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Nepal still struggles with democracy as grievances remain

A year after the return of democratic rule to Nepal, the scene in parliament went something like this: No sooner had it officially opened for business last Monday afternoon, nearly six hours past schedule and with the benches barely filled to quorum, than some parliamentarians rushed the dais, raising fists and shouting slogans to protest a police crackdown in the southeast early this year.

The speaker's pleas for them to return to their seats were ignored. Within 10 minutes, unable to do any legislative work, parliament was adjourned. It was the third such useless session in less than two weeks.

The scene represented much more than the routine fracas of democracy. It was a snapshot of the new, though not entirely unexpected, fissures that have cut through Nepal's body politic, as it struggles to recover from more than a decade of Maoist insurgency and redefine the very ground rules of its nationhood.

The divisions stem from old, unresolved grievances over how Nepal's many ethnic groups, castes and language minorities will be treated by the state, long dominated by members of the upper-caste elite from the hills. The parliamentarians who raised the ruckus represented the people of the southeastern plains, known here as Madhesis, who had staged an uprising that the police quashed.

The politicians, who now include the Maoists, who have joined the Cabinet, have been caught off guard by the ferocity of the complaints.

"We are in an awkward position," said Ram Chandra Poudel, the beleaguered minister for peace and reconstruction, last Monday, adding that he had not expected to face so many grievances from so many quarters, so soon after the restoration of democracy.

"These demands may be genuine, but these demands should not come out so aggressively," he said.

As if on cue, the next day a particularly aggressive show of frustration against the government occurred. When Poudel tried to speak at a rally to commemorate the anniversary of democratic rule in a public square in this capital, he was hit by empty water bottles and booed.

Ambling through the public square in matching gray tracksuits were members of the Maoists' latest subsidiary, a pack of young men and women known as the Young Communist League and led by former guerrillas. They said they had been assigned to provide security.

A critical issue remains unresolved in the new Nepal, and it is the root of widespread public frustration: whether and how Nepal will become a federal state with some degree of autonomy for its ethnic groups and regions.

Nepal seems to be in no immediate danger of sliding into prolonged ethnic conflict. But the questions that confront Nepal are nothing short of existential.

"What is the new Nepal? What does it mean to be a Nepali? That's absolutely what's being debated," said Manjushree Thapa, a writer.
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