Nawalparasi, June 20

Tarai Madhes Democratic Party Chairman Mahantha Thakur today said Nepal cannot be a country for a single community.

Speaking at the party’s first general convention that kicked off in Nawalparasi headquarters today, Thakur demanded that the Madhesi people be proportionally represented in all state bodies.

He argued that the reign of a single ethnic group had robbed citizens of other communities of the feeling of ownership of the nation.

Stating that Nepal had just two indigenous communities the Madhesis and other ethnic groups, Thakur flayed the emergence of Khas as another indigenous community in the country. He also claimed that the Tarai belonged to the Madhesis.

“We want an autonomous Tarai-Madhes,” Thakur demanded.

Thakur accused the government of deceiving the United Democratic Madhesi Front by holding a series of meaningless talks. He said that the party would begin picketing outside Singha Durbar in Kathmandu unless their demands were met.

Thakur said that the party would not tolerate the internal colonisation of Madhes.

“We were betrayed when provisions of proportional representation and citizenship, included in the Interim Statute, were left out in the new statute,” Thakur added.

At the programme, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba said that his party would work to eliminate the discrimination prevalent in the Tarai. He pledged that he would fight to give those killed during the Madhes agitation the status of martyr.