RJPN draws govt’s attention to make public probe report on Madhes movement

KATHMANDU, May 20: Rashtriya Janata Party Nepal on Monday drew the attention of the government to make public a report prepared by former justice Girish Chandra Lal on the rights violations during the 2015-16 Madhes protests.

Speaking during the Parliament session, RJPN lawmaker Chanda Chaudhary urged the government to make public the report.

“We have been asking the government to make the report public for long. However, it has not made public the report despite the instruction from the parliament speaker,” she said.

The RJPN lawmakers started protesting the government for not making public the report as soon as the House session began today. Then after, Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara gave the floor to RJPN lawmaker Chaudhary.

 “I think the government has already taken the note on this issue and it will come up with answers for not making public the report after some time. As you know all that my attention has already been drawn on this issue,” Mahara said on the occasion.

The insistence of the RJPN to publicize the report has raised questions from various quarters. In fact, the governments formed after the political change of 2006 never made public the reports produced by such commissions.

The RJPN began piling pressure on the government to make the report public mainly after its lawmaker Resham Chaudhary, who was convicted in the 2015 Tikapur massacre and has been serving a life term, was sworn in as a member of the House of Representatives in January 2019. 

Chaudhary was elected to the lower house from the same district while still on the run after the incident. His party has been demanding amnesty for him arguing that Tikapur incident was part of a ‘political movement’.

Seven security personnel including a Senior Superintendent of Police and a toddler were killed by local protestors in Tikapur of Kailali district in August 2015. Police have gathered evidence that Chaudhary had masterminded the incident.

Following pressure from Madhes-based parties, the then government had formed the high-level commission led by Lal in September 2016 to probe human rights violations committed in the course of the Madhes movement in the run up to the promulgation of the constitution. The commission submitted its report to the government in December 2017.