On the auspicious festival of Bada Dashain, we extend hearty greetings to all our valued readers. We wish you peace and happiness this festive season and pray to Goddess Durga for your good health and prosperity.
Dashain is certainly the most important festival for majority of Nepalis. It is a time for fun-fare and merry-making. But at the flip side, there are some negatives that come out during festival times like this which have major impacts on people’s lives. Every Dashain, consumption of alcohol increases in the city with reports of drunken driving causing accidents rising during the ten days of celebrations. We request all to opt for healthy fun and abstain from over drinking and driving after consuming alcohol.
Meanwhile, just like our wish each passing year, we hope that things would change and move ahead speedily in the political front after the festive season of Dashain. Unfortunately, since the last two years, the country has not been able to achieve much success in both the peace and constitution-drafting processes. The political parties mired in intra- and inter-party conflicts have not been able to arrive at the much-needed consensus on key issues of national concern. The stalemate is the prime source of frustration among the Nepali people today. Hopefully, the political actors understand the innate anxiety of the public in this regard and move ahead for the sake of national interest by keeping their selfish and petty interests aside. We hope that things would change positively for the people and the country this time so that we don´t have to write a similar editorial next year to persuade leaders to work together yet again. The political stakeholders must take the public out of disappointments and frustrations and give them what they deserve as per the mandate of Janaandolan II. And there are reasons to be optimistic too as Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who carries the expectations of millions of people, is now leading the new government. This government should make all efforts to take the issues relating to peace process to a logical conclusion at the earliest to relieve the Nepali people who want to desperately see an end to all the chaos created in the past few years, especially after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord.
Also, it is important to mention here that although the majority of the people celebrate Dashain during which time there is a real festive environment in the country, we should not forget that there are minority communities for whom other festivals are bigger and of equal importance. We must respect the sentiments of these communities and wish them the same during all their major festivals.