Vishwendra Paswan is the Dalit face of Nepal’s 601-member Constituent Assembly. Some of the key provisions for the 74.2% Bahujan community that he championed were dropped from the draft constitution. Strangely, this happened shortly after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kathmandu for the second time and stressed the need for consensus in constitution making. With few lending an ear to his concerns in his country, Paswan, who is also the chairman of the Bahujan Shakti Party. On september Leader Paswan was on a hunger strike near the CA building, New Baneshwor, demanding the guarantee of 14 per cent representation of Dalits in every state apparatus, 15 per cent representation of the backward community, 10 per cent of Muslims and 37 per cent of the indigenous nationalities in the constitution.
Stern actions against those convicted in the cases of corruption and rape are also his demands.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had sent a formal letter to Paswan, urging him to break the fast. However, he refused to comply with the PM’s call and said he would continue it until his demands were addressed.
