ADDRESS AGITATION
The Kathmandu Post
10
November 2015
ADDRESS AGITATION
It was encouraging to see that the Madhes based
political parties have started attending the Parliamentary session. They have now
decided to protest against the demarcation of federal states on the streets and
in the Parliament (“Morcha obstruct House after its address” 9 Nov. Page 1).
Most of the Madhes and tarai districts have remained closed due to the
agitation for almost three months now due to the protest and their grievances
needs to be addressed by the government.
Why did the big three political parties –Nepali
Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) - not address the demands put forward by
the agitating parties immediately? They did not have any problem in altering their
decision of federating the country from six to seven states soon after the
people from the hilly districts protested on the streets. Now, that a new
government has been formed, the ruling parties should be serious about resolving
the current crisis through sincere dialogue with the agitating parties..
The ruling parties should take the
agitating parties’ return to Parliament positively and engage them in positive
and fruitful dialogue (“It takes two to tango” 9 Nov. Page 6). However, going
by the working style of Prime Minister Oli, it does not seem that the ongoing
political crisis will end anytime soon. He is still expanding his cabinet even
after appointing six deputy prime ministers. He was not even able to convince
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ease the undeclared trade blockade.
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj.
