Kathmandu, December 24:

A meeting of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) today decided to burn copies of the interim constitution here tomorrow.

The two-day meeting held under the chairmanship of the organisation’s officiating general secretary Lucky Sherpa also decided to submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, expressing serious dissatisfaction over the interim constitution tomorrow morning. “The meeting decided to take to the streets after the state remained indifferent to the issues of indigenous nationalities who comprise some 40 per cent of the total population,” said Sherpa. “The meeting decided to organise a half-an-hour Chakkajam at Maitighar Mandala at 3 pm before burning the copies of the interim constitution.”

The meeting formed Indigenous Nationalities Rights Struggle Committee-2006 that includes the Indigenous Nationalities Joint Struggle Committee, Interim Constitution Concern Committee, Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities Students, Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities Women and Association of Nepalese Indigenous Nationalities Journalists. The NEFIN would lead the protest programme.

“We will extend the protest programmes to the districts if the government remains indifferent to our demands,” Sherpa said.

The NEFIN, an umbrella body of all organisations of the indigenous nationalities, said the interim constitution has failed to include all the issues raised by it, including federal loktantrik republic on the basis of ethnic autonomy. “The interim constitution has banned political parties on the basis of ethnicity, which will not allow indigenous nationalities to take lead in political activities, and all the national languages have been discriminated by providing special rights to Nepali language,” she said.

She also opposed the appointment of Biswonath Upadhyay in the post of chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, accusing him of advocating against the rights of the indigenous communities. “We, therefore, demand the government to annul the decision to appoint Upadhyay as NHRC chief,” Sherpa said.