Defending the Sadbhavana (II)
Paramendra Bhagat
August 3, 2002

I plan to use this space to respond to the responses to my article Defending the Sadbhavana.

Responses to Biswo
• ".....Sadvabana Party , despite its national status, is an opaque organization ....."
  Agreed. But so is every other party. There is no law to make every party divulge their budgets and sources of funding. There ought to be.
• ".....I know more about Masal than Sadvabana....."
  I am surprised. The Sadbhavana is a mainstream party, the fourth largest. Is regularly in news. Maybe, you don't follow them close enough. And most of the Nepali media tend to ignore the party. Bias?
• "..... Sadvabana leaders want to speak in HINDI in KATHMANDU where people speak Newari or Nepali....."
  Once some Newars become prominent within the Sadbhavana, I am sure Newari will also be spoken. But then leaders from all other parties routinely use Nepali in mass meetings in the Terai. Do you know how many Teraiwasis there are in the Kathmandu valley? A ton.
• ".....intraparty squabbling....."
  Ferments within a democratic party?
• ".....faeces feeding of old women in the name of Boksi, and I hear abuse of women re dowry....."
  Valid point: sexism. Women are in South Asia what the blacks were in South Africa under the apartheid regime. The hillsfolks do not fare any better. Property rights anyone!?
• ".....Maarwari community is pretty well off....."
  And that means the majority of the Teraiwasis are not poor!?
• ".....gerrymandering....."
  Yeah, why not have constituencies in the Terai going east to west, or those that are more circular than perpendicular rentangles?
• ".....Terai is getting 90+ seats....."
  50% of Nepal lives in the Terai. That means 103 out of 205 seats ought to be in the Terai.
• ".....his use of derogatory terms to people who were settled in Terai later....."
  Any citizen of Nepal may move to live in any other part of the country. That is what our aim ought to be, legally and socially. So, no, I don't believe only madhesis belong in the Terai. Point of clarification.