The current round of violence and tension with curfew imposed in certain areas coincides with what looks like a series of half-hearted negotiations between the government and UDMF in Kathmandu.
indianexpress.com
Yubaraj Ghimire
November 23, 2015
Ethnic Madhesi protesters stand near smoke from a tire set on fire by them, as Nepalese policemen stand guard near the Central Development Office at Birgunj, a town on the border with India. (AP Photo/Jiyalal Sah)
The United Democratic Madhesis Front (UMDF) that spearheads the movement and protests for greater representation and power to Tarai, had announced last week that ambulances and vehicles transporting medicines would be free to move around in areas of the bandh. Over the next two days, two ambulances with patients and a vehicle carrying medicines were vandalised and torched in Morang and Birgunj areas along the Indian border.
Early Sunday, police fired at different points along the highway in eastern Tarai’s Saptari district as protesters targeted trucks that were ferrying goods through the ‘bandh zone’. The death toll during the protests in Tarai, in the last 63-days strike has crossed 50 now. This figure includes eight policemen and one child who were targeted by the crowd in western Nepali’s Kailali district.
The current round of violence and tension with curfew imposed in certain areas coincides with what looks like a series of half-hearted negotiations between the government and UDMF in Kathmandu. The ongoing blockade of Raxaul — a key transit point to Nepal from India — in solidarity with the Front’s demands has led to an acute shortage of petroleum products, medicines and other essential commodities in Nepal. India is blamed for using this as an excuse to stop regular supply of goods to Nepal.
On Wednesday, Indian ambassador Ranjit Rae hosted a lunch-cum -interaction with a few prominent pro-movement leaders, doctors, ex-diplomats as well as Baburam Bhattarai, a former Prime Minister turned crusader for Madhesi rights. Simultaneously, the UMDF lifted the embargo on the movement of ambulances and medicine-carrying trucks, but within two days there were attacks on vehicles by its supporters.
The government has been no less ruthless. It opened fire on protestors killing four pushing any solution to the Madhesi issue further away. India has officially said it wants Nepal to deal with the Madhesi agitation politically but somehow, Nepali politicians in power and in the opposition are ignoring the need for accountability, be it in governance or on the roads during the agitation.
Bhattarai, in the meantime, has announced that he would form a third force promising justice to Tarai. However, he has lost credibility– like most of those who have occupied the Chief Executive Officer’s chair in the past ten years. A Tarai aflame with the agitation, choking supply lines to the capital and other parts of the country, will have a bearing on domestic politics and Nepal’s relations with its neighbours, but it is difficult to predict the course and consequences at the moment with developments taking the conflict forward almost every day.
