Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala went on the air for the second time in a week to address the nation with a view to “fully addressing” the demands of the Madhesis agitating in some half a dozen districts of central and eastern Terai. The first address impressed neither the agitators, who kept up their violent protests, nor the Maoists and other SPA partners, who then put pressure on the PM to do more. The second address is more specific and clearer and speaks highly of the contribution of the Madhesis to the nation and democracy, and enjoys the support of the SPA and the Maoists. Accordingly, the Terai will have elective seats in proportion to its share of the total population, under both first-past-the-post and proportional representation systems. The country will have a federal structure too. Besides, the PM has pledged “proportional inclusion in state structures” of Madhesis, Dalits, aborigines, Janajatis, women, workers, peasants, backward classes and regions.

These meet the three principal demands of the agitators — federal structure, proportional representation, and the allocation of elective seats according to population. Furthermore, the government has already formed a three-member talks team headed by senior minister Mahanta Thakur to hold a dialogue with those groups which think they have genuine grievances to be redressed. This leaves no further justification for continuing the agitation, as the Terai will now account for 49 per cent of the seats in the Constituent Assembly (CA). Any group or region which may have more grievances should now send such representatives to the CA as would effectively push its agenda. But it is also a moot point whether in the face of the forthcoming CA polls, the Prime Minister should have promised things such as federalism in the first place. In all likelihood, what the eight parties agree on now will get through the CA. There is, though, a possibility, however remote, that the elected representatives may decide otherwise, by adopting a unitary system, for instance.

The interim Prime Minister’s commitment cannot be binding on the CA, which is conceived as a sovereign entity. While the country has decided to settle all disputes through the democratic process in the CA, if any group continues violent protests, its intentions at once become suspect. There are domestic regressive forces and arguably certain foreign factors that are out to disrupt the CA elections. Any agitation at this juncture on issues which the CA alone can decide on a long-term basis may well be suspected of playing, wittingly or otherwise, into their hands. Almost every political force in the country, and undoubtedly the eight political parties, stand for ending all forms of discrimination. Most of those who have sympathised with the Madhesi cause have also suspected regressive and external infiltration into the present agitation. Those who are overtly spearheading the violent protests should think that any activity aimed at disrupting the normal public life now will only serve to strengthen these doubts.