How did this come about? Blind in their search for power, have our leaders forgotten the basic norms of humanity? There have been calls for the execution for Khyati’s murderer, and I hesitate in saying that the state has no right to take anyone’s life away. But comparing her murderer to the Dalai Lama! What became apparent was that more important than addressing the law and order situation in the nation, as sorry a state as it is in right now, the more pressing issue to our government was to please their foreign masters. Forget if we were historically never a colony; today we are.
Over the years, I accumulated friends in the international community, and many Nepalis who had abandoned better financial opportunities to come to Nepal. And many of them are leaving again.
The rain gave way to a quiet calm, and darkness descended. I sat with some friends drinking. As we talked, it was obvious that people were tired – tired of this state-of-affairs, tired of the lawlessness, tired of the same-old-politics.
Whenever democratic regimes falter and fail to address the pressing needs of the general populace, the people crave for change. And currently there is a palpable sense that people want something of the harsher sort – be it right or left wing authoritarianism. We have seen this in the past in Nepal and elsewhere throughout the world over the century. It is the people on whom the power is vested in a democracy, and when the government’s priority is different than that of the people, the government loses its legitimacy. And in a democracy, it is through elections that the legitimacy of the leaders is tested. When we begin to flaunt such democratic norms, for example by choosing someone who lost two contested seats as our leader, and by nominating many other members of the cabinet who were unelected, what mechanism remains to assure their accountability?
I left Khyati’s memorial service. I could not dispel the melancholy that had set on me. Five years ago, I had come back to Nepal to assist in whatever way I could, primarily as a journalist, to help our fledgling democracy. I did not know then that people who build bombs in their backyards could become ministers. I didn’t know that to win an election one needed more than supporters; one needed thugs. As Kurt Vonnegut said, “So it goes”.
Over the years, I accumulated friends in the international community, and many Nepalis who had abandoned better financial opportunities to come to Nepal. And many of them are leaving again. While they agree that our political parties have an uncanny capacity to revert disaster at the last moment, they have grown wary of the politics in Nepal. It is a sad goodbye that I bid them, they who understood much better than many of us did, the contours of Nepali politics – the socio-cultural lines that determine our politics and the electorate that is yet to shrug off its feudal yoke.
And so it goes… another group of idealist youths will come, inspired to contribute to the country. And some foreigners will see our culture for not just its inequities but also its beauty. Meanwhile, we will continue to do what we do – perpetuating a deeply feudalistic system that has permeated every sphere of government and individual life.
As I walked back from Khyati’s memorial candle-vigil, I thought of who we were – mere citizens. We are of little importance. More important are our Chinese diplomats, or the Indian intelligence officials who the Maoists allege of conceiving the new government. And does it even matter to people like us? Our democracy has fallen to such a state that elections are a charade and what passes as our democratic system is a totally autocratic system where the impetus is on the entrenchment of power rather than a devolution of it. In fact, the most democratic mechanism within a party is in one that is considered the most autocratic – the Maoists.
The rain stopped. The candle flames wavered gently to the wind. There was a sense of gloom. Khyati Shrestha, in memory of you, we pray that never will something like this happen again. And we hope our political leadership has the humanity to see to it.
daulat.jha@gmail.com
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