With lives at risk, Nepal struggles to escape dysfunction

The meeting was earlier scheduled for Friday but had to be postponed after the agitating Madhesi leaders failed to turn up.

Top leaders of the Madeshi community, whose protests against Nepal’s new constitution has virtually sealed the India-Nepal border, reached New Delhi on Sunday to meet Indian leaders.

Meanwhile, it is still uncertain if the Madhesi leaders will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Those who reached Delhi include Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party chairman Mahanta Thakur, Sanghiya Samajwadi Forum chairman Upendra Yadav, Sadbhavana Party chairman Rajendra Mahto, and Tarai Madhes Sadbhavana Party chairman Mahendra Yadav.

Madhesi protesters have blockaded land-locked Nepal’s borders with India for the past two months, and the Himalayan nation is struggling for essential supplies: food, medicines and fuel.

Madeshis are demanding increased political representation, proportional inclusion in state organs, correction in citizenship provisions and revision in federal boundaries.

A day before the arrival of the UMDF delegation, a few other Madhesi leaders landed in Delhi claiming to be the real representatives of the region, thereby indicating the rising stakes in the Nepal crisis. At least 30 per cent families in Nepal’s plains, mostly Madhesis, have marital ties with India. India has firmly denied having any role in the blockade, saying truck drivers are concerned about their safety after violent protests against the new Constitution in which over 40 people have been killed.

During the meeting of the Social Justice and Human Rights Committee under the Legislature-Parliament, Thapa said he was hopeful and confident that the problems would be resolved soon due to his recent talks with Indian leaders. The Nepalese Government has accused India of creating the blockade.

The Nepal government senses that the nationalistic chest-thumping is giving way to public anger over shortages, Madhesi leaders similarly feel their slogans against “colonial” Kathmandu are beginning to ring a bit hollow among a people who have suffered a five-month shutdown, and over at the PMO in New Delhi there is creeping disquiet about the growing domestic political backlash as well as rising worldwide concern about its handling of the Nepal mess.