In the post-Bhadaure Chatyang (Gen Z uprising) situation, whatever discourse is developing, ‘Madhesh’ is missing in it. Issues such as a corruption-free system, establishment of good governance, participation of the new generation, development, etc., are being raised. But amid political dialogues, media priorities and pressure group efforts, Madhesh has gone missing. Even donor agencies that want to invest in Nepal or international institutions concerned with peace and stability seem to have forgotten the province. Those who have self-declared themselves as Gen Z leaders are sailing surficially. Madhesh has not disappeared from the discourse just like that.

Every movement in Nepal has helped strengthen the people. Yet after the Gen Z uprising, it can be observed that people’s power is weakening on several counts. For the first time, fear is spreading that the pace of politics might reverse and go backwards. Some ask for the abolition of federalism, some want monarchy back, some demand a directly elected executive head, and others want a shrinking of inclusive representation. And a few are indirectly explaining the “decisive presence” of the army.

Kathmandu, the permanent power centre of Nepal, is full of all kinds of speculations, assessments and suspicions. In the present fluid situation, it has become a more prominent centre for such things. The discourse taking place in Kathmandu is not even touching Madhesh.

Nepal is perhaps the only country where, despite all storms and hurricanes, communists never become an endangered political species. Former UML Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari once famously remarked, “In Nepal, communist is just a brand name kept for advertising purposes, like Coca-Cola”. No matter how these parties build their structures, they all treat Madhesh merely as an easy vote-bank. On the other side, the Nepali Congress is trapped in its own family feud. Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ is wandering confused. When basic values and principles disappear from political competition, the main reason for the erosion of parties’ credibility is exactly that.

Towards the UML, a deep crisis of credibility has taken root in Madhesh. At a time when demands for the abolition of provinces were being raised, the dirty game the party played to form a government in Madhesh province laid bare its intentions. In the past, the UML did not feel ashamed to make the person sitting in the President’s chair work for the party. Similarly, in Madhesh province, it turned the neutral and respected post of Chief of Province into a party worker. The UML does politics in Madhesh only through profit and loss calculations. It has neither any interest in strengthening province-level institutions nor any resolve to bring the Madheshi community into the mainstream. By raising a bunch of Mukhundo (masked faces) in Madhesh, the party wants to keep its centralised domination intact forever. What Madhesh means by equality is not just equal rights, it is also respect and dignity. Whenever Madhesh demands justice, the UML plays the ‘nationalism’ trump card against it. Yet, because of its monopoly in business syndicates, professional cliques and the NGO industry, it still retains the capacity to lure and appease its supporters.

In Kathmandu’s public discourse, the narrative of development and good governance has captured the market. This is a discourse convenient for the elites here. They talk of development but never of broad and inclusive participation. They talk of good governance but close their eyes when it comes to strengthening provinces. They talk of anti-corruption but treat Madhesh as a mauja (land for gaining profits with no sense of social-political accountability). Without effective federalism and meaningful inclusion, what would the map of development even look like? That picture probably doesn’t look very attractive to Madheshis. In the Kathmandu-centric discourse, the tendency to see Madhesh as “the other” and to accept its inequality as its natural fate has been emboldened right now. That is why Madhesh lives in fear that even the gains it has made so far will be lost. The communal politics that runs in the name of nationalism is the Nepali version of fascist thinking. That is the seed mantra of the UML. This is precisely why the common Madheshi finds itself completely alienated from the party’s psychology.

For Madhesh, the current Gen Z tremor has become like Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities. Where two utterly contradictory realities exist, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”-anarchy versus destruction. The federal parliament stands dissolved, and there is only a caretaker government. Yet, taking full advantage of the opportunity provided by the constitution to imagine and practice three tiers of government, Madhesh has succeeded in establishing the existence and identity of the provincial structure. Where the federal power in Kathmandu was stunned into paralysis, the Madhesh government woke up from its lost consciousness very quickly, while other provincial governments took a little longer to prove they were still alive. This happened because the people of Madhesh carry a long history of struggle to establish federalism. Madhesh has shed blood for federalism. No matter how much it is shaken, the province is not a structure that will collapse so easily.

In 2015, the Madhesh movement ended without any conclusion. The struggling Madheshi people had to live with a psychology of defeat. Yet when it came to implementing the constitution, Madhesh did not hesitate to show readiness. At the very moment when, inside closed rooms of Kathmandu, some people are actively trying to tear up the current constitution, Madhesh remains loyal to this very constitution and for the simple reason.

If this constitution is finished, no one knows what kind of constitution will come next. Along with tea-time gossip in Kathmandu, one hears, “The common people actually want the provincial structure abolished, it has become a useless expense”. This does not mean that when this constitution was promulgated, and Kathmandu was celebrating, Madhesh had forgotten that its blood was spilt in vain. But in the present situation, Madhesh is not ready to let the bird in hand fly away to chase the dream-bird soaring in the sky. A democratic constitution is needed precisely by the marginalised; the dominant groups will find their own convenience in any situation.

Time is of the essence. Madhesh is once again preparing to search for its role. It has understood the pain of being sidelined in the power structure. Now, in the coming elections, Madhesh must, in any case, vocalise its agendas loudly. Strong federalism makes the country’s modern integration process sustainable. Madhesh has determined the direction of Nepal’s political, intellectual and social movements. Yet its situation on the question of development is not encouraging. The soil of Madhesh has power. It has a huge labour force, but in this land of soil and water, both these things are in crisis. The permanent power centre of today has failed to transform all this energy into a sustainable development model. This is exactly where Madhesh feels cheated.

The Madheshi political force, which carries the possibility of emerging as a significant power in the coming elections, must absolutely refine itself according to the demands of time. To protect itself from the growing manoeuvres of the dominant forces in Nepal’s internal politics, there is now no alternative to showing unity.