It’s quieter in Limbuwan, but identity is still the key

ILAM, NOV 11 -

The stridency and go-it-alone politics that marked the Limbuwanmovement in the 2008 elections in the Eastern hills now seem tempered with caution. Its leaders are using more political language, stress that they are working alongside other communities “to effect changes,” and emphasise that theirs is a non-violent struggle.

Even those perceived in Kathmandu as radical Limbuwan leaders talk of politics of compromise, insist that their movement will remain political, and that they have been misrepresented by the establishment.

“We will not deviate from politics of sahamati (compromise) and sahakarya (working with others). We will not take up arms,” said Kumar Lingden ‘Mirak,’ president of Federal Limbuwan State Council at his party headquarters in Damak, Jhapa, last week, in the presence of Bishnu Bhattarai, secretary of the party’s women’s wing. His party wants nine districts east of Arun River to be declared Limbuwan state.

Lingden’s Limbuwan Council is one of 33 parties opposing the November 19 elections, which he says is pushed by a ‘four-party syndicate’—UCPN (Maoist), NC, CPN-UML and Madhesi parties represented in the High Level Political Committee.

The local administration put the strength of the Limbuwan Council at a couple of hundred cadres “at most.” Lingden himself said his party has several thousand Limbuwan Volunteers (LVs) at its disposal. He added, a large number of his party workers are non-Limbus but offered no evidence to support the claim (“the ratio is 50:50”).

On October 24, his party suffered a major setback when it failed to bring out even a fraction of its claimed strength of 10,000 LVs to participate in an anti-poll rally in Damak. Lingden later issued a public statement announcing that the rally had to be suspended due to a clampdown by the local administration.

On Monday, he will get to demonstrate his strength one more time, when a 10-day banda called by the 33 poll-opposing parties gets under way.

“From Kartik 26 on (November 11), we will demonstrate all our strength and so will the administration,” he said in an interview with the Post on Wednesday.

Larger election dynamics

Other than Lingden’s Limbuwan Council, there are a number of other election dynamics evolving in these Eastern districts. Two distinct political groups are championing multiple-identity federalism and single-identity federalism.

Traditional powerhouses of Nepali politics, the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, belong to the first group; ethnicity-based parties, as Lingden’s, belong to the second group.

Another major political force, UCPN (Maoist), supports single-identity federalism but its position on “Geography of Limbuwan ” is different from that of ethnicity-based parties which regardLimbuwan as nine districts east of Arun River—Jhapa, Ilam, Panchthar, Taplejung (all 4 in Mechi zone); Sunsari, Morang, Dhankuta, Sanku-wasabha and Terhathum (all 5 in Koshi).

To the Maoists, however, Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari districts are not part of Limbuwan . They instead belong to Kochila state, home to Eastern Tarai’s indigenous communities, according to the Maoists.

According to the 2011 census, Panchthar has the highest number of Limbus (80,000), followed by Ilam (69,000) and Jhapa (54,000).

Panchthar and Taplejung have the highest proportions of Limbu population—about 42 percent. Southern Taplejung, adjoining villages in northern Panchthar, and parts of western Ilam (Ilam-2) are said to be the hotbed of anti-poll activities. Of Eastern Nepal’s 3.5 million people, nearly 11 percent are Limbus.  Numbers, however, only tell part of the election story. Demands for a separate Limbuwan state and the nature of the struggle for identity remains complex and varied.

“Nepali Congress and UML will not take the Limbuwan agenda forward,” said Loksagar Samba, who just defected to the Federal Socialist Party, from the Limbuwan Council. “Maoists have also given up on Limbuwan ’s historic legacy. This explains why there will be no single voice on the choice of Limbu candidate.”

In face of repeated splits in his own party, Limbuwan Council, Lingden put up a brave face. “Even if all Limbus have a single cause, we are in different organizations, and that’s a good thing.”  According to the Chief District Officer in Ilam, Baburam Khatiwada, anti-poll activities by the Limbuwan Council has dropped significantly in recent days after their activists were arrested in Mahamai, Sakfara, Ibhang, Chulachuli and Gajurmukhi villages in Ilam-2, where UML leader and former House Speaker Subas Nembang is contesting.

Akhileshwor Das, chairman of the UCPN (Maoist)-aligned Progressive Professors’ Organisation, argues that the position of Lingden’s party has weakened with the emergence of new ethnicity-based parties championing for the Limbuwan state.

“The Limbuwan issue is not a monopoly of a single party. As a CPN-UML leader I, too, have contributed to the Limbuwan cause,” said Nembang, the most eminent political leader from the Limbu community post-1990. After his campaigns to most inaccessible villages in Ilam-2, Nembang described the state of election security as stable. While his party champions multiple-identity federalism, he is pitted against several other fellow Limbus who stand in favour of single-identity federalism.

Opinions are divided on Nembang’s poll prospects but there is unanimity that the current election is a lot more quieter than the previous one. “Those in favour of identity-based federalism stand against Nembang (Ilam-2) and Jhala Nath Khanal (Ilam-1). Don’t be surprised if both of these heavyweights fare poorly,” said Dharma Gautam, a newspaper columnist in Ilam. He said opposition to the election was weak in Ilam and that he was expecting a hassle-free election.