Kathmandu, February 20

Chairperson of Tarai Madhes Democratic Party Mahantha Thakur today said if the government does not change its attitude towards the agitating forces, the UDMF will impose a blockade at the Nepal-India border entry points again.

Speaking at an interaction organised by Reporters Club here today, Thakur said the major parties had bypassed the Madhesi forces while adopting the constitution and they made the same mistake while amending the constitution and forming the political mechanism to revise provincial boundaries.

“If the government continues to act with the same mentality, UDMF will convene its meeting and declare harsh protests,” Thakur warned. He accused the government of continuing the policy of repression. “If the government continues to suppress the agitation, declare Tarai areas prohibited zones and clamp curfew, we will impose a blockade at the border entry points,” he said, adding that the UDMF had imposed blockade a few months ago after the government adopted measures to suppress the agitation.

The Madhesi leader said the government had started arresting UDMF cadres and implicating them in false cases.

Thakur said the UDMF had changed its extreme form of protest to a milder form due to adverse climatic conditions.

The UDMF, he added, rejected the political mechanism as it was formed without forging consensus with the front. He, however, said the UDMF would accept the mechanism if it was given constitutional validity and the UDMF’s concerns were incorporated in the terms of reference of the mechanism.

Thakur said there was nothing new in the speeches of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi that they delivered today in New Delhi. “Indian Prime Minister Modi has repeated his previous stance that all stakeholders should be taken on board in Nepal in relation to constitutional issues,” Thakur added.