Budget deferred till Friday to court Madhesi leaders

KATHMANDU, July 15: The government has deferred presentation of the budget by a day at the last minute as Madhes-based political parties threatened to obstruct House proceedings if their demands were not addressed.

Leaders from the major ruling parties -- CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) -- and the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) opted to postpone the scheduled program under an understanding to bring the budget on Friday through consensus after seeking consent from the Madhes-based parties as well.[break]

Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D), MPRF-Republican, Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), TMDP-Nepal and Sadbhavana Party, which have formed the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), had threatened to disrupt parliamentary proceedings, accusing the government of preparing the budget without any consultations with them.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari said he was compelled to defer the budget presentation as the Madhesi parties told him clearly that they would obstruct parliament if the government chose to present the budget unilaterally in disregard of their suggestions. "We are compelled to defer the program until tomorrow (Friday) as per the Madhesi leaders´ request because they even warned that the government´s unilateral decision may rupture for ever its relations with Madhes-based parties," Adhikari told reporters.

According to a leader privy to the talks, the Madhesi leaders´ insistence on defering the budget by a day was to prove that they were too formidable a force for the other three political parties to ignore. "They wanted to compel the three other political parties to recognize their strength more than to incorporate their demands in the annual budget," the leader involved in the inter-party talks told Republica.

TMDP Vice-chairman Hirdayesh Tripathi said they can´t recognize the agreement among the three parties as a national consensus. "The Madhes-based parties must be incorporated as a fourth force in national politics before forging a national consensus on vital issues," Tripathi told Republica.

During the talks among top leaders from the ruling as well as opposition parties, the Madhesi leaders clearly urged leaders of the three parties -- UCPN (Maoist), NC and UML -- not to ignore them while taking vital political decisions. MPRF-D Chairman Bijay Gachchhadar, MPRF-R Chairman JP Gupta, TMDP Vice-chairman Tripathi, TMDP-Nepal Chairman Mahendra Yadav and SP Chairman Rajendra Mahato held talks jointly with Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, NC Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Paudel and Finance Minister Adhikari over the matter.

"When the finance minister tried to convince the Madhesi leaders that he had incorporated most of their major demands in the budget, Gupta said their concern was about political recognition rather than the contents of the budget," prime minister´s Press Advisor Surya Thapa, who was present during the talks, told Republica.

According to another leader involved in the talks, Gupta had clearly told the top leaders that they must seek the Madhesi parties´ consent before making any political appointments -- be it in the constitutional bodies or in the bureaucracy.

Asked how their demands could be incorporated, Atma Ram Sah, MPRF-R general secretary, said the government has various options for addressing their concerns. "The prime minister may commit himself in public or he may address our concerns through amendments to the budget,” he told Republica.

Earlier, UDMF had demanded that the government allocate Rs 5 million to establish schools after the names of each of the 52 martyrs of the Madhes movement in their respective districts and Rs 20 million for the treatment and rehabilitation of those injured during that movement.

UDMF had also demanded allocation of budgets for the construction of postal roads and the proposed East-West Railway in the Tarai. It has also asked the government to provide a budget for establishing universities in the Tarai region and for subsidizing the import of chemical fertilizers and other agricultural inputs.

The leaders from the ruling as well as Madhesi parties have agreed to settle the issue through talks on Friday before presenting the budget in the afternoon.