KATHMANDU – Despite their announcement to the formation of a new political party on the occasion of the World Indigenous Day, the indigenous nationalities leaders only made public the party’s manifesto in the capital today after the leaders themselves were divided over the formation of the new political force.
Only a manifesto of the proposed Social Democratic Pluri-National Party (SDPNP) was unveiled though media persons were invited by the new political force formation taskforce to report the formation of a new political party.
A conference of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) held last month had proposed for the formation of a new political force with a view to meeting the expectations of marginalized communities. But, this could not be materialized as the leaders of the indigenous nationalities communities were not united over the issue.
Coordinator of the Taskforce, Dr Chaitanya Subba said that the new political party would be formed till October 1 by holding intensive discussions with leaders of different political parties and at the local level as well.
Subba said the proposed manifesto would be taken to the public for discussion and clear roadmap would be prepared after discussions.
Another member of the Taskforce, Dr Krishna Bhattachan said that the proposed party would be based on pluri-nationalism, social democracy and principles of indigenous. He also added that the issues of indigenous, Dalits, Madhesis, Muslims, women and physically challenged would be taken into consideration for the formation of the party.
“New political party was necessary as the regime controlled by so-called high castes was making the condition of poor, have-nots, peasants, landless and other marginalized worse from bad instead of working for their welfare,” Bhattachan, a staunch defender of indigenous nationalities communities said.
The manifesto has accused that the ‘high caste monopolists’ were against ethnic-identity based federalism, right to self-determination and ethnic and regional autonomy, and were against the aspirations of every movements.
The manifesto has stated that the Nepali Congress has failed to give anything to the people except establishing monopoly of so-called high caste and strengthening them.
Similarly, the UCPN-Maoist party that remained at the helm of power at the cost of 17,000 people’s lives and displacement of 40,000 families also failed to give anything other than frustration to the oppressed and marginalized communities after its split.
However, indigenous leaders of the CPN (UML) including Vice-Chairman Ashok Rai and Prithvi Subba Gurung, Indra Bahadur Gurung and Jip Tshering Sherpa, Suresh Ale Magar of CPN (Maoist), Chairman of NEFIN Raj Kumar Lekhi and some other influential leaders from the indigenous communities did not turn up at the programme.
However, member of the Constituent Assembly from the CPN (UML) Pasang Sherpa said that agreement with top leaders was made on Wednesday only to make public the party’s manifesto for now. RSS