KATHMANDU, March 13: The third round of formal talks between the agitating Tharu groups and the government ended late Friday night in a deadlock. The bone of contention was the use of term “Madhes” in the interim constitution. [break]
“We demanded that the term ‘Madhes’ should be replaced with ‘Tarai’ in the Interim Constitution, but they (the government team) weren’t ready to agree on anything less than ‘Tarai-Madhes’,” Laxman Tharu, the leader of the agitating Tharus, told myrepublica.com, after the talks.
The talks concluded at about 11pm, four hours after it started at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction. In the government side were Peace Minister Janardan Sharma and Water Resources Minister Bishnu Poudel (corrected), while the Tharu side saw the participation of Laxman Tharu (leader) of the Tharuhat Joint Struggle Committee, Raj Kumar Lekhi of the Tharu Kalyankari Sabha. Pasang Sherpa of Janajati Federation also participated as an observer from the Tharu side. However, the Muslims National Struggle Committee led by Taj Mohammad Miya, did not turn up for the dialogue.
Laxman Tharu said the government had already agreed to replace the term “Madhes” with ‘Tarai’ on Wednesday. “But the issue was brought out today as well,” he said. “We couldn’t enter into any other issue after the talks were deadlocked on the term ‘Madhes’.” Friday’s talks didn’t enter into Tharus’ demand of proportional reservation in all public services for various ethnic groups on the basis of population. The government has already made it clear that this demand can’t be fulfilled.
Tharu said the his team won´t hold any further negotiation with Peace Minister Sharma. "The next round of talks will be held only with the Prime Minister," he said.
All Madhes-based political parties, of which two (Madhesi People’s Rights Forum and Sadbhavana Party) are in the ruling coalition, are strongly opposed to removing the term “Madhes” from the interim constitution altogether. They are flexible about using the term “Tarai-Madhes” instead.
After the talks, Lekhi said the ongoing stir that has already crippled the life across the country will be more intensified. The agitation which entered the 12th day on Friday, has already seen deaths of two protesters and a policeman. This has caused shortage of essential items in the capital, leading to sky-rocketing of commodities.
It is not clear when the next round of talks will take place.
tilak@myrepublica.com
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