#PahadWithMadhes
At the time when the country seems to be divided based on how we appear, how we speak and what we wear, it is all of ours responsibility to come together as Nepalis and re-establish the unity that seems to be lost. We have devised a simple campaign to attempt to usher a sense of peace and unity amongst us.
Campaign: #PahadWithMadhes
Steps
1. Take a selfie with your Madhesi/Pahadi friend.
2. Post it to your social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc with hashtag #PahadWithMadhes and include @madhesiyouth so that we can like and retweet your shares.
We hope doing this will usher a sense of peace and unity amongst all Nepalis. The inspiration for this campaign came through an appeal Santosh Shah sent to us via Facebook. You may read it below:
Message from Santosh Shah, Founder & President of Today’s Youth Asia
Urgent appeal to youth organisations, youth clubs, clubs in schools and colleges:
During the last decade I have made a lot of political forecasts and sadly almost 99% of them have turned out to be true. Two weeks ago I gave a positive alternative to the Prime Minister and the President to approach the people of Terai directly, which has not even been answered yet. Their offices knows me personally and the content of the letters have been used far and wide in national and international sectors, which proves the letter has not been unnoticed. Kantipur daily and several online media even published the letter content. Yesterday’s and today’s fresh violence in Terai has created a kind of hollowness like the mental damage second big earthquake we experienced in May when we had almost recovering from April earthquake. As a political analyst, and I must confess – more as a political strategist, I clearly see and I can confidently say that whoever has designed this political and diplomatic deadlock has also designed it to create a chaos larger than any of us and the stakeholders have ever imagined. This new conflict will be SO BIG that nor the government leaders, nor the Madhesi political leaders can even understand to be able to fix it.
If concerned civilians like us did not take a strong lead, I see that after a week or ten days, the situation in Terai and the border issues will be out of hands, not just for our government leaders, but also for the Madhesi political leaders claiming their representations. Such situations are living examples in many war-torn countries in Africa and South America, and we are following the same suicidal course.
The issue of Madhesi people, as I come from Terai myself, is very simple to understand – they want acceptance, be treated equal and be called a patriotic Nepali like everyone else in the nation. They have faced so much hatred, alienation, misrepresented by state, political leaders and NGO reports, media coverage that we feel hated in our own country. As words can hurt more than weapons, hurtful words have wounded Madhesi’s hearts more than the bullets bought by the state at the cost of people’s taxes. If words can be more hurtful than weapons, I believe words can also be a greater healer than medicine or political agreement or peace treaties. People in Madhes needs to feel loved, if they hear this, we will be placing the nation on the right course!!
I urge youth organisations and youth leaders to make short videos, which can also be done with the use of cellphone cameras, where a group youths can tell their fellow citizens of Madhes that we love you equally as we love the citizens of Pahad and Himal, that our struggles and sufferings are equal, and we both feel the same pain for our mother nation that has endured such harshness since our generation was born. In addition, please also take video messages from celebrities, columnists, cartoonists, editors, writers, actors, sportspersons, artists and common citizens. Please post these videos on your facebook, youtube, send the video clips to various TV stations to see if they can air them in public interest.
Trust me, if the people in Madhes and from Madhes see these video clips, this will not only cure this two centuries old disease, but also act as magic in bringing a U-turn to the downward course that our nation has taken and followed since our childhood. We are a generation that grew up in civil-war, political chaos, transition phase, constitution failures, etc, that has now reached a humanitarian crisis. In our youth we must contribute in changing the course of our nation to progress, contribute in uniting people of all ethnicities and geography and in our lifetime we must see a nation that is peaceful, progressive and prosperous. We owe this to our next generation…!!!
Movement: I love Nepal; because I love Madhes, I love Pahad, I love Himal, and above all I love Humanity!! – Santosh Shah
We hope to see many posts on social media for this campaign #PahadWithMadhes
