Voice of Madhesi Activists: Challenging the status quo of the dominant civil actors!

1. Voice of Madhesi Activists: Challenging the status quo of the dominant civil actors! Dipendra Jha-Advocate Chairperson: Tarai Human Rights Defenders Alliance (THRD Alliance)

2. Contents • Introduction • Conflict background • Hill-tarai gap • Client-Patron Relationship • HR situation and threat to HRDs in Tarai • EJK short movie • Disconnection with social realities • Conclusion THRD Alliance

3. Introduction • The ethnic-caste nexus, client-patron tradition and extreme political polarization limited resources access • Seven to eight percent mainstreaming civic actors have a simple theory of ki ta hamra ki naramra • Madhesi are in semi-colonial status and they have to deal with hegemonic homogeneous identity of Nepali nationalism • Thus, my paper questions the exclusivist Kathmandu centric civic approach THRD Alliance

4. Conflict Background • The Maoists conflict tapped Madhesi landless, youth, Dalit, and excluded castes in Tarai to fight against landlords • Learning form the Maoists' insurgency, many armed groups with JTMM in the lead started armed movement in Tarai since 2004 • The foundation that created violence to be legitimized is primarily influenced by identity crisis and exclusion from the state structure • Madhes Movement: 22-point agreement, 8 points and latest 4 points have been signed( but psychological, emotional, intentional biasness remain the same) • 7 points agreement fails to incorporate even a single agenda included in the four point THRD Alliance

5. Hill-Tarai Gap • There is a pre-convinced notion among Kathmandu based civil society and rights activists that the social actors having Madhesi identity are closer to the armed groups, promoter of separatism and a RAW agent • By birth Madhesi activists are ‘unpatriotic’ and 'friends of armed groups‘ • Kavre killings- national agenda whereas Mahottari killings-Madhesi • Madhesi activists have to prove their loyalty every times by condemning violence more loudly, ensure loyalty and have to defame other Madhesi activists to appease for resource access • Otherwise, the door of resource could be blocked at anytime by the mainstreaming actors who serve as a client to the donors • Donors only see those pictures and problems; the mainstreaming actors want to show them. THRD Alliance

6. Continue… • The resource access is limited by structures that are either based on family ties, ideological bond or ethnic identity. • This is as a powerful weapon to limit resources and opportunities within few hill elites • To fashion the inclusiveness, the Kathmandu based civil society organizations often include ‘a show piece Madhesi ’ symbolic member • The bridging of gap depends upon to what extent the dominant civil society organizations would be ready to share power with the social organizations lead by Madhesi • Giving a proportional staking to the powerless can be a cause to delegitimize the status quo enjoyed by the hill centric civil elites THRD Alliance

7. The Client-Patron Relationship • Donors have manufactured a strong channel of patrons among high-profiled civil elites, mostly Bahuns having hill origin • Generally, the funds are channeled either through their patrons or on their recommendation • Secondly, the dominating hill high caste elites have the same patron of clientelism functioning at the district and community levels • These two ways of patron-client relationships are the dominant feature of donor’s funding to civil society • Mafiaed resources within ‘a thin layer of hill centric wealthy beneficiaries’ marginalizing a large portion of people • The intention of donors to channel funding through self-serving elites is, somehow, guided by the notion of underpinning liberal agendas, as the centrists’ civil actors connect donors’ interests with the powerful political leaders. THRD Alliance

8. Continue…. • The para-jumping approach of NGOs activities by outsiders in collaboration with the Kathmandu based hill elites has, so far, failed in Madhes • More responsive to donors than to beneficiaries. • One explanation for this failure is outsiders’ lack of knowledge about local values, culture, languages, social capital and practices • Locals Madhesi are suspicious of outsiders’ objectives, intervention, conditionality, and coercion • IGOs and INGOs should reconceptualise themselves as interlocutors and facilitators – not seeing locals as passive recipients or obstacles THRD Alliance

9. HR Situation THRD Alliance

10. Continue…. • Over 256 killings took place since 2008 • No taskforce to investigate killings in Tarai has been formed yet though Madhesi Morcha forwarded it as demand in 10 points • A total 790 youths have been charged under the Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1962 • '4.6 New programmes would be undertaken to improve the security of the Tarai Madhes. The misuse of the law by the semi-judicial agencies will be curbed by revising the Arms related laws' 4 points agreement between the UCPN-M – Madhesi Front • HRDs face racial discrimination, threats from the security agencies and armed groups, psychological fear and physical threats • Mainstreaming actors in Kathmandu use all methods of persuasion, pressure, coercion, power and manipulation to weaken the Madhesi activists THRD Alliance

11. Conclusion • The top-down fund distribution is problematic. • Kathmandu based civil society elite acting as gatekeepers exclude Madhesi social actors • The outsider tends to forget the diversity and gaping disparity in power • The status of the Madhesi social activist has to be transformed from 'users', and 'takers' to 'makers' and 'shapers‘ Thanks THRD Alliance