[Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai, the widely believed ideologue of the 10 year Janayuddha, the people’s war against ‘status-quo’ for ‘parivartankari agragami chhalang’ - if we may in a civil phraseology - 'a giant leap forward' for a change in the country, that took some 16,000 Nepalese lives, may have walked around those areas also. The reason being, the Maoists rebellion started in 1996 in the country and intensified in those areas also until a ceasefire was announced to sign an agreement in 2006. ]
By B. K. Rana
This week at least three pictures from
around the Himalayas caught our attention. One of them is a
photograph of a hanging ram laced into a corset of ‘human-ferry’ being carried across Karnali River in Mugu District of Karnali Zone, Western Nepal, posted onto his Facebook wall by one of
the former prime ministers of Nepal, Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai who, apparently has deep understanding of planning for all-round development of such
regions: implying also infrastructural
development such as: roads, bridges or suspension bridges for a kind of ‘daily
commute’, where no road access is available. The western Nepal Mountain is
difficult rugged terrain, remote and the least developed part of the
country. This should also mean that the
people in those areas are least educated and who virtually can’t raise their
voices loud for their basic needs for a living as the human being. He has shared the picture from Kantipur Daily and captioned - 'our transport system in the 21st century'.
Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai, the widely believed ideologue of the 10 year Janayuddha, the people’s war against ‘status-quo’ for ‘parivartankari agragami chhalang’ - if we may in a civil phraseology - 'a giant leap forward' for a change in the country, that took some 16,000 Nepalese lives, may have walked around those areas also. The reason being, the Maoists rebellion started in 1996 in the country and intensified in those areas also until a ceasefire was announced to sign an agreement in 2006. All over the
Internet, there are some pictures that show him walking around some remote areas in western Nepal. The question is not whether he saw the tuin - a ropeway over Sipaghat but why on earth
didn’t he think of ordering the concerned officials to build in those areas also some suspension bridges when he was the prime minister of the country? But there was also an online report that some Nepalese party-people had received government fund for building a bridge where there was no river running at all. There are
such pictures all over the Facebook walls and some German tourists have recently
posted a video of few students crossing swollen Trishuli River in a Tuin, or a dangerous ropeway carriage over a huge river in some other Nepalese mountains. Now, posting this picture Dr. Bhattarai is implying that Nepal's transportation system is not of the 21th century and which demands strong will power and commitment in the government to build more suspension bridges among the settlements where required. This is certainly a good gesture he is making here but the country is wasting lots of money on some of the all weather sickly party leaders' treatment abroad and which Dr. Bhattarai also could not resist while in the office. Dr. Bhattarai became the 35th Prime
Minister of Nepal from August 2011 to March 2013.
Interestingly, however, it is the only Dr.
Bhattarai, one of the former prime ministers of Nepal, that seems active in social media,
making posts onto his Facebook walls but sadly none other prime ministers, neither
sitting nor former, use such a powerful tool to outreach the folks in the grassroots.
The other former Prime Minister Jhal Nath Khanal also has a Facebook public page with only fewer 'likes' or subscription so to say, less than 2405 and without a single post made whatsoever. It is not updated since March 4, 2011. Prime
Minister Khanal has his own website also but which unfortunately seems now down for some unspecified reasons. It also does not seem, the other former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has a website or social media pages of his own. But K. P. Oli, the Nepal Communist Party [United Marxist-Leninists] Chairman and Parliamentary Leader to the Nepalese Parliament, nowadays, appears all spirited in the social media but he recently told Kathmandu media people 'criminal minded', 'of irresponsible attitude towards the country', 'starhin' - person with no social standing and responsibility and 'jhalla' - drunken also . Should one of the ruling political party leaders tell out loud in the public this way ?
*
Coming down also from Facebook, the other picture stunned us down here but it remains unclear as to when it was taken actually. But it certainly seems being taken
in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. It is a picture of some people demonstrating in the
streets of Kathmandu, holding a banner reading - Bhikhari Ekata Samaj, Nepal - 'Beggars Unity Society- Nepal' ! So, in
democracy people can form a union
peacefully but the beggars particularly in the capital city of Kathmandu doing
so - does seem not very spontaneous at all. It does seem motivated to degrade Nepal down the gutter. The political party leaders, the government, bureaucrats and other people are also responsible for their coming out in the streets. Prof. Nava Raj Panta of Gimcheon University, South
Korea commenting to our Facebook post yesterday wrote - ‘some 15 years ago,
an Indian Tourist Bus dropped-off many beggars from Gorakhpur at Kathmandu's Kalanki and those of whom, few days later, appeared in
Dallu Bridge Area and Ratna Park as well in Kathmandu’. He suspects those are the beggars from
India and suggests Nepal government to check whether they are any Nepalese nationals or not. According to
the laws of the land, no foreigners can form, register and run any organization
in Nepal.
Whether the beggars were from Nepal or
India, as Prof. Panta has remarked above,
is not the question we wanted to raise here. The question here is how has Nepal gone
down the drains over these recent years ? Or, where
has gone Nepal after the recent socio-political change ?
Was the change brought to whomever for doing whatever they wanted in the country ? The picture
does not show anything one would feel proud of being a Nepalese or becoming the people of Nepalese origin in
other parts of the world. Rather with this picture everywhere in the social media, the name of world famed Gorkhalis - in
other words, Nepalese people is now tarnished again. This is certainly a nasty picture that has come out from
Kathmandu. The beggars should have organized themselves in some other name to raise their voice.
*
[Below is a press statement received from New Delhi, India that a group of people observed today, October the 9th, Mahishasur Martyrdom at one of the prestigious universities in India. This university appears to be producing radical social activists that seem to be bringing about social change in South Asia. ]
प्रेस विज्ञप्ति:जेएनयू में महिषासुर शहादत दिवस ९ अक्टूबर को
८ अक्टूबर २०१४, नई दिल्ली।
-
जितेन्द्र यादव
जवाहरलाल नेहरु विश्वविद्यालय में ऑल इंडिया बैकवर्ड स्टूडेंट्स फोरम के तत्वाधान में ९ अक्टूबर, शरद पूर्णिमा के अवसर पर महिषासुर शहादत दिवस का आयोजन किया जाएगा। संगठन के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष जितेंद्र यादव ने इस दिन का महत्व बताते हुए कहा कि दुर्गा द्वारा छलपूर्वक बहुजन राजा महिषासुर की हत्या के बाद असुर समाज ने अपने नायक की याद में पूर्णिमा की चांदनी रात में शोक सभा की थी।
श्री यादव का कहना है कि महिषासुर बंग प्रदेश (जिसे आज बंगाल, बिहार, उडीसा और झारखंड के नाम से जानते है) के प्रतापी, न्यायप्रिय और वलशाली राजा थे। आर्य जब इस प्रदेश पर हमला किए तो उन्हें महिषासुर की संगठित सेना के सामने कई बार परास्त होना पडा। अंत में आर्यों ने छलपूर्वक दुर्गा के द्वारा राजा महिषासुर की हत्या करवा दी। किसी भी सभ्य समाज में हत्याओं का जश्न नहीं मनाया जाता। महिषासुर शहादत दिवस बहुजन तबकों के इतिहास और नायकों को जानने की कोशिश है। यह ब्राम्हणवादी सांस्कृतिक वर्चस्व के प्रतिरोध में बहुजनों की सांस्कृतिक मुक्ति का आंदोलन है।
जेएनयू में आयोजित महिषासुर शहादत दिवस में इतिहासकार ब्रजरंजन मणि, वरिष्ठ पत्रकार अनिल चमडिया, हंस के संपादक संजय सहाय, जेएनयू के प्रोफेसर प्रमोद यादव, दलित लेखिका अनिता भारती, स्त्रीकाल पत्रिका के संपादक संजीव चंदन, दलित-आदिवासी दुनिया के मुक्ति तिर्की, कौशलेन्द्र यादव समेत अन्य गणमान्य व्यक्ति शामिल होंगे। इस अवसर पर युवा पत्रकार प्रमोद रंजन द्वारा महिषासुर के जीवन पर एक पुस्तिका का विमोचन भी किया जाएगा। ९ अक्टूबर को आयोजित इस कार्यक्रम में सबसे पहले राजा महिषासुर की स्मृति को नमन करते हुए उनकी याद में १ मिनट का मौन रखा जाता है। इसके बाद उपस्थित वक्ता महिषासुर और बहुजनों की संस्कृति और इतिहास के संबंध में अपने-अपने विचार रखते है। इस अवसर पर राजा महिषासुर के जीवन पर आधारित प्रसिद्ध चित्रकार लाल रत्नाकर के चित्रों की प्रदर्शनी भी लगाई जाएगी।
