Lately, I have been contemplating about dalit issues and their future in the new Nepal, and I am haunted by the thought of dalit-issues or causes being forced to disappear in the thickness of buzzwords like equality, proportional representation, justice etc. The reason I am worried is that through out the history of Nepal, dalits have been given just lip services of nice sounding words and promises but no concrete results. That has been the modus oprandi of all the past governments whether it was Panchayat, Nepali Congress or Communist governments. Generally speaking, Dalit status in Nepal has not undergone any perceivable change. Educational, economical or employment disparity between dalits and brahmins or any other ethnic group for that matter is rather staggering. Remember this disparity has been at work even before Nepal became what we call Nepal, some time 240 years ago.

Maoist government no doubt have been instumental in showing signs of forming an inclusive government at least in spirit, with almost 50 members elected/selected from dalit community for the constitutional assembly, however, they have no minister from dalit community inducted in their own cabinet. In a recent visit in the NYC to attend the 63rd UN General assembly the PM Prachanda, touted over the diverse group of Nepalese being represented in the constitutional assembly and the current cabinet, and that Nepal has set the bar high when it comes to female representation. He stressed that Nepal will solve Nepalese problems in Nepali way so that the world will one day use Nepal as a model. However, amidst such positive indicators I want to warn the dalit community and its leaderships to be extremely cautious and must not start celebrating yet. I want to remind them the story of “macha macha bhyaguta” .

In a private meeting with the PM in NYC, I personally asked the PM for a formal state apology to dalits to be declared by the Government in order to legitimize the dalit issue in the New Nepal and he offered NO ANSWER. Instead, he likened dalit plight to a cultural phenomenon which will take a long time to go away. Such statements simply remind me of maintaining the “parampara” according to the Mulki Ain. He then went on to say that in the new Nepal dalit should be offered compensation package of some sort (no details) rather than establishing a reservation systems modeled after India or the USA for the upliftment their discriminated class. His argument was that the system of reservation has ” the smell of satisfying a beggar” and the system of compensation has the smell of dignity. While I accept the “smell” factor associated with reservation system, however, in the lack of any details of compensation system I am forced to raise doubts. Reservation system has effectively been at work in
India and the USA for long time, and has brought staggering changes in the lives and status of discriminated class of these country. One of the reasons why reservation system has been successful in these countries is because the governments of these countries are proactive in discrimination issues. They have developed strict laws to protect dalits or discriminated class’ rights and enforced them with serious consequences if violated– it particularly so at least in the USA if not entirely in India. So, considering the history of Nepal, dalit intellectuals must be vary wary of such beautiful sounding words like equality or justice and start celebrating. We will have to monitor the government’s commitment on our issues. As far as compensation package is concerned we must demand the new government to provide details and give us a road map to achieve equality or justice which the new government so proudly touts. To give dalit their dignity back, Maoist led political revolution in Nepal is just not enough. It will require cultural and psychological revolutions. If Maoists are the true followers of the supreme leader Mao Zedong of China, then bring about a real cultural revolution also. In my opinion depending on the temporal factors to solve the cultural problems is like passing the buck and maintaining the Mulki Aine laws of Panchayat system. The reason I believe so is because people in general do not give up their culture if it provides them a lot of benefit in their economical and political life. Caste system offers a serious economical and political cache to privileged class of Nepal. There is no incentive for them change. They need to be forced to change through strict laws and their enforcements. China is presently reaping the fruits of Mao’s cultural and political revolution in form of economical and political success in the world arena. They achieved this, because they did not depend on the temporal factors to solve their problems but because the government of China was and is proactive in social, cultural, and political life of the society. The new Nepal must start the new Nepal with a healthy dose of enforcement of laws in its true sense. This will awaken, condition and prepare the people of Nepal for the future society where equality and justice for all truly mean something tangible.

RKS