NEPAL: MADHESHIS GAIN A STRONGER VOICE IN THE 'NEW' NEPAL.

by Marty Logan

KATHMANDU, Feb. 1, 2007 (IPS/GIN) -- A 12-day uprising by Nepal's madheshi people has forced the revolutionary government to promise it will change the state structure to more fairly distribute power to excluded groups.

The new Nepal will be a federal state instead of the current centralized one and will include more electoral constituencies to reflect recent population growth, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala announced in a televised speech Wednesday.

Madheshis, or plains people, now comprise 36 percent of the population of this South Asian nation bordered by India and China but have held only roughly 15 percent of the seats in recent governments. Women, indigenous people and dalits (so-called "untouchables" under Hindu dogma) are the other excluded groups in this society dominated by upper-caste males.

"We are working on the formation of a new structure of the state, where people from all races, castes and quarters will be represented. All of them will have their responsible roles in building the nation," said Koirala in the speech. He also directed the home minister to hold talks with madheshi protesters.

But such rhetoric is unlikely to satisfy protesting madheshis and other excluded Nepalis. On Jan. 31, groups representing three indigenous nationalities called a three-day general strike in the eastern hills to press their demands for ethnic autonomy and the right to self-determination.

Koirala's speech was burned by activists of political parties in some parts of the plains region, daily newspaper The Himalayan Times reported Thursday. "To say that constituencies will be based on population increase is merely an attempt to mislead the madheshi people," said Bhagya Nath Gupta of the Madheshi People's Rights Forum, the group leading the protests, reported the paper.