1990. I remember the victory rally, the crimson powder in the air and on the faces of the jubilant people as they marched in the heart of the city, chanting slogans in favor of democracy. There were so many people – young men and women, children and even elders, raising their fists in glory.
Some ran on the streets with party flags while some groups sang songs. Some sat on the roads and on sidewalks while some formed circles and danced. The entire town was out to either watch or participate in this parade on the streets, which until the night before was a shoot-on-sight regime, imposed on the capital city of Nepal – Kathmandu – where minds and muscles have wrestled since mythical times.[break]
I was in primary school back then. I really didn’t understand why all of a sudden, I stopped going to school or why my uncles shut their shops and why we locked up ourselves in our house, peeping through the windows to a deserted street and listening to Radio Nepal bulletins.
Back then, the only thing that was dauntless was the Ghantaghar. It didn’t skip a toll. It never did and it never does. The rest of us lived with fear and paranoia because the army with its guns and the khaki donning police with batons patrolled the city.
Soon the celebrations disappeared. I was back in school. My uncles opened their shops and we were free to walk in the neighborhood and go wherever we pleased. I was told there was democracy in the country although I didn’t understand what that meant. I also overheard seniors talking about Ironman Ganesh Man Singh with awe and bottles of Iceberg Beer.
Then came Election Day, and the rest that followed in the most savage history of Nepal, as we all know, only concludes one thing – people paid the price with blood and no politician in my memory has regretted or apologized for the blood on their hands.
And it’s not just the politicians who have blood on their hands. Like it or not, we all have blood on our hands because we have an equal role in institutionalizing the roots of all the issues that plague our society.
Our collective silence and ignorance endorses all injustice and corruption or what better answers some of these questions:
• What makes one or two-day Nepal Banda a great walking opportunity but a weeklong good enough to knock the latte off the table?
• What makes even the educated assume that because they don’t experience socio-political or economical discrimination, that it doesn’t happen?
• What kind of economic policies lead to a real estate crash while thousands and thousands of Nepalis continue to be literally enslaved abroad?
• Where was the radical center when democratic institutions were crushed one by one?
• Where was Nepal’s “critical mass” when its Truth & Reconciliation Committee went nowhere and on several other occasions?
• Why do sponsored racist and sexist rap battles get religious hits on YouTube and get glossy coverage in the press?
• Why do corrupt politicians get a hero’s welcome after their jail term?
• What kind of a society is quiet when a Supreme Court acquitted murderer is allowed to contest elections?
These and many similar questions force one to ask what kind of voters, who make the largest chunk of the voter base, has our parenting, schooling and the private sector produced but the white-collar class and higher up is either uninterested or too occupied to talk on an issue it thinks is not an issue at all because in a democracy, everyone is equal and no one is above the law.
As #NepalVotes, Nepalis, especially the youth, are lately being provoked to speak up against injustice and to vote for “doers,” which is a good thing. But this is the same generation that was both asked and beaten to keep quiet, first at home and then in schools and workplace.
It wouldn’t hurt to say the political affairs of the country reflect our social, private and institutional lives because it is very much the unspoken truth. This is the ground reality of Nepali society at home, in schools and offices, in our neighborhoods, cities and villages.
We champion conservative thoughts but look for a liberal victory. Clearly, we are nothing but our choices.
As lies of revolution and regime change invade us once again, we are only too wary since we have been fooled enough in the name of Constitution but we haven’t been asking the right questions or what better explains the strong presence of monarchy, oppression and exploitation at our domestic turfs.
Don’t indifferent voters elect indifferent leaders?
Arpan Shrestha is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Twitter: @arpanshr
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