Oct 07 2015
Months After Earthquake, Nepal Experiences Political Upheaval With New Constitution
GUEST: Santosh Giri practiced Constitution Law and Human Rights in Nepal from 1995 through 2005 and came to US to obtain a Masters in Law from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He is also the West Coast coordinator for Bibeksheel, a new political party in Nepal.
*This segment was broadcast online only on Sept. 24, 2015.
After nearly a decade of political struggle, the land-locked South Asian nation of Nepal recently passed a constitution. Nepal’s monarchy, which ruled the country for more than 2 centuries, came to a formal end in 2008, and birthed the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
The country, still reeling from a devastating earthquake in April that killed nearly 10,000 people, passed the new constitution with majority support, but riots and violence marred the celebrations with some groups contending that their rights had been trampled upon. Neighboring India, whose influence over Nepal looms large is also unhappy, worried that the violence will spill into its north.
Nepal has more than a 100 ethnic minorities, and the constitution that lawmakers adopted, will carve the nation of 28 million into 7 provinces.
Find out more at en.leadnepal.com.
4 Responses to “Months After Earthquake, Nepal Experiences Political Upheaval With New Constitution”
what is this Nepalese “festival” that brutally agonizing murders 400,000 innocent animals including water buffalo goats birds Called Gadimai
hare filled slaughter of innocent animals??? This sick slaughter must STOP Nepal!!! Have no sympathy for people who practice this disgusting torture of innocent animals!
I am a big fan of uprising and sonali kohatkar and listen to your 8 am broadcast everyday on KPFA radio. I really appreciate you covering the situation with the constitution in Nepal. I also appreciate santosh ji coming out on kpfa and educating the world about the current situation in Nepal. But this whole interview he did seemed like it came out of privilege. This interview i think could have been more insightful i think if he talked about why the madhesis and women and other minorities are fighting against the constitution in the first place. Just saying that we should be happy that we finally have a constitution and we can make amendments is a statement thats coming out of certain level of privilege. I am also one of those people who has had the privilege my whole life in Nepal. To make it easy we are the equivalent of white people in Nepal and its easy for us to say amendments can be made and we should welcome the constitution. The madhesis and other minorities have been deprived of the privilege the people of pahad(hills) have throughout the history of Nepal. And after all their sacrifices they have made for the 3 revolutions in Nepal to overthrow the monarchy the elites in Nepal promulgated a new constitution which by no means is inclusive enough for the madhesis and women and other minorities in Nepal. They definitely are not going to understand the fact that amendments can be made after being oppressed and treated as second class citizens their whole life. Saying amendments can be made is easy for us who have been privileged and have benefited from this our whole life, so we should make an effort to check our privilege before saying such things. Also i agree that the leaders have been instigating violence in the terai but that doesn’t give us the right to criminalize and blame the whole group of madhesis who are fighting for their basic human rights in their own country. And it would have been really nice if Santosh ji also talked about how the state commited crimes and used violence against peaceful protestors. If he can talk about madhesis instigating violence, he should also talk about state sponsored violence and repression against peaceful protestors. The state decided to shoot its own citizens and killed a number of them while they were exercising their constitutional right to assemble and peacefully protest. Theres two sides to this story. And as a fan of uprising who has always considered this radio show to be a form of an alternative school for me, i would urge Sonali to try to get another side of this story too from a madhesi and a women’s perspective. ThankYou
The tragedy for Nepal is that it is so small and vulnerable,being landlocked and surrounded mostly by India, that the big bully India will always keep toying with it and get it’s way.
Grazie, avevo bisogno di saperlo. buona giornata