Re: federalism - jumping the gun

September 6, 2009

Mr Chiran S Thapa
Naxal, Kathmandu

Dear Chiranjee

What we need is more of interactive discussions like this in order to ensure that we don’t take the country down the Yugoslavia path. I have come to note that aspirations of ethnic federalism whetted by Maoists has started to snowball in the way they didn’t expect (I hope it wasn’t in their design to end up with mayhem in the country by such an action on their part!) but they never meant what Dr Bhattachan is now aggressively propagating and some Newa and other ethnic communities are asking for (evidence of which lies in the fact that Maoists ethnic outfits are headed by people from different ethnic communities, mainly Bahuns).

Affirmative action, that you are recommending, is what we would need for an initial period of 5-10 years, to address problems of this generation. The best antidote for exclusion of future generations lies in providing opportunity to learn (quality education) to all downtrodden at state cost.

However, what is urgently required is to expose people like Dr Bhattachan who has to resort to foul language and unbecoming words to make his point – I am not too sure if he made his point last Thursday, though.

With best regards,


Sincerely,

Ratna Sansar Shrestha, fca
Senior Water Resource Analyst

http:www.ratnasansar.blogspot.com/

-----Original Message-----

From: C.S. Thapa [mailto:cst21@hermes.cam.ac.uk] On Behalf Of C.S. Thapa
Sent: Sunday, September 6, 2009 5:18
To: Ratna Sansar Shrestha
Subject: Re: Fw: Article in Nepali Times # 467

dear Ratnaji,

It appears both from the Forum presentations on Thursday and your article that a common-sense approach would give regional and/or national rights to say the largest ten communities - the Chhetris, the hill Brahmans, the Magars, the Tharus, the Tamangs, the Newars, etc. but require that the "minorities" have affirmative rights not with preferences but with tougher conditions for the majority communities, for example Brahmins and Newars would have to have higher degrees and better academic performance in the national and local civil services and Chhetris would have tougher entry requirements in the National Army - just to cite one way toward mitigation of the problem. The other 49 communities would have local, district or
smaller geopgraphical space commensurate with their population numbers. The country has grown from a population of six million in 1951 to 30 million in about sixty years. some communities provide critical mass for autonomy but this requires collaborative solutions and less confrontational polemics and rights-demanding threats.

Best,

Chiran


On Sep 4 2009, Ratna Sansar Shrestha wrote:

>Jumping the gun
>
>
>Federalism is fraught with potential failure