Madhesi CA members throw weight behind VP Jha; student protests continue
Even as protests continued across the country against the swearing of Vice President Parmananda Jha in Hindi language, Constituent Assembly (CA) members from Madhesi parties have thrown their weight behind the Vice President.
Speaking during Sunday's CA meeting, leaders of the main three Madhesi parties - Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party (TMLP) and Sadbhawana Party (SP) - insisted that the Vice President made no mistake by taking oath in Hindi language as Hindi is a mother tongue of hundreds of thousands of Madhesis.
MJF coordinator and CA member Upendra Yadav described the ongoing protests against Jha's swearing in Hindi as inopportune and unacceptable. He accused the protesters of having warped sense of patriotism and claimed that the protests were being fueled deliberately.
Madhesis, Yadav said, will continue their struggle against cultural and linguistic identity.
Similarly, addressing the assembly, TMLP's Hridayesh Tripathi maintained that the Vice President's swearing in Hindi was a non-issue.
Speaking in Hindi, the TMLP leader, too, said that there was nothing objectionable in taking oath in Hindi because of the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of people in Terai whose month tongue is Hindi.
Sadbhawana chairman Rajendra Mahato also spoke on the same line, urging the parties to ask their student wings to stop the protests.
The Madhesi leaders' reactions came in the wake of continued street protests against the Vice-President. Eight student organisations affiliated with various parties including the three main parties - CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and UML - staged demonstrations in Kathmandu and outside. Activists of indigenous Tharu community and Chure Bhawar Ekata Party have also joined the protests in a number of Terai districts.
The protesters have demanded that the VP apologise for violating the constitutional provision and hurting the sentiment of Nepali people.
Meanwhile, Nepal Bar Association (NBA), the umbrella organisation of lawyers in Nepal, in a statement today described Jha's swearing in Hindi as unconstitutional. The Bar also called for public apology from the Vice President, urging him to take oath again, in Nepali language
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