By PR Pradhan pushpa-columnThese days, Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal is repeatedly saying that if the constitution is not amended, there is threat of losing the achievements. What achievements have we made and what are we going to lose, I am confused. Is rampant foreign interference in our domestic affairs an achievement? Is serious threat on our sovereignty and independence an achievement? Is the threat of splitting the nation an achievement? After the 12-point agreement in New Delhi, our democracy and national sovereignty have been threatened. In the name of “loktantra’ the political leaders introduced syndicate and started to rule the nation through an autocratic mechanism. The leaders started to feel themselves above the constitution, which was witnessed during the autocratic Rana rule in the country. And to serve personal interests and enjoy the post, the leaders started to commit mistakes one after another. Immediately after the April uprising in 2006, the King restored the erstwhile dissolved parliament unconstitutionally. The leaders of the seven parties in agitation invited Sitaram Yachuri and Co. to attend the first session of the restored parliament. At the Parliament session, NC leader Ramchandra Poudel tabled a proposal to thank Yachuri and other Indian leaders for their kind support in the Nepali movement. The House endorsed Poudel’s proposal with a big applaud at the presence of Yachuri. Foreign intervention had become visible from that event which showed how the 2006 April uprising had taken momentum and how the leaders of the seven parties and Maoist were used by the Indians. That was not enough for the agitating leaders. Furthermore, the leader of the seven parties and the Maoist wished to give an attractive gift to the Indians who had extended every kind of support to the Nepali leaders in agitation. The gift was amendment of the existing citizenship law and providing citizenship to above 50 million Indians residing in the country since 1980. In the recent past, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh publically claimed that there are above 10 million Indian citizens in Nepal and India is concerned about security and safety of the Indian citizens. This makes it clear that our government has provided Nepali citizenship certificate to above ten million Indians. In fact in 2000, to serve the Indian interests, the Upper House and the house of representatives had tried to amend the citizenship law but King Birendra kept pending the Bill disguised in the “finance bill” after consultation with the Supreme Court. Some observers, thus, link that “finance bill” with the Narayanhitti bloodbath. Understandably, India was putting pressure to grant citizenship to the Indians staying here for a long time. Indians were putting pressure to the then governments to increase representation from Tarai community in the then Rastrya Panchayat along with felicitating the Indians residing here with the Nepali citizenship. Therefore, the present demands of the Tarai centric parties are not new and also not genuine demand of the real Tarai people. During that time, leaders like Girija Prasad Koirala and Madhav Nepal were predicting that if not granted citizenship certificate to those Indians residing in Nepal, it may create further problem in the days to come. Nepal is still alive and still active in politics. These days, he has been compelled to say that the migrated Madheshis are challenging those who are the real dhartiputra (sons of the soil). May be, he has confessed his past mistake. In fact, immediately after the government distributed Nepali citizenship to the Indians, the violent Tarai unrest was witnessed in the country. Of course, the UML leaders, of late, have realized the real intention of the Madheshi leaders. However, Pushpakamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba, even after knowing the real intention of the Madheshi leaders, are trying their best to amend the constitution in favour of the migrated Indians. Otherwise, they are giving warning that the “achievements” will be lost! Although, the political leaders of the big three parties are claiming that the constitution was endorsed by overwhelming majority, i.e. above 90 percent of the constituent assembly members, which is an expectation. Many political observers believe that the structure of the constituent assembly was itself a non-democratic as that was comprised of 40 percent of the elected representatives, whereas 60 percent were the representatives assigned through nomination. Therefore, the constituent assembly and now transformed legislative parliament is not the real people’s elected body. More surprising is that the leaders who are talking about the present constitution as a great achievement are afraid to go for referendum on disputed issues. India, known as the largest democracy in the globe, is yet to recognize the constitution promulgated by the “above 90 percent of the people’s representatives”. India wants amendment in the constitution at any cost and Dahal and Deuba are trying to make the Indians happy at any cost. India too is not interested for holding referendum on the disputed issues, including the present agenda of the amendment in the constitution. The nation has achieved nothing from the present constitution except from dissatisfaction of majority of the people. However, Dahal and Deuba, among others have performed total surrendarism to India, history will obviously evaluate their contribution to the nation. Clearly, the Indian design is to separate Tarai districts and make her presence strong there with the plan of creating India-protected Tarai nation.