Time: 4.00-6.00PM
Date: Sept 16, 2007 on Sunday
Place: The General Theological Seminary
175 Ninth Avenue It is on Ninth Avenue,
between 20th St. & 21st Street.
Rajesh Shah was the host. The fancy downtown Manhattan venue was his workplace. He lives in Queens. He was one year senior to me at high school. His father has been in town for two months now. I arrived on time at four. Other than them two, I was the first to arrive. So we sat in the lobby and talked soap while waiting for others. I told the father that there are Pahadis who tell me, you went to Budhanilkantha, how many Pahadis went to Budhanilkantha, why are you complaining? I say to them, in my class of about 80 at Budhanilkantha, there should have been 40 Madhesis, or at least 30, but there were only three. That is why I complain.
I think Rajesh Shah should be the New York Metro chair of ANTA, especially since that chair is vacant after the last chair moved over to a different city, Chicago, and Ritesh Chaudhary has been acting chair as the second in command. And especially after this event, Rajesh Shah has more than proven himself.
I am a stickler for one person, one vote democracy and transparency. Hold an election. All interested parties will file nominations. Then there would be an open vote. People should be able to vote over email, over the phone. And it would not be a secret ballot.
The New York Metro chapter is the center of gravity of ANTA due to its size and location. But I should not comment too much, since I am not a member. My organization Hamro Nepal collaborates with ANTA on hard core political stuff to do with the Madhesi Movement. And I like it better that way. I am more efficient that way.
Hari Mahaseth, his friend Anirudh from Kapilvastu showed. Binod Shah, by now one of the top three ANTA officers nationally, showed. He was the one who had done much of the ground work calling people up and stuff. Ratanji tells me Binodji has done amazing work expanding ANTA the past few months.
Binay Kant Chaudhary and our man at the UN Nawal Yadav were there.
And of course Shyamanand Suman was the guest of honor. He is the only Madhesi to have become a Nepali ambassador as a career bureaucrat. His daughter lives in NYC, son in Toronto. He was Nepali ambassador to Qatar. Now he is Upendra Yadav's primary advisor on foreign policy issues. I expect Sumanji to contest and win the November election. He will win from Saptari from the seat Gajendra Narayan Singh used to hold. And if the MJF comes to power, Suman could end up in the cabinet.
As we waited in the lobby, people started showing up. After we reached critical mass, we shifted to the large meeting room where the formal gathering took place. Although Sumanji was the featured speaker, the meeting was highly interactive. Eveybody took turns speaking. The discussion was lively. All possible contemporary topics to do with the Madhesi Movement were discussed. All bases got covered.
Towards the end Binodji summarized the entire meeting on the public board. I was highly impressed with the summary. The only reason this guy is a doctor is because he grew up in a culture where if you are a smart student, you go to medical school. If he had grown up in America, he would likely have gone to law school and become a public official. He is very social and political. And the summary he sketched showed that.
First, there should be a solid Madhesi unity. The two Sadbhavana factions must unite. The two MJF factions must unite. The Sadbhavana and the MJF must form an electoral alliance. And then they must reach out to Jwala, Goit and the others and also bring them into the alliance.
Second, Ek Madhesh, Ek Pradesh. That should be the common agenda of the alliance. Any party that accepts that slogan can be invited into the alliance. So if the Nepali Congress, the UML, and the Maoists also accept the Ek Madhesh, Ek Pradesh slogan, they can also join the Madhesi Alliance. If not, how can they? There would be no point.
Third, the unity, and the slogan should lead to a formal electoral alliance. Only one alliance cadidate from each of the 116 constituencies in the Terai.
Fourth, pick good candidates for the election.
Fifth, party finances.
There was an elaborate discussion on the recent news that the MJF and the Nepali Congress might form an electoral alliance. The gathering disagreed with the idea. It was the Nepali Congress that has to be held responsible for the 40 martyrs of the Madhesi Kranti. It is the Madhesi Kranti that gave birth to the political party called the MJF. How can the MJF seek an alliance with the Congress?
Sumanji educated the group on the intricate arithmetic of the electoral rules and seat distributions of the proposed mixed election system.
Samosa and soda were served.
I have over half hour of video from the event, the first half hour from the earlier event with Sumanji with some of the same people in Jackson Heights, and that was before he went to Toronto for a month or more.
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