While a lot of us are rightly defiant and rallying around one another in this time of difficulty, it is nevertheless alarming when a few people use this veil of defiance to propagate inflammatory rhetoric and recommendations. Yes, I'm just as annoyed as the next person but it is not momentary jingoism we are going to need but long term resilience. There are sterner tests that lie ahead of us and it's what we do when they transpire that will really define our character as a nation.
This is not a sprint but a marathon and one in which we are bound to hit our equivalent of the'fatigue' wall that is so dreaded by marathon runners. The next few days – could be weeks or months given the glacial pace of internal and bilateral negotiations – will show us what we are really made of and whether we are all about hollow posturing or prepared to endure. It is one thing to be resolute in the heat of anger but an entirely different proposition when the anger subsides and jingoism is replaced by the relentless suffering brought on by our predicament.
What happens when we have to walk the walk? My forced travels on public transport have given me a chance to witness the first signs of resistance already turning into rumblings of discontent against our establishment – all of this in the span of just a few days. So those of you prone to nationalistic rhetoric would do well to remember that is not in our interest to prolong this any further given the lack of immediate alternatives on the horizon. Our nationalism, the 'Bir Gorkhali' tag and living on our laurels won't light our kitchen fires or feed us. Our priority and only way out is now is to negotiate the end of blockade through diplomacy and start talks with the Madhesis to diffuse this situation.
How many of us watch the news hoping for an apology from the Indians? We watch with the optimism that some sort of an agreement or breakthrough will be reached and supply lines opened so that we can get on with our lives. The ironical thing about all of this is that even in our defiance we're still reliant on India to do the right thing.
This brings me to our establishment (government and administration) and their role in prolonging this saga in particular and in fostering this dependency in general. We are in this mess exactly because we have always been saddled with myopic, short sighted opportunists masquerading as statesmen. I'm all for rallying around our politicians in this time of need but if you think they are suffering like us you must be incredibly naïve. Whether the adversities are natural or manmade, you can bet that it is us who take the brunt of the suffering while they along with their cronies get an easy ride with supplies and availability working strictly on a trickle down basis.
In all honesty, I'm actually starting to get more annoyed with our government apparatus than with Modi and his lot. After all, it is they who are accountable to us and not the Indians. I struggle to think of what our elected representatives have done in this crisis apart from statements about eating 'dhido' and riding 'bicycles'. Where is the diplomacy when you need it? Our whole foreign affairs mechanism is a charade with the burden of diplomacy on novice ambassadors and half the top hierarchy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs out on a jaunt to the biggest talk shop of them all – the United Nations.
Why didn't our parties get together, have a vision and a roadmap to reduce this dependency? Surely there was (is?) no greater threat to our sovereignty than living our lives according to the whims and fancies of our neighbours. The apologists amongst us always point out difficulties or present mitigating circumstances like successive democracy movements, civil war, king's interference etc for our inabilities but we haven't even explored, let alone implemented any initiative to reduce our reliance on India.
If they all can get together to discuss and allocate lucrative ministerial portfolios amongst themselves, they can surely find the time to discuss our nation's options. After all, it's not even the first time that this has happened. So why do we allow them to checkmate us every time? It is our myopia that has cost us and our predicament has that all too familiar tag that says 'Made in Nepal'.
This siege mentality gripping the country won't last for forever and I do hope that some good comes out of all our suffering. Mainly, I, along with the rest of the country, hope that we learn and prepare from our experiences this time round because when this current impasse is over (and it will be one way or another) we as citizens of Nepal do not ever want to be put in this position again. We couldn't give two hoots if the petrol came from China or dropped from the sky. All we care about is the next time we tell India to back off, we sure as hell would like to mean it.
gunjan.u@gmail.com
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