Madhesi issue Nepal's internal matter: Nitish Kumar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said the Madhesi issue is Nepal's "internal matter" and India should not be dragged into the matter that has crippled the Nepalese economy.
"The Madhesi issue is Nepal's internal matter and the Nepali leaders are capable to address it," he told reporters here.
Kumar, 65, had reached Kathmandu yesterday to take part in the four-day 13th general convention of the main opposition Nepali Congress party, which began today.
Yesterday, he held separate meetings with Nepal's President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and UCPN-Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
"India should not be dragged into Nepal's internal affairs," the chief minister said, adding "India wishes for development of Nepal and extends its goodwill."

"During a meeting, the Madhesi leaders told me that the new constitution has curtailed rights guaranteed by the interim constitution," he said.

Kumar said he has asked the Madhesi leaders to solve the issue internally.
The Indian-origin Madhesi community, which has close ties with people in the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, are protesting the promulgation of the new constitution, which they say did not address their demand for a greater say in the government.
Madhesis have led a nearly six-month-long violent protest over better representation in the Parliament and the federal structure of the new Constitution that divides their ancestral homeland and has claimed over 50 lives before being called off suddenly, days before prime minister Oli's maiden visit to India last month.

Oli had said that it would not be proper for him to visit India when the border blockade was still on.
The months-long border blockade enforced by the Madhesi people had caused chronic shortage of food, fuel and essential life-saving medicines in the land-locked country, already reeling under the impact of two devastating earthquakes last year that killed over 9,000 people.
The blockade has also badly affected supplies of essential commodities, including construction materials and raw materials, needed to run local industries and rebuild the country post the two earthquakes.
The country's overall trade has also come down by one third during this period.