The second constituent assembly election was truly a referendum on ethnicity based agenda. Nepalese people including those living in Terai had overwhelmingly voted against it. Unfortunately, this issue is again being raised. Very recently this issue has been mixed up with Indian undeclared blockade on Nepal.

Undeclared Blockade

The recent  undeclared  Indian blockade on Nepal is bound to have widespread political and economical ramifications.  Most importantly, the existing extremely cordial relationship between Nepal and India is going to suffer a  serious setback . It might take quite some time to completely repair this damage.

Prime-minister Modi

Present Indian  Prime-minister Modi  is  revered by all Nepalese  as the world’s greatest statesman and also our country’s most trustworthy friend. He is extremely popular in our country. He had completely won the hearts and minds of all  Nepali people  even after his first visit to Nepal, which was his first official visit to a foreign country after he took office  following his historic election victory.  The promptness he had shown  in extending assistance to Nepal in the aftermath of recent earthquakes had further bolster his popularity in Nepal.

Inhuman Treatment

Unfortunately, the  recent blockade incidence has helped to smear the extremely friendly image of India in the mind of ordinary Nepalese people, who  are affected the most by the blockade.  The  blockade  on Nepal has deeply hurt every Nepali citizen. Whole country  is completely paralyzed.  Almost all schools, colleges, offices and even hospitals  are virtually closed. Only very few vehicles  are plying on the streets. Many could not even cook their foods due to   unavailability of  cooking  oil and  gas. Nobody had expected such a draconian inhuman treatment  of Nepalese people.

Indian Denial

Highest Indian authorities claim that Indian government has not imposed blockade on Nepal.  According to official version of the Indian government the agitating Terai based political parties demanding subdivision of provincial boundaries on ethnicity basis have set up blockades on all highways connecting Nepal with India completely disrupting the flow of goods from India into Nepal and vice versa.

In reality even those highways interconnecting between our two countries unaffected by the Terai based agitating parties have also been blockaded. In case of highways affected by agitation the actual blockade is on Indian side of the border. Agitating crowds assembled on Indian side of border  are seen pelting stones at security personnel on Nepalese side of the border in order to prevent the flow of traffic. Unfortunately, Indian border security personnel are seen showing complete indifference to it.  

 Dissolution of Constituent Assembly

Maoist party led government along with Terai and Hill based political parties strongly committed to introduce ethnicity based constitution failed to muster enough support to adopt ethnicity based new constitution. The government dissolved the assembly to hold  second assembly election to seek overwhelming fresh mandate needed  to adopt their ethnicity based agenda. The election was truly going to be a referendum on their ethnicity based agenda. To great surprise of many the outcome of the  second  assembly election was a massacre of Maoist and its allied parties for their ethnicity based agenda.

Referendum on Ethnicity Based Agenda

Maoist and madhese parties committed to introduce their ethnicity agenda  were completely defeated in the election. The Maoist party, which had the largest number of seats in the last assembly was  squeezed  to third position far behind the parties occupying first and second position in term of  number of seats in newly elected assembly. Madhese parties, which are entirely based in Terai, suffered the most humiliating defeat. Their strength in the newly elected assembly was sharply reduced to few seats.  Even hill region parties advocating ethnicity agenda equally suffered  humiliating defeat.

The political parties opposing ethnicity based agenda won by a landslide. They won more than two third seats in the assembly.  Thus the ethnicity based agenda was completely rejected by the people..

Terai Agitation

In pursuant  to the  wishes expressed by the voters in the recent assembly election the Maoist party has given up for the time being its ethnicity based agenda.   Unfortunately, some of the Terai based parties are still clinging to their ethnicity based agenda despite the fact that people had overwhelmingly voted against it in second assembly election.