By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : Less than a fortnight after a senior minister and powerful leader from the Terai plains internationally embarrassed Nepal’s Maoist government by saying he was praying for future earthquakes to hit the US and Europe, now it is the turn of another from the same party to plunge the government into hot water.
Defence Minister Sharad Singh Bhandari, who was inducted into the cabinet in mid-September, is facing a growing clamour for his removal from both the opposition as well as the ruling party.
The flamboyant former tourism minister has ruffled the feathers of civil society as well after uttering a secession threat at a public programme this week.
On Monday, Bhandari reportedly said if the opposition parties did not allow the Maoist-led government from progressing with the peace process, the government would do it unilaterally.
He also threatened that if the pact made with the Terai parties was not kept by the new prime minister, Baburam Bhattarai, all the 22 districts in the southern plains could secede.
“If 22 districts decide to secede, which law can save the country,” Bhandari said during the course of the rhetoric.
With tension already simmering between the Terai plains and the hilly regions, the defence minister’s threat has added fuel to it with a section of the ruling Maoist party Wednesday asking the prime minister to sack him.
Several sister organisations of the Maoist party, who are close to Maoist dissident leader Mohan Vaidya, have announced a protest rally in the capital Wednesday.
The protesters have also dragged India into the dispute, calling Bhandari’s remark a conspiracy to merge Nepal, especially the Terai plains, with India.
Even the communists, who were once the Maoists’ ally, have condemned Bhandari’s statement, calling it “anti-national” and seeking his removal.
Other fringe parties as well as civil organisations have also flayed the secessionist threat.
The new trouble comes even as the Maoist government suffered the embarrassment of Deputy Prime Minister Bijay Kumar Gachhedar telling a parliamentary committee that he prayed to god to let earthquakes strike developed nations like the US and Europe in future instead of Nepal, which suffered ravages when a tremor measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale rocked it earlier this month.
Both Bhandari and Gachhedar belong to the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (Democratic) party that played a major role in helping Bhattarai win the prime ministerial vote in August.
(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at [email protected])