Nepal likely to go to the path of protest and blockade once again!

New Delhi, Oct 10: After a long lull, political crisis in Nepal, the neighbouring country of India, has once again the chances of getting erupted with the main Madhesh political party in the country Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) - Nepal giving ultimatum to Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to withdraw its support if amendment in the constitutions as per its demands are not met with.

The RJP-N has given the government time till Vijaydashmi by saying that support from the government will be withdrawn if amendment in the constitution are not made. There are long pending demands of Madheshis with the government who accused that Madheshis have not been given equal rights in the new constitution of Nepal. They have been demanding amendment in the constitution like change in provision in citizenship certificate, more power to provincial governments, withdrawal of cases against workers of the party and release of RJP-N Member of Parliament Resham Choudhary.

Sanjeev Rai, Adjunct Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), who is also an expert on international conflict zones, told Oneindia, "Actually the situation in Nepal is not very leisurely. There is a catch 22 kind of situation in Nepal for the political leadership as a whole and Madheshi leadership in particular because they cannot take the blame of not being forthcoming in the development process of Nepal along with the rest of the leadership of the country and also in the best interest of the country but at the same time they want to keep their Madheshi support base intact. So sometime they would be by the side of the government and sometimes they will keep raising the issue of Madhesies."

Meanwhile, the RJP-N handed over a memorandum to the Prime Minister of Nepal to fulfill the demands made by the party. Besides that all district convenors of the party have handed over memorandum to chief district officer which has demands like constitutional amendment, release of Resham Choudhary, release of other party workers and withdrawal of cases against them. The RJP-N is saying that this is the last warning to the government and the government has the time till Vijaydashmi. Once the deadline is over, the Madheshi organisations will start their movement once again.

But people involved with the policy matters look at it differently. "There is a policy dilemma on part of the government of India as India has very close relations with the Madhes community but power lies with people belonging to hill areas. So there is a perpetual confusion on part of the Indian government what to do and how to handle the issue. Moreover the Indian government cannot handle the issue with toughness. It needs soft approach else they will go to China which would really be a big concern fort the government," Durga Nand Jha, Executive Chairman, Centre for Policy Analysis, told Oneindia.

Madheshi political parties that claim to represent the interest of people belonging to Tarai region are mostly of India origin. They say that after the new constitution of Nepal was adopted and state was divided into seven provinces, people belonging to Madhesi community were at the receiving end and the situation remains more or less the same for the community. This has angered the RJP-N and they have threatened the government to withdraw the support.

Rai further said, "Such contradiction are likely to continue as aspirations of people are high and the country is underdeveloped with limited resources. Some people have not yet come out of the mindset of the Monarchy. Such contradictions will continue for some more time till the growth of the country is streamlined but for that leaders will have to act wisely."