Nepali Nationalists Speak Out

This memorandum was presented to PM Prachanda on 24/9/08 during his New York visit to attend the UN General Assembly session. It is worth a read.
Horatio

Date: September 24, 2008
Place: New York, NY. USA

From: Nepali Nationalist Organizations, USA
&
Nepali Nationalists

To: Honorable Prime Minister Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'

Dear Honorable Mr. Dahal ‘Prachanda’,

Namaste and regards.

First of all, on behalf of the ‘Nepali Nationalists Organization’ let me congratulate you as the elected Prime Minister of Nepal. We whole-heartily welcome you in the City of New York. Your presence in the United Nations has brought world attention to the sovereign people of Nepal.

The Nationalists Nepalese would like to submit following memorandum to the Honorable Prime Minister with an expectation of its immediate implementation.

1. Establishment of the primary rights of the people of Nepal to choose the structural changes only through the peaceful and democratic means. They are the public deliberations and the referendum to choose between these two systems:
A. Hindu Nation or Secular State. Hindu Rastra is not about theocracy, but recognition of our heritage, roots, and values.
B. Constitutional Monarchy or Republic. Constitutional Monarchy is not about feudalism or divine right of a King, but recognition of the cultural role of the King in Nepal within the republican framework.
2. Inadmissibility of politics of violence and intimidation. Recognition of only peaceful democratic means in political process.
3. Recognition that Nepal is a multi-cultural and multi-lingual nation. We must seek unity among diversity by promoting:
A. Recognition of overlapping cultural and lingual zones.
B. Recognition of indigenous languages of Nepal as the ‘national languages of Nepal.’
C. Recognition of Nepali as the national official language, and Sanskrit and Pali languages as part of our heritage.
D. Teaching Nepali as the official language of Nepal, and English as a window to the world.
E. Teaching lingual minority children in their own mother tongue at least in the primary grades.
F. Allowing students to choose one language as optional subject up to high school from the list of languages including Sanskrit, Pali, and national languages of Nepal, but excluding Nepali and Hindi. Nepali to be taught separately as a compulsory official language. Exclusion of Hindi is towards promoting Nepalese indigenous languages like Maithili and Bhojpuri. Hindi being well promoted by Indian media and movies, we do not need to promote it. Sanskrit and Pali to be taught by emphasizing our heritage.
4. The ‘Cow non-killing’ is one of the sentiments we Hindus in general and Nepalese in particularly hold deeply. In our history it has always been banned. It must remain so.
5. We must stop religious conversion. It is not really an issue of freedom. We recognize the religious freedom as a matter of our heritage – ‘Sarva dharma sambhava.’ In Nepal, we never had religious strife. The current ‘conversions’ in Nepal is about foreign missionaries taking advantage of our poverty and backwardness. They are in Nepal not practicing mutual respect and tolerance but strictly to brainwash and convert our innocent brothers and sisters. We must recognize it as indirect but forced conversion. The missionaries are here to destroy our heritage.
6. Strict monitoring of income sources and distribution policies of the ‘Non-government organizations – NGO.'
7. We must recognize our environmental heritage and protect it from the deforestation, and soil erosion. We are endowed with the water resources. There must be scientific researches and political consensus on water uses towards the environment protection and benefit for all.
8. Women should be given at least one third of diplomatic as well as other high positions.
9. We must protect our society from the ‘women traffic’, prostitution and cultural degenerations.
10. We must recognize the lack of employments as our major social problem. It must be addressed by creating conducive environment for domestic and foreign investments towards industrializations and job creations.
11. We must protect our meager industry against predation of political parties and criminal organizations.
12. We also must protect our environment and social norms against unscrupulous industries and capitalists.
13. There must be ‘zero’ tolerance against corruption. We must recognize ‘political corruption’ as the major problem in Nepalese political evolution, and also it fomenting corruption among government officials.
14. A special relief package to be established for the relief of the victims of Maoist’s “People’s Liberation Army – PLA” and the “National Army - NA.”
15. Establishment of the 'Special Tribunal' to look into the matter of excessiveness by the PLA and the NA.
16. To provide education with strong components of ethics and nationalism to the cadres of PLA.
17. The NA must be kept non-political. Thus it should not be integrated with the politically indoctrinated and party specific army like PLA.
18. The Maoist’s victims should get priority in recruiting to the NA.
19. We must recognize that the ethnic based federal system will simply disintegrate Nepal along ethnic lines. It will make us no longer united Nepali brothers and sisters but Bahuns, Newas, Gurungs, Madheshis and others. It will not solve any of the outstanding ethnic imbalances. The empowerment of marginalized ethnic groups must be addressed through decentralization, cultural zoning and targeted application of education and economic opportunities. There must be a public discussion and referendum on the issue to form the national policies.
20. Recognition of importance of education and to take following steps:
A. Raising the salaries of the Government Teachers and providing them proper pensions.
B. Free education up to 12th grade.
C. Keeping the educational establishment non-political.
D. To bring the university education and research par with international standard by - 1. Increasing teachers' salary, 2. Allocating more resources to research, and 3. Immediate cancellation of ladder system in University Teachers' grade. Not more than two grades should be established as Senior Professor and Professor.
21. Nepal's foreign policy should be guided by our long-term national interests and principles of the UN Charter, rather than the short-term interests.
22. Friendly relations with all countries of the World, and better relations with bordering nations of India and China.
23. Scrapping all unequal treaties.
24. To provide proper trainings and encouragements to Nepali Sports men\women in general and also to make them more competitive in international forum.
25. Recognition and protection of our Dharmic, cultural and historic sites. Recognition of and encouragement to the linguists and artists working to promote all our national languages and cultures. Recognition of individuals promoting our spiritual heritage.

We respectfully and strongly urge you to recognize these national issues and direct government agencies to form and implement proper policies. Nepal, the most beautiful country in the world, is already going through lots of stress and strain. We want better future and dignity of all Nepalese. We hope you as a nationalist leader share our views and will take appropriate actions.

Jaya Matribhumi Nepal.

Sincerely,

Bishal Shah
Chairman, Nepali Nationalist Organization “NNO”, USA

Anil Pande
President, Motherland, Nepal (CA)

Ms. Kamala Prasai
President, N & J Entertainment Inc. NY, USA

Other Nationalist Organizations:

Foundation of the Nepalese in America (FNA)
Sanatan Dharma Sanskrit and Nepali Center, NY
National Unity and Reconciliation

Individual Nationalists not associated with above organizations:

Dr. Tilak Shrestha
Mr. Shekhar Dhungel
Mr. Sanjaya Shahi
Mr. Ramesh P. Dhungel
Mr. Prahlad P. Panta
Ms. Anita Subba
Mr. Suman Shah
Ms. Samhita R. Shaha
Mr. Hari Bahadur Shrestha
Ms. Shushrita Malla
Mr. Gopal Jung
Ms. Geeta Rana
Mr. Rishesh KC