Morcha to return to Parliament

November 18th, 2015

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Madhesi parties, which have been boycotting Parliament and spearheading a street movement for the last three months, have decided to return to the house.

Madhesi Morcha, which is an alliance of four agitating Madhes-based parties, on Saturday said it will return to the house to obstruct parliamentary proceedings from Sunday. Morcha said it will put pressure on the ruling parties to address its demands simultaneously from Parliament and the streets.

Morcha has demanded amendments to the new constitution, which was endorsed by a two-thirds majority of the now-dissolved Constituent Assembly (CA) on 20 April. Morcha says Madhesi people will be under-represented under the new constitution, and it is therefore demanding amendments to several clauses of it.

Morcha walked out of the CA before the constitution was endorsed, and it returned to the parliament only last month to vote for the NC’s candidate for new Prime Minister. But Morcha’s decision to vote for the NC candidate under the same constitutional it rejected drew flak from its own constituency, and it abstained from supporting the NC in parliamentary elections for President and Vice President.

Morcha has been staging a sit-in at Birganj border, helping India to cover up its blockade on the earthquake-devastated country.

Talks between Morcha and the government were heading in a positive direction, but police’s intervention that led to the death of an Indian protester in Birganj early this week jeopardised whatever progress was made. Morcha says talks with the government are meaningless, and the government has also failed so far to convince Madhesi parties to return to negotiation.

But Morcha’s decision to return to the house, for whatever reasons, has sparked some hopes for resumption of talks. The NC has also said it will help Morcha to disrupt the house so that the government feels pressure and move faster to amend the constitution.

3 Responses to “Morcha to return to Parliament”

Nepal Voic onNovember 18th, 2015 at 8:32 pm Says:Nepali Congress needs to accept the defeat and let Oil fix the fundamental issue Nepalese have been suffering for over years and that is blow up some hills in north to pave the highways to China and link the road to India for Nepal’s economic benefit.
Nepali onNovember 18th, 2015 at 9:10 pm Says:Another dirty game from Nepali congress n Madhesi party to destroy Oli government under India direction. Nepali congress never learn lesson blady indian puppet. Wake up nepali don’t trust nepali congress they just want power never work for country we need brave n good leader LILE KP OLI NOT A CORRUPTED PARTY.