The locals of Dasdhunga feel that the CPN-UML´s leaders and cadres--who are now busy making arrangements in the capital for a new coalition, in the hope of heading the next government--have forgotten all about these martyrs.
This seeming indifference displayed by the UML leaders contrasts starkly with the emotional responses they had put on display during the period right after the accident´s taking place; back then, the UML leaders had made a huge hue and cry about their being a conspiracy behind the incident. But that voice got muted by and by, and so did the leaders´ enthusiasm for visiting Dasdhunga--even on the memorial day that marks the tragic accident.
“There used to be a lot of hullabaloo around the memorial day. But lately, I haven´t seen many people visiting this place. In fact, the place has not even been cleaned,” says Takmaya, who owns a small shop near the site.
She recalls a time when party cadres and leaders flocked to the place, not only from the nearby areas in Chitwan, but also from far away Kathmandu. “This place used to look like Indrachowk in Kathmandu,” she says.
And although Takmaya feels that the cadres may still show up this year, she doubts that they will celebrate the function with the enthusiasm of old.
Many of those associated with the party feel that the diminishing enthusiasm is a product of the coming together again of the two splinter groups of the original UML party. After five years of Bhandari´s and Ashrit´s deaths, the UML had split over the Mahakali Treaty issue. The two groups--CPN-UML and CPN-ML-- unified in 2002. When the two groups were at loggerheads with each other, there was a kind of competition among the groups to prove who the genuine disciples of the deceased leaders were. But with the unification, this tussle has ended.
Bhandari´s and Ashrit´s statues, which stand near the railings and steps built at the place from where the jeep was said to have plunged into the Trisuli below, were built by the CPN-ML student wing All Nepal National Free Student Union (ANNFSU). But no maintenance work has been carried out in recent years, and in the absence of someone to care for them, the statues are covered with dust.
“I have been saying from the beginning that this area should be developed as a picnic spot,” says Shailendra PIay, the district UML leader. “A picnic spot and park where drinking is not allowed. I have even suggested that someone should be given the responsibility of cleaning the place. But no one has listened to me.”
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