KATHMANDU: Indigenous-Ethnic-Regional Federation has objected to the 16-point agreement signed by the the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, Unified CPN-Maoist and Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic.

Issuing a press release today, IERF General Secretary Suresh Ale Magar has said that the 16-point agreement has exposed UCPN-M’s false commitment to identity issue. The 16-point deal has completely ignored the aspirations, demands and struggles of marginalised ethnic groups and communities and has weakened the issues of ethnic identity and equal rights, said the press release.

“The NC and the UML were already known as anti-identity forces, and they are the supporters of Brahmanism. But the agreement has also brought the UCPN-M into their fold,” the statement read.

The IERF said the UCPN-M, which had betrayed the revolutionary forces in the past, has finally betrayed the forces that back identity issues. “The UCPN-M has exposed its anti-identity characteristics,” added the release. Terming the 16-point deal ‘an anti-people, anti-identity, Brahmanist and reactionary agreement’, the IERF has said the pact will invite multiple conflicts in the country.

The IERF has called on the proponents of identity and equal rights to protest against the 16-point deal.

Major three political parties — the NC, UML and the UCPN-M — and Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic on Monday had signed a 16-point agreement in a bid to pave the way for the stalled constitution-drafting process. The deal, however, has not gone down well with some forces.

IERF’s objection today comes a day after the United Democratic Madhesi Front, which on Wednesday expelled MJF-Democratic for signing the deal, registered a note of dissent at the Constitutional-Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee of the Constituent Assembly.

Like IERF, UDMF constituents too have said the 16-point deal denies marginalised people their identity rights.