordism and "lack of consciousness" about education. He gave
instances of higher levels of education in the hills and said these areas also
did not have problems like "dowry" and "witchcraft".
"There was no landlordism in the hills, it was there in the Terai. Its
effect has been that only a few people moved ahead. Others are suppressed,"
Oli said.
He said the new Constitution provides for a competitive multi-party system,
periodic elections, separation of powers, independence of the judiciary and
many fundamental rights.
Oli, who became prime minister last October after the country adopted the new
Constitution, said the Nepali people and leaders and he personally could not
think of anything else except friendship with India.
"But there were some misunderstandings that some people were able to
create. I do not know why and how they were successful... I want that our two
countries come together. It is a special relationship. There is no scope for
misunderstanding," he said.
Asked about the Madhesis' demand for reorganising parliamentary constituencies
on the basis of population, he said the constituencies in India were also
organised on the basis of both "geography and population".
He said hill districts with sparse populations should also get representation.
"We copied the sentence 'on the basis of geography and population' from
the Indian constitution," Oli said.
Asked about the demand by Madhesi parties of redrawing state boundaries, he
said there was geographic and ethnic diversity in Indian states also.
"They are making demands pertaining to other areas. These things do not
mean much. If they are talking of their own place, then it makes sense,"
he said.
The major demand is for the formation of two provinces in the Nepali Terai --
the Madhesi pradesh extending from the Mechi river in the east to the Narayani
river in mid-western Nepal and Tharuhat pradesh from the Narayani to the
Mahakali river in the west.
The protestors are demanding restoration of rights granted to Madhesis in the
interim constitution of 2007 which, they say, the new charter had snatched
away.
Terai has almost 51 percent of the country's population yet gets only one-third
of seats in parliament -- and proportional representation in government jobs.
Asked about the anger among the people over shortage of fuel and gas supplies
from India, Oli said it would vanish once the supplies were fully restored.
He assured that the Nepal government would provide full security to trucks
entering from India.
(Prashant
Sood is in Nepal at the invitation of PATA to study the situation in the wake
of last April's quake that killed over 8,000 people. He can be contacted at
prashant.s@ians.in)