KATHMANDU, August 19: Satirizing the ongoing exchange of barbed comments between Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah and Dharan Mayor Harkaraj Sampang on social media, artist Deepak Raj Giri has said, “If you break you sticks fighting with each other, what will you get support from and with what you will hit [the corrupt]?”
Giri has written on social media, "A stick can be used for support and it can also be used as a weapon in times of emergency. If you break your sticks fighting with each other, what will you get support from and with what you will hit?"
Giri has alerted both Balen and Sampang through Facebook that they could lose the people's support to them if they give continuity to the war of words between them.
Essential tests
A few days ago, after Mayor Sampang returned to Dharan following a trip to Kathmandu, he wrote on facebook that Mayor Balen had failed in managing the waste of Kathmandu. Then Mayor Balen had retorted back saying, “Yes indeed! I won the election with your election symbol stick!”
Since then, Mayor Sampang has repeatedly attacked Balen through his facebook statuses, but Mayor Balen has chosen to keep quiet.
It is worth noting here that both Balen and Sampang were independent candidates in the May 13 local elections and the election symbol of both of them was a stick.
After receiving his election symbol, Balen had written on Twitter, “Stick is my election symbol. This can be used to provide support to elderlies and even punish the corrupt.”
