Announces Tarai bandh on September 9

Kathmandu, September 2:

A dissident faction of the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum (MJF) led by Bhagyanath Prasad Gupta and Kishor Kumar Bishwas today “suspended” Upendra Yadav, the MJF president, from the group.

The dissidents accused Yadav of giving up the Madhesi issues when he signed a 22-point agreement with the government last Thursday.

The dissident faction said the Yadav-led MJF gave up political, economic, cultural and linguistic issues while signing the agreement.

The faction, in a statement distributed to the media at a press conference here, said it “rejects” and “dismisses” the “so-called agreement,” which was against the “spirit, feelings and dreams of the Madhesi movement for which scores of people sacrificed their lives.”

The Gupta-led MJF has called a bandh in the entire Tarai region on September 9 and other protest programmes from September 6.

“Upendra Yadav has been suspended from the Forum from today for signing the agreement with the government in an illegal, undemocratic, non-transparent and individual manner and without taking the permission and decision of the Forum’s seven-member central secretariat,” the statement, signed by four leaders — Gupta, Biswas, Ram Kumar Sharma and Jitendra Sonal — said.

It also said that the Gupta-led Forum would forge a front of like-minded organisations, political parties and individuals for the cause of the Madhesi people.

The dissident faction has reiterated, among others, the demands for an autonomous region with the right to self-determination, federal democratic republic, end of monarchy and full proportional representation in the constituent assembly election.

The faction demanded that Nepali and Hindi be recognised as national languages for official and education purposes and English as a language for international communication.

The Yadav-led faction of the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum had settled for Nepali as the lingua-franca and official and education languages and for English as a language for international communication.

Besides demanding that those killed in the Madhesh agitation be declared martyrs, the Gupta-led Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum also demanded that the Madhesi people be given “priority” on natural resources, forest, water and land in the Madhes.

The faction has also demanded holding a population census before the assembly election.