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Conference
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Participants
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Summary
Thursday, April 24
Summary
Friday, April 25
Summary,
Saturday, April 26
Krishna Bhattachan/Expected model and process
of inclusive democracy in Nepal
Krishna
Bhattachan presented a model of inclusive democracy
in Nepal and the expected process leading up to
it. Studying the historical processes that have
led to the present make up of the Nepali state,
which is seen as exclusionary by a vast number
of people, Bhattachan argued that if bahunbaad,
the dominance of Bahun-Chhetris in every aspect
of political, economic and social life, is not
rectified, Nepal will have to deal with multiple
insurgencies. The model that Bhattachan proposed
addresses the exclusionary character of the Nepali
state, with a view to making it inclusionary.
It was built from various reports of the expectations
of leaders, activists and scholars from the marginalised
peoples and the mainstream as reported in the
media. The experiences of other countries were
also a resource to draw on while building the
model.
Identifying
bahunbaad as the major ideological fault line,
in the past and in the present, Bhattachan described
the many ways in which Bahun-Chhetris from the
midhills of Nepal have exercised their domination
in shaping Nepal. He also criticised the group
for its hypocrisy, further undermining its legitimacy
to control affairs of the state. Giving the example
of liquor consumption which has come to be associated
in a denigrative sense with the lower castes and
ethnic groups because of public condemnation by
Bahuns, Bhattachan said that bahuns themselves
consume it in copious quantities in private. During
the Panchayat era, the main playing fields of
bahunbaad were the sites of the marginalised (such
as liquor). Because of bahunbaad, the politics
of a ‘rainbow culture’ were never
allowed to take off in Nepal, which is multicultural,
multiethnic, multilingual and multi-religious.
This is because Bahun and Chhetri men monopolised
power and knowledge at the expense of dalits,
non-Hindus, madhesis and women, and developed
entrenched interests in the perpetuation of their
dominance.
Bhattachan’s
model described eight elements, four structural
and four procedural. The, model, he stressed,
must be taken as an organic whole, to be implemented
in its entirety. He proposed a federal state,
with the federal units configured through a multi-pronged
approach, using distinctions of hill and mountain,
or tarai and madhes, and region in different parts
of the country.
He contested that the exercise of grassroots democracy,
the right to self-determination and affirmative
action (remedial and preferential), accompanied
by proportional representation and federalism
would lead to the disintegration of the country,
as is alleged by Bahuns. He dismissed as baseless
fears, for example, that the madhes would merge
with India if devolution was effected, stressing
on the economic unviability of such a move for
the people of madhes, and the strong Nepali identity
among the madhesis. Contesting bahunbaad and its
assertion that changing the political structures
of the country would lead to the collapse of Nepal,
Bhattachan argued that a model of federalism was
needed to avert precisely that. Inclusive democracy
was the only way Nepal could steer away from repeated
conflicts.
Conference
|| Programme
|| Circular ||
Participants
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Summary
Thursday, April 24
Summary
Friday, April 25
Summary,
Saturday, April 26
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