Mahto sees red in China’s influence; says Nepal’s policies should not inspire mistrust in India

Feb 14 2020

New Delhi: Senior political leader of Nepal Rajendra Mahto has expressed concern over increasing Chinese influence in his country, and cautioned the rulers that Nepal’s peace and prosperity lies in good relations with India.

Mahto, who is member of the Rashtriya Janata Party of Nepal(RJP-N) presidium, the leading political party representing the Madhesi people of the Terai region, also expressed worry over what he sees the Himalayan state’s ” slide towards one party rule”, to counter which he calls for creation of a third national alternative, having representation of both Madhesi, hill and all ethnic and tribal groups.

“We want ties of trust with China, a relationship that generates a feeling of security. Nepal’s policies should not give rise to a feeling of threat among its neighbours ” he said in an interaction with journalists here .

Whatever happens in Nepal has a direct bearing in India, so the path taken by our country should not create mistrust with our neighbour, he said.

The veteran Nepali politician, who has also long experience in government, said the measure of Nepali nationalism should not be hatred against India, but that was what was promoted by the royals to remain entrenched in power by creating scare of a big neighbour ready to gobble up a tiny state.

Now, the kingship has been abolished and there was a communist regime in his country, but Mahto feels this experiment would not prove lasting as it is against the grain of his country’s people. ” And if you look at the recent world history, neither capitalism, nor communism nor liberalism have succeeded as a socio-economic model.

Asked what his alternative vision for Nepal was, Mahto said he was for cultural nationalism that was rooted in the dignity of all Nepali people, and an economic system that was based on cooperative production.

For this political and socio-economic transformation, there was the need of an alternative to the Communist regime, Mahto said.

In his view, the Nepali Congress was now a spent force and was beyond revival as it had lost its popular base and was far removed from the ground realities, . ”We in Nepal badly need a third force for which all Madhesi parties and those representing other regions of Nepal should come together.

” My party alone cannot provide this national alternative and therefore we have to take along other groups representing the Madhesi people, like the Samajawadi Party of Nepal, people of the hill region and other ethnic groups. We want this grouping to be nationally representative, otherwise our movement will be branded as ”India-sponsored”, he said

”The communist regime wants us to join the Government, but we wont. We will work for an alternative to it,” Mahto asserted.

There was the need to carry on a concerted fight for an inclusive system in which there was no racial and caste discrimination, in which the Madhesi people were given the same rights and opportunities as were available to the hill people, the RJP leader said.

He termed some provisions of the present Constitution as discriminatory. Earlier, on marriage to a Nepali, an Indian woman would get citizenship immediately and
would get full civil and political rights ten years later, but now they have changed this law

He said there was a very wrong perception that the Hindi speaking Madhesi people had come from India, whereas the fact was that ” we are very much the ‘dharti putra’ (son of the soil),” he said.

—India News Stream