Democracy For Nepal

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Sonal In Scarsdale

Sonal In Scarsdale

Saturday evening was a gathering at Binod Shah's place. He lives in Scarsdale. That would be Westchester County. Satya Yadav has his annual event at his Long Island home early in the year every year. I think Binodji is trying to set up something similar. He took a first crack at Holi. Now he is shooting for a Dashain khasi thing. I think it is a good thing to have a few family home setting events spread over the calendar that local Madhesis might have the option to show up for or not.

Celebrating birthdays is not native to Nepali culture. But many Nepalis do celebrate the same. Goat meat during Dashain is not a Madhesi thing, it is a Pahadi thing, Madhesis associate goat meat with Holi, but then there is culture, and there is cross-cultural pollination. And so there was goat meat, and there were about 20 or more Madhesis. Binodji ka ghar itna door hai shahar se, bahut Madhesi unke ghar jate jate raste mein hara ke wapas shahar ki or chale jate hain.

The main attraction of the evening was MP Jitendra Sonal of the Terai Madhes Loktantric Party (That Madhesi Agenda: Jitendra Sonal). I told him, there are about three Madhesis in town that show up for most events Nepali. Most of the rest stay away until someone big and famous like Sonal shows up.

I took many pictures, to be stored on Facebook as a private album to be shared with those who showed up and are also on Facebook.

Sonal's Talk

I think Sonal gave a terrific talk. We all sat on the floor and he talked. Then we fielded questions. He handled them really well. Sonal was beat up real bad by the police during the Madhesi Kranti. Before that he spent long years in the wilderness as a Sadbhavana cadre.

"Back then, even the trees and herded animals in the Terai were either with the Congress or the UML," he likes to say.

He gave solid replies to questions on what exactly is Madhes, and who is a Madhesi. The 22 Terai districts are Madhes, he said. He pointed out distinct cultural differences between the Madhesi and the Pahadi. The Pahadis in the Terai are Teraiwasi, he said. Madhesi is a cultural term.

I added that when they use the word madisey, they don't have the slightest doubt as to who the Madhesi is, but when we talk about rights and equality, they act like they don't know who the Madhesi is.

The formal part of the event was chaired by the ANTA New York chapter outgoing president Ritesh Chaudhary.

Overnight

The event started in the afternoon, some people left late in the evening after dinner, but most stayed until the morning. Then I had a call from Sonal around 11 that he would like for me to join him for lunch with his friend Arvind Singh who is in Sunnyside.

Seaport Diwali

A few hours later Sonal went gift shopping with Arvind, I went to the Seaport Diwali.

Friday Evening: Ridgewood Dashain Party (Dashain Party, Ridgewood)

Jitendra Sonal showed up for this event late. He had just got back from his DC trip. Binodji wanted to know if the two of us would like to ride with him to Scarsdale that very evening while the rest joined us the following day. Neither of us felt ready.

Jamaica: Halal

Kamal Labh was responsible for the goat meat. He had been to the same halal place in Jamaica only a week or so earlier for another goat meat party with another group of his friends.

The Delegation

Sonal of course has been in town as part of the Prime Minister's delegation to the UN.
There was quite a tamasha towards the end of the Prime Minister's interaction program with the local Nepalis: Interaction With Madhav Nepal: Friday. I got interviewed by Namaste Nepal television towards the end of that event, and also by the USNepalOnline that was broadcasting live with Ustream. There was another tamasha during an interaction program of the Foreign Minister with some of the members of her party. Compared to all that Sonal's interaction with local Madhesis was smooth sailing.

Social Gathering, Political Talk

This was primarily a social gathering in Scarsdale, lekin 20 Madhesi jamma ho wahan rajniti ho, wo sambhav nahin hai.

Mission Madhes

I briefed Sonal about Mission Madhes during my time with him Sunday.

Bye

I get to see him off Monday evening.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Dashain Party, Ridgewood

Thursday, September 24, 2009

That Madhesi Agenda: Jitendra Sonal

The Prime Minister's delegation has about 30 members, one of them Madhesi. That is nowhere close to proportionate.

Said joint-general secretary of the Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party, Jitendra Sonal, “Hindi is a common link between all languages spoken across the Madhes.”
Speaking to the daily, joint general secretary Jitendra Sonal said the party had decided to join the government to raise the Madhes issues.
The split occurred in September 2007, as the MJF vice chairmen Bhagyanath Gupta and Kishor Kumar Bishwash and Ram Kumar Sharma and Jitendra Sonal were expelled from MJF. Gupta became chairman, Sharma general secretary, Bishwash and Sonal vice chairmen of the new party. However, Sonal and Sharma were expelled from the party in December 2007.
September 5: A central committee meeting of the MJF expelled the four dissident leaders Kishore Kumar Bishwas, Bhagyanath Gupta, Jitendra Sonal and Ram Kumar Sharma and also decided that the MJF will take part in the Constituent Assembly election.
Those expelled include, his adviser Kishor Kumar Bishwas, Bhagyanath Gupta, Jitendra Sonal and ram Kumar Sharma.
"As a political party our agenda is pretty clear-we want democratic system of governance, autonomous federal structure, proportional elections, and we want Nepal to be a republic" says Jitendra Sonal, MJF's secretariat member.
“We are positive over the prime minister´s offer but could not discuss this issue in our party on Wednesday. Our party is likely to recommend our ministers on Thursday,” said Jitendra Sonal, TMDP joint general secretary.
Image by izahorsky via Flickr
"We are not ready to tolerate discrimination anymore in the name of keeping peace," said Jitendra Sonal, the president of the youth wing of the Madhesi People's Right Forum. Sonal's face was marked by purple bruises -- the result, he says, of a police beating.
On December 31, 2007, a Central Working Committee of the party was formed, chaired by Thakur. Other members are Hridayesh Tripathi, Mahendra Prasad Yadav, Ram Chandra Raya, Sarbendra Nath Shukla, Anish Ansari, Ram Chandra Kushwaha, Brishesh Chandra Lal, Srikrishna Yadav, Govinda Prasad Chaudhary, Ram Kumar Chaudhary, Ram Kumar Sharma, Jitendra Sonal, Bishwanath Saha, Satyawati Kurmi, Kritaram Kumhal, Dilip Singh and Sheikh Chandtara.
"The chances of TMDP getting three ministries have increased," Jitendra Sonal, joint general secretary of the party, told myrepublica.com.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Interaction With Madhav Nepal: Friday

September 25, 2009, Friday, 5:30 PM
Entrance: Free
Theme: Federalism In Nepal
Chian Federation Hall
44-01 Broadway
Astoria, NY 11103
Take the R or V train to 46th St

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Republic of Nepal

Date: September 24, 2009 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Location: Rotunda, Low Memorial Library, Columbia University

"Post-Conflict Challenges and Development"

A keynote address by
Madhav Kumar Nepal
Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal

With remarks from
Sujata Koirala
Foreign Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal

Followed by a question and answer session with the audience

Registration is required.

Right Honorable Mr. Madhav Kumar Nepal, Prime Minister of Nepal, was born in Nepal's southern Rautahat district on March 6, 1953. He graduated in commerce from Tribhuvan University in 1973 and worked in banking services before joining politics.

Mr. Nepal joined the communist movement in 1969 as a member of Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) under Pushpa Lal Shrestha, founder of the CPN. During his political career, Mr. Nepal spent two years as a political prisoner. In the democratic struggle against the one-party Panchayat System, he remained underground from 1974 to 1989. In 1978, Mr. Nepal became a founding politburo member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist Leninist), which later became CPN (United Marxist Leninist), popularly called UML in Nepal.

He played an active role during the first People's Movement and he was one of the members of the commission that drafted the Nepalese constitution in 1990. In 1991 he led the opposition in the National Assembly, the upper house of the Nepalese parliament. In 1995 he became Deputy Prime Minister with foreign and defense ministries under his portfolio in the Nepalese government led by Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari.

Since 1995 he has remained one of the main leaders in Nepalese politics, including his role as the leader of the Nepalese opposition in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2002. With other democratic parties, he played an active role in leading the People's Movement in 2006 that overpowered absolute monarchy and contributed to the signing of peace agreements with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), beginning a peace process to end the deadly internal conflict that had entrenched the country for over a decade, killing over 13,000 people.

Mr. Nepal was the General Secretary of the CPN (UML) until he resigned in April 2008 after remaining in that position for over a decade. In 2009 Mr. Nepal became a member of the Constituent Assembly and was elected chairman of Constitutional Committee of the Constituent Assembly that is entrusted to draft Nepal's new constitution. He became Prime Minister of Nepal on May 25, 2009.

Apart from Nepali and English, Mr. Nepal also speaks Hindi and regional dialects of Maithali and Bhojpuri. He is married to Ms. Gayatri Nepal. They have a daughter and a son.
Image via Wikipedia

Image by paramendra via Flickr

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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Can Koirala Be Given Credit For Federalism?

A lot of Nepali Congress people give Girija Koirala credit for the alliance that the democratic parties ultimately formed with the Maoists to bring the monarchy down. But that alliance would not have been possible if the democratic parties had not agreed to the idea of a constituent assembly. And Girija was opposed to that idea of a constituent assembly to the very last. That is why he does not get credit for what he calls mainstreaming the Maoists.

The guy is here on record saying he is opposed to the kind of map for federalism that the Maoists, the UML and now his own party have come up with. He calls them "latitudinal." But it is a latitudinal map that will firm up. When that happens, will the Nepali Congress people then give Koirala credit for the same? You have to wonder.

Girija opposes 'latitudinal division' of the country NepalNews
Dahal claims Madhesis are withdrawing support to govt some Madhes based parties are likely to withdraw support to the coalition government shortly. .... his party is in constant discussion with two big neighbours and the European Union for successful transition of the peace process and timely constitution