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Karma Sherpa And The NYC Program For The Prime Minister

I just got off the phone with Karma Gyalden Sherpa. It was a half hour conversation.

Karma has been my favorite Nepali in New York City since I showed up in town a few years ago. The Madhesis have to seek an alliance with the Janajatis to achieve equality in Nepal and the Nepali diaspora. He is not one of those "Bahun ko jhola bokne" Janajati/Madhesi, his phrase. I like that about him a lot. He has a warm personality. He has a high emotional intelligence. He has been running the largest, most vibrant Nepali organization in New York City for a few years now.

I missed the meeting yesterday evening where the Adivasi Janajati Mahasangh and the UNDF tried to work out the details for the Prime Minister's program on the 25th. I might have been late: it was to have been my fourth event of the day (Nepali Picnic, Poetry Festival, Science House MeetUp). And I also ended up at the wrong location. But I did meet someone who was on his way back from the meeting. I debriefed him on the sidewalk by the Satya Narayan Mandir in Jackson Heights.

I talked to Tek Gurung on the phone an hour before I talked to Karma. It has been decided Karma will chair the event, and Tek will give the welcome speech. I think that is a happy middle ground.

I also wanted to ask for five minutes of speaking time, but before I brought up the topic Karma said he had made a few decisions as chairperson. One, the emcee will only announce the names of the speakers, otherwise sometimes the emcee's introductory speech ends up longer than the speaker's, there will be few speakers, maybe four or five, each speaker will have a strict time limit, and mostly the program will be a question answer session. The floor will be opened to the general public. He said among the few speakers there will be one Madhesi, one Dalit, only one Janajati. ANTA has been asked to furnish the Madhesi speaker. And that the entire event will be live streamed worldwide on the web.

I said I was very happy with the arrangement, that he had thought everything through. I dropped the topic of seeking five minutes for me. I am happier that I will get a minute during the question and answer session. I am also going to try to meet the Prime Minister at the Columbia University event a few days before that.

Karma and I talked about many other things to do with Madhesi and Janajati rights besides this one event. We concluded by agreeing what the Janajatis of Nepal need is their own political party.

To: The Nepali Ambassador to the UN

Your Excellency Madhuji.

As the president of two organizations Hamro Nepal
(http://hamnep.googlepages.com) and Mission Madhes

(http://missionmadhes.wordpress.com,
http://madhesi.blogspot.com/2009/08/mission-madhes-constitution-draft.html,
http://madhesi.blogspot.com/2009/08/mission-madhes-2.html), as one of
the most active Nepalis in NYC since my arrival in town in the summer
of 2005 (http://nycnepali.googlepages.com), as the only Nepali in
America to have worked full time for Nepal's democracy and social
justice movements (http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com), as one of the
top Obama volunteers in all of NYC in 2007 and 2008
(http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99952&id=621599484&l=095de686ea,
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99978&id=621599484&l=5a94b9a0bd,
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99990&id=621599484&l=f9ccef2b45,
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100004&id=621599484&l=b7f8684eb7),
and as a personal friend of the Prime Minister
(http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com/2009/05/time-to-rally-around-madhav-nepal.html,
http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com/2009/05/madhav-nepal-would-be-great-choice.html .... please find attached an email he sent me a few days before he
became Prime Minister), I would like to request five minutes of
speaking time at the Prime Minister's event on the 26th.

Thank you.

As to ANTA, this is what I said to a friend a few days back.

There are more than 3,000 Madhesis in America. Of those less than 100 are members of ANTA. We have to go beyond ANTA to grow Mission Madhes. Can we get 500 members? That is what we need to ask. I urge you to start with making a list of all Madhesis you personally know who are in America, and get them to work on similar lists.

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20 Districts In MPRF's "One Madhes" Republica Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardiya, Banke, Dang, Kapilvastu, Rupandehi, Nawalparasi, Chitwan, Parsa, Bara, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Saptari, Sunsari, Morang and Jhapa.

Paramendra Bhagat
to chitiz
Aug 25

Tekji.

My bio data.

Paramendra Bhagat is president of a digital democracy organization
called Hamro Nepal that has the largest Nepali mailing list in the
world at over 8500 members. He is now working to launch a global
organization called Mission Madhes. He was one of the most active
Obama volunteers in all of New York City in 2007 and 2008. He came to
the US for college in 1996. Within six months of landing he got
himself elected student body president at the number one liberal arts
college in the South, a record in college history. In Nepal before
that he had been Vice General Secretary to the Nepal Samajwadi Janata
Dal that had split from Gajendra Narayan Singh's Sadbhavana. Hridayesh
Tripathy was General Secretary and Rajendra Mahto was a central
committee member. He runs a blog called Democracy For Nepal that you
might have heard of. He worked full time for Nepal's democracy and
Madhesi movements in 2005, 2006 and half of 2007.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 10:52 PM, chitiz tamu wrote:
> Parmendra jee,
>
> I would like to wel-come you from Madhese as a speaker on the topic of "New
> Constitution and Burning Issues of Nepal" on Aug 30, Sunday at 11:30 P.M.
> Yak Restaurant, Jackson Height. Please send me your your bio-data within 5
> to 7 sentences.
>
> Thank You,
> Tek Gurung

Sukhdev Shah And Anti-Madhesi Prejudice

Sukhdev Shah was way ahead of his time in terms of how far he went with his education. But his observation has been that his homevillage looks still the same after half a century.

He was vocal about democracy during the Panchayat era, and he has been vocal about Madhesi rights since democracy in 1990.

He gave so much to the Nepali Congress, but that party did not think him qualified to be the Nepali ambassador to the US back in 1991 or ever after. It took a MJF to make him the offer. He has been qualified this entire time.

I have utmost respect for Sukhdevji. And it is so very unfortunate that a government got toppled and the almost achieved dream of seeing a Madhesi as the Nepali ambassador to the US got dashed.

Image by paramendra via Flickr

Maybe this government will also get toppled in a few months, and an all party government will get formed, and the MJF will come back into power, and perhaps we will see the job done. But right now I am not counting on it.

What most gets me is the strong anti-Madhesi prejudice that the Nepali community in Washington DC expressed upon his nomination.

The prejudice is well and alive. No amount of education or global exposure seems to cure it. If anything, it seems to become stronger.

There is no escaping the struggle. If this generation will not do the work, the next generation will have to. Why pass it on to the next generation?

Image by paramendra via Flickr

For Sukhdev Shah at this stage in life to have to feel the hurt of the prejudice in a locale that has been his home for decades, it is like Ambedkar finally giving up on Hinduism to become a Buddhist. Maybe he should consider becoming an American citizen after all, after having resisted the idea for close to half a century.

The creation of a Madhes state in a federal Nepal is a must for Madhesi liberation.

Most diaspora Madhesis don't admit it, but Sukhdev Shah's experience is also their experience. A lot of them have mastered the art of getting along with Pahadis by either skipping the topic of Madhesi rights, or downright parroting the Pahadi talking points on Madhesi rights issues. I have a name for it. I call it the Mr 1% personality. It is the mindset of those who should be 40% of the room but are only 1% due to ethnic prejudice, and so they figure out a way to survive while being that 1%. That mental slavery exacts a heavy emotional price that many choose to pay. Salvation lies in those Madhesis reaching out to the Madhesi masses in Nepal, because they have the numbers to make a difference.

One word of criticism I would heap Shah's way is that it was Upendra Yadav and the MJF that nominated him, but he immediately started acting like it was the big wig Pahadis like Prachanda, Baburam, maybe even Girija who had authored the idea. We the downtrodden have a hard time accepting Madhesi leadership, and thus contribute to our continued downtrodden status.

Ethnic prejudice is an ideology that has to be defeated. The Madhesis of the world will have to get organized.

• Mission Madhes: Constitution Draft
• Mission Madhes (2)
• Mission Madhes

My quest for ambassadorship Republica Based on the news that filtered through the internet and newspapers, it appeared that the entire Nepali community in Washington was opposed to my nomination. Maybe the silent majority here was positive but none—except one person I can remember, Homraj Acharya, coordinator of Washington-Nepal Group—came out in my support. ....... my wife and I declined to attend the White House State Banquet given by President Reagan in honor of late King Birendra in December of 1982. Afterwards, Dr Bhekh B Thapa—then Ambassador to Washington—started treating me as if I had insulted his father and banned me from embassy functions. ....... the last Panchayat ambassador lobbied hard with the International Monetary Fund that I be fired from my job because of my “political activities”. ....... and have maintained personal contacts with all prominent politicians and leaders .......... I then find it amazing and puzzling why a person of my background would be opposed by this community where I spent most of my adult life and maintained good relations with everyone and all groups. No one had even hinted to me that I was not qualified for the job, that I have not served Nepal’s interests living outside the country and that I was unfit for the job for any specific reason. ....... From the beginning of my nomination, it looked as if the entire Nepali community here had become opposed to my nomination—tooth and nail—citing reasons that were made up, acrimonious and unverified. Otherwise, my nomination and appointment would have been a cause for celebration—that at least one of them had made it to the top and that it would open the way for many others residing outside the country. ....... just one: I am not one of them. ....... This kind of exclusionary politics in Nepal has lasted for many decades and over many generations but Madhesis are now determined to get their fair share of national recognition and claim equal opportunities as citizens.

Perspectives on Maoist debacle

Democracy For Nepal (DFN): Sukhdev Shah: Terai's Fate—Looking Within!
Telegraph Nepal : Nepal's US ambassador designate a US citizen ...
ANTA: Dr. Sukhdev Shah: Downsizing The Monarchy
Making Sense of Nepal's Transition to Republic - Dr. Sukhdev Shah ...

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