After worshipping goddess Laxmi during the five-day festival, there is a tradition of people going door-to-door performing deusi-bhailo (informal song and dance staged specially during Tihar). Taking advantage of the tradition, major political parties have decided to perform deusi-bhailo across the country to impress people and garner their votes. [break]
“Tihar is an annual festival. But the election is a once-in-five-years phenomena. So, we decided to link the two through deusi-bhailo,” maintained Tirtha Thapa, president of Nepal Sanskritik Sangh (NSS), adding, the organization is going to hold district-level deusi-bhailo programs in all the districts.
NSS is the cultural wing of the Nepali Congress.
Khagendra Rai, president of Rastriya Jana Sanskritik Mahasangh-- the cultural wing of the CPN-UML-- said the organization has already directed all its district chapters to make necessary preparations for deusi-bhailo programs of its own.
“For our deusi-bhailo program, members of our organization in the districts have already begun preparations. We are going to spread our development agenda among the people and urge through song to vote for the CPN-UML,” informed Rai, adding, the party has already composed deusi songs about the developmental agenda of the party manifesto.
He further said various renowned artists from Kathmandu will visit the districts to be part of the duesi-bhailo program. Likewise, the CPN-UML is also mulling to organize constituency-level deusi-bhailo in the three districts of Kathmandu Valley.
“Earlier, the political parties used to play deusi-bhailo to solicit some financial support for the party. But this time, our deusi-bhailo is not for money but for votes,” he added.
Currently, major political parties including UCPN(Maoist) are already organizing various cultural programs at the district level.
Pradip Dewan, central member of Aakikrith Jana Sanskritik Mahasangh-- cultural wing of the UCPN-Maoist-- said the body has a cultural presence in all 240 constituencies across the country and has completed its preparations to make the Tihar festival an election special.
“Songs are generally considered a means of recreation. But they are also the best medium for generating public awareness. So, through the deusi-bhailo songs, we will try to transmit our poll agenda to the public. We also want to spread a message of goodwill among people about the party,” he said.
Apart from deusi-bhailo songs, the political parties are also performing different plays to clarify their agenda to the public more vividly.
Thapa opined that cultural programs like deusi-bhailo have a greater impact upon people as they tend to be drawn by the presence of prominent actors and singers.
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