Barbaric. There is no other word to describe what happened at Dhulikhel on Sunday morning. To try to set alight a bus filled with passengers cannot, under any circumstances, be justified. The perpetrators in this inhumane act must be tried for attempted murder.
CPN-Maoist, if it still claims to be a democratic party, must have the guts to own up the incident, publicly disown the cadres involved, and push for their prosecution. This was an eerie reminder of the bombing of a civilian bus by former Maoist rebels at Badarmude, Chitwan in 2005, which claimed at least 38 lives and seriously injured dozens more. [break]
Although the country was in the middle of a civil war, it was a terrorist act, a fact tacitly acknowledged by UCPN (Maoist) Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal who earlier this year apologized to the victims of the hideous attack, seven full years after the accident. Badarmude haunted UCPN (Maoist) every step of the way in the peace process, and has been a millstone which the party will struggle to shake off for a long-long time. If something untoward had happened on Sunday, Baidya and his party would perhaps have lost people’s trust forever and found it impossible to convince people that they are at all serious about finding a peaceful way out of the current crisis.
Common people did a commendable job in opposing the CPN-Maoist imposed banda in ten districts under Tamangsaling on Sunday. During CPN-Maoist’s banda in the capital last Thursday, a vocal group of civil society leaders and common people had protested the forced shutdown at Thapathali mandala. The prominent coverage of this small act of defiance in mainstream media was an indication of popular mood. Before that, during the UCPN (Maoist)’s banda on the eve of Teej, it was irate women who chased away rowdy youths and forced the party to call off banda. On Sunday, people of Tindobato in Banepa chased away CPN-Maoist agitators who were trying to shut down the local market.
CPN-Maoist activists, according to police, were in a mood to attack the locals with iron rods and sticks. Thankfully, police intervened on time, averting a potentially deadly confrontation. Similarly, hoteliers and local businessmen of Charikot thrashed CPN-Maoist activists trying to shut down a local market. They got exactly what they deserved.
The undercurrent of people’s frustration at not being allowed to live their normal lives is starting to bubble forth, and not a moment too soon. No longer are they ready to be cowed down by political parties that resort to banda because they have no better way to convince people of their legitimate demands, if they ever have any. But they could do with a little help from the media. Sections of the media described Sunday’s banda in ten districts as ‘paralyzing’ and ‘bringing the districts to a standstill’.
That was hardly the case. The media should focus more on open acts of defiance of bandas so that more and more people get the heart to protest this injustice. If the media, civil society and common people join hands, it might not be long before bandas become a thing of the past in Nepal. The best part is that people have actually started believing that this is possible.
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