Sunday, May 29, 2011

Finally A Janajati Party

Tharu man in NepalImage via Wikipedia
Republica: Lekhi launching new party Sunday: Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (Nefin) President Raj Kumar Lekhi is all set to announce a new political party called Nepali Citizens Party (NCP) .... a seven-member central committee with representatives from indigenous groups, Muslim comunity, Dalits, women and other backward classes of society. ..... the new party will form its organization in about 35 district in the first phase. ...... Bijay Danuwar, Nagendra Rajbanshi, Chandra Kumar Chaudhari, Tajmohammed Miya, Chandrakala Gurung, and Raj Kumar Regmi. ...... Danuwar is an ex-secretary of Nefin while Miya is the chairman of Nepal Muslim Federation. Similarly, Rajbanshi is Nefin vice chairman and Chaudhari is the chairman of the Tharu Welfare Council. Likewise Gurung is ex-chairman of the National Indigenous Women´s Federation and Regmi is the chairman of Society of Parliamentary Affairs Journalists. ..... Nefin, an umbrella organization of indigenous nationalities, had elected Lekhi as president last year.
This was long overdue. There was a need for a national political party that was lead primarily by the Janajatis. The Janajati organization NEFIN had been banging its head against the wall as a pressure group. That was a dead end. Now some meaningful progress can be made, one hopes.

I am happy for this development.

I hope the party works hard to get Dalits and Muslims into its fold. Those are two clear underrepresented groups.
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