Nepal: Back to the precipice

Nepal has teetered on the brink of the election-or-no-election ledge for the last two months. Twice postponed, the elections for the Constituent Assembly, scheduled for 10 April, hang fire as we go to press. This is largely due to the challenge of the 'Madhes', the amorphous term used to denote a non-ethnic, caste-based plains identity that ropes in a large part of the eastern Nepali Tarai plains.

The assertion of Madhesi identity, long denied by the hill-centric Kathmandu establishment, suddenly invaded the national consciousness with the Madhes Movement of last winter. It was a movement driven by the fear of the people of plains origin that they would not get proper representation at the Constituent Assembly polls. Energised by the perceived weakness of the Nepali Congress and the Maoists in the Tarai, new political groupings began simultaneously to compete and collaborate in an effort to represent the Madhesi people. These groups, bent on building a base in the little time available, adopted ultra-populist rhetoric that has heightened agitation to an unprecedented level. The reluctance to go to the April polls was not lost on observers, and was evident in the reliance on public rhetoric, each leader making pronouncements more dire than the other. The leaders also seemed hemmed in by the presence of militant groups working mayhm from across the open border in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, including targeted killings in a clear attempt to foster a hill-plains communal divide.