Janajati leaders say offer insufficient

Rajbiraj, February 8:

The Jaykrishna Goit faction of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM-Goit) today said that PM Girija Prasad Koirala’s address to the nation yesterday was against the welfare of the Terai people.

Coordinator of the JTMM central ad-hoc committee, Goit, speaking over telephone from an undisclosed location said, “PM’s address is a ploy to keep the people of the Terai in perpetual confusion. There is nothing new in his address.” Goit added, “Except for the difference in words, there is no difference in the message in both addresses.”

“Fixing constituencies on a geographical basis had already been announced and the announcement of a federal system will not be implemented,” Goit said, adding,”JTMM’s demand for a separate Terai state is still the same.”

However, Goit did not say anything about his party’s stand on coming for talks with the government.

Meanwhile, the JTMM (Jwala Singh) said it was still holding a meeting and discussing the PM’s address. “As the meeting is still on, our official view will be made public after it concludes,” central member of the Jwala Singh-led JTMM Bibas Bidrohi said, adding, “The PM’s address is awash with conspiracy.”

In Kathmandu, leaders of the Janajati movement today protested against the PM’s second address to the nation, calling it insufficient in addressing all the demands of the Madhesis and the indigenous people.

Addressing a mass meeting organised in front of Singhadurbar, rights activist Padma Ratna Tuladhar said the government was not yet convinced about “federal state with ethnic autonomy despite deaths of over two dozen Nepalis during two weeks of protests in the Terai”.

He further said that the seven-party alliance leaders and the Maoists lacked ability or interest to understand the ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic reality of the country.

Amresh Narayan Jha, chairman of the Maithil Mahasangh Nepal, said: The Prime Minister did

not address our demands fully, so peaceful protests will continue,” he said. He, however, said it was a political victory of the Madhesis.

Shyam Shrestha, a member of the Civic Movement for Democracy and Peace, said: “Ethnic, linguistic and regional representation will not be proportional if the country does not reject the parallel system of election.”

A rally was organised at Basantapur that converged into the mass meeting in front of Singhadurbar.