Light is more important than lanterns
A poem is more important than a notebook
And the importance of kissing is more than lips.
My letter to you is great,
But we two are more important than that.
These are the documents,
Where people will search and find
Nizar Qabbani, Syrian poet
The terrible days of 23rd and 24th of August were coming to mind again. Even if you forgot, where were you? And also when the day of fathers comes and their memory comes more, it is something we have experienced. After all, how can we forget those days that shook us all from the heart and hurt us?
On the other hand, the wounds of August 10 are healing. The settlements along the banks of the Trishuli river which have been damaged by the avalanche. Families are like bird's nests after being blown apart by a storm. Young children who have lost everything that is theirs. Elderly people who survived even after losing their children. Young men and women who are thinking of the long days that they have to spend after the husband and lover or wife and girlfriend never meet again. And somewhere in the ruins of the house, under the pile of sand, leado and Gegran, or inside the suffocating tunnel of hydropower, their loved ones are still hoping to be rescued alive even after their relatives have disappeared.
Trishuli is also the way of civilization connecting Nepal, Tibet or South Asia and China for hundreds of years. This was also the route of the tea horse that carried the tea produced in Yunnan, China to South Asia. Centuries ago, Tamang and Hyolmo entered Nepal by crossing the same Lhende river through the same fort. Paths, bridges, pati, pauwa, chautari, streams and wells that carry the heritage of our culture. North Gaya, Betravati's treaty stone, the fort built to resist the Chinese army, goreta carved by pilgrims' feet here and there, monasteries, temples, lungdars roaming in courtyards and monasteries from Syafrubansi to Timure Ghatekhola. All the memorials of our civilization, culture, faith and belief were swept away by a flash flood. Many signs of the Trishuli river civilization disappeared.
They are comparing the two big events that ruined the country in this month of August. Exactly one year ago, on August 23, two dozen youths were killed in a shooting in front of the Baneshwar parliament building. An anger was bubbling up in the society. The youth who were chased by unemployment had faith in the established institutions and political leadership, in the government and the courts, in the law and the constitution, in the advertisement of assurances and dreams. Many Shaktis were digging with kerosene and salai sticks in their hands to set fire to the dry stubble of this dissatisfaction. Sometimes in Lhotse Mall and sometimes in Tinkune, preparatory exercises were being done. The blind rulers sat in the round mech and were delighted. Thinking himself immortal and strong like Indra, the king of heaven. They thought that if there was no social media, the voices of the disaffected and angry common people could be silenced and the elite could continue to enjoy power.
In the end, the government overtook those who were walking with Salai and closed the network and rubbed flint on dry straw. Genji was a vanguard, behind which were elephants, horses, camels and ministers of discontent. The home system that was supposed to manage peace and security proved to be paralysed. The Prime Minister was not touched by such things. He was sitting on a two-thirds support and was suffering from a terrible delusion of power. The ever-present discontent of the streets had an opportunity to pour into it.
Amidst the chaos created by the inaction of the government and the anger of the streets, people started collapsing with bullets bought with their own taxes. And most of the ranks of those who fell were of such youth who were affected by the disorder (do you remember the word disorder used in Padmaratna Tuladhar's Vasantpur speech?). This row was originally under 30 years. The narrative established in the society made them think that only by getting rid of the then three political parties and their leaders, i.e. the government and those who have been running the power for thirty years, will open the way for them to earn and eat on this soil. A blood-soaked shoe in the middle of the street was a sign of it.
In response to that, the decision taken by the incumbent Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was the cruelest tragedy of our time. He neither felt his moral responsibility nor felt the need to correct his decisions. He did not consider the blood of the young man who fell by the bullet as water. Nor take necessary steps to enforce law and order. Only resorted to oppression and threats. As a result, he lost the trust of his subordinate security agencies and bureaucracy. He lost the trust of the coalition parties. Questions were raised even within his own party, but he did not leave but agreed to run away. The impact of his reactions became more dire.
Parliament Building, Government Secretariat, Supreme Court, Rashtrapati Bhavan, etc., where the government is present, the presence of Congress, UML and Maoist Party, known as monuments of democracy and republic were destroyed. Private commercial and industrial establishments were destroyed. He appeared to be the owner of the fire as he showed himself to be extinguishing it himself. The arms of the police office reached those arrested on various charges who were freed after the police surrendered. Jails were broken and those held for prosecution became kingpins of the streets. For some time, such psychology and fear prevailed that the country itself is under the control of criminals.
August 24 and August 10 had one thing in common: the destruction of national monuments and cultural heritage. On August 10, nature created a frenzy. On August 24, the chaotic group.
On August 24, some old kings were thrown from their horses and thrown on the ground. For 20 years, sitting in the vicinity of power and authority, one floor above the people, pelting stones on the street from inside the glass window, forced a group of elites to come down to earth. Sushila Karki became the prime minister from beyond the conception of the constitution. Parliament was dissolved. And the attempt to bring the constitution, which was almost in a coma, to the leak through elections also started. Elections held after 5 months led politics to a new chapter.
KP Oli, who was ousted from power on August 24, went to the election without accepting his weaknesses and was defeated by more than 50,000 votes in his own neighborhood with a youth like Allare of his grandson's generation.
The youth in the Nepali Congress revolted and displaced the generation of Deuba and his colleagues from the party. A young leader like Gagan Thapa was defeated in the first election he contested as party president.
On the 24th of August, a terrible sad scene was coming from the Deuba residence in Budhani Lanth. In that scene, the incumbent Foreign Minister Arju Rana Deuba was being harassed and insulted by the male protesters and streams of blood were flowing from the head of Sher Bahadur Deuba, who himself became the Prime Minister after leading the country five times. The question of whether there were protesters or looters in his house is still not resolved. The scenes where the passers-by looted many things, the scenes where houses were set on fire were terrible. And the most meaningful thing was that the Nepali Congress Party itself did nothing against the incident except for a general protest statement. And it was seen that he tried to distance himself from Deuba and Arju. What is the biggest tragedy in politics?
and; After 11 months, a group of congressmen went to demonstrate from the airport to Chandol to welcome Deuba. It was a sign that a circle had been completed. That is to say, those who were displaced after August 24, have returned to the day to wash away their rotten history. KP Oli, who is ruling dogmatically by ignoring the people and even the constitutional system, is going to wash his mouth with the murky water of Trishuli to brighten his image. Why is this opposite current flowing?
Light is more important than lanterns
A poem is more important than a notebook
The poetry of the Syrian poet Qabbani carries a serious meaning. The significance is not the lantern but the light. It doesn't matter what the poem is written on a laptop or in a notebook, the significance is the poem. Lips are only a medium, lips kiss only integrates the embrace and emotional emotion of the loved one. In other words, the meaning here is not the means, but the result, not the path, but the destination.
The events of August 23 and 24 have become a means to destroy the old dogmatic regime, they have also opened the way for a new one. These are only lantern, dar and kerosene. Prakash is now given good governance, service delivery, economic opportunities and fair distribution of opportunities. What is sought is not a notebook, but a poem, not a government or the face of a person sitting on a chair, but change and transformation. Such a change should be seen in the attitude of the rulers, in the government's policies, programs and results. Has service flow slowed down? That there was a change in the attitude of the rulers? The change came as if the person who did not fear the parliament became the prime minister. A person who ignored the president, openly threatened to imprison the constitutional bodies for five years became the prime minister, curtailed the rights by abolishing the staff and student organizations, arrested arbitrary citizens by mixing the legal procedures and methods, killed and humiliated the leadership of the organization.
Lips that do not kiss, as beautiful as they are, do not carry the importance of love. Looking at the new generation that we had a little hope and trust in, the government led by the Genji generation, and the youth led, it is one thing to look good, but what is it trying to deliver? What kind of democracy is being tried to lead to by creating fear and terror in the society? If these questions are not answered, it will be like having nice lips but no love.
The frustration and anger that existed in the society yesterday, the flame of dissatisfaction that was thought to have burned the old leadership, the arrogant, anti-people culture brought in by it, is also seen in the new face as a sign of another tragedy. I hope this does not happen. My best wishes to the youth. This young cabinet can attack the existing economic-political crisis. Don't dishonor the blood of the youths who died by bullets during last year's Bhadaure frenzy. His family members can say with pride that the change brought by our relatives by giving their blood and life has brought light to the country! The injured of the movement should not beg for food on the streets.
My country, I will build you again
If necessary, with bricks made from your own life
To hold your roof
Even with their own bones if necessary
In the fragrance of your flowers
Which is fragrant with your youth.
I will wash the blood off your body
With the flow of your tears.
Darkness will be removed from this house
I the blue color of our sky
I will paint my poems
Me with my children
I will start my second puberty.
- Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet, My country, I will rebuild you.
A few days ago, I reached two government offices which are barely 1200 meters away from the walls of the Singha Darbar. Broken windows and doors, broken floors and walls, burnt plaster and furniture, files lying on the floor and everywhere, yet employees working. It seemed that this country has been standing on the ruins for a long time with one leg in torn shoes. Bhupi Sherchan's Ganthar Ghar has reached the state of an old and lonely soldier who is losing everything like poetry.
It is only 6 months since Balendra Shah took over the government, standing at the grave site of the youth who died on the streets of Baneshwar in the sacrifice of 23 August. But looking at the building that is serving from these ruins, it seems that the life of this government will start from a pile of ashes and end in ashes. There are also other questions: You burned the country easily, but have you decided to make a new one? Why did not burn the country? Why were the structures, institutions and institutional memories built over fifty years burned? Does the country become like this? Let's not assume that the arsonists won, let's say that when the ruins will be restored. I wonder who will make it.
I have been saying that the Genji Movement of Nepal from the very beginning was born out of the frustration caused by the political crisis and the insults done to the people by the party leaders in power and in the parliament at that time. Even now, I regret that I did not physically join this movement. At least if we had joined such a movement, we would not have fallen into the hands of defiant and destructive extremists. It was necessary to displace the old ones to the extent that I am also a participant in that movement, an agitator. But when he was physically absent, he who was gone became the one who controlled the outcome. Now the government and power are in their hands. But the risk of this monkey's hand becoming a coconut is increasing.
We wanted the concept of secularism of the current constitution to be followed. Let federalism be strong. The local level should be effective. Excessive politicization of existing institutions should be removed and made result-oriented. But the initial signs are not like that. On the contrary, I see a government that has only destroyed what is there and has not determined the destination.
Secularism was criticized by the Prime Minister while taking the oath of office and secrecy. Still, Parliament has not been made active in making essential laws like the Federal Civil Code and the Education Act. It has been seen during the Trishuli Bhotekoshi flood that the union government sees the state and local levels as enemies or pariahs.
This is not how a country is built. By approving the summary of August 24 for five years, the main perpetrators of the incident have the legitimacy to run the country. At this time, there is no option to expect from them. But what they need to understand is that if the crisis is not dealt with and people do not realize that the economic opportunities in the country are increasing and good governance is being maintained, the 24th of August will repeat itself quickly and more violently. Dissatisfaction and anger are appearing again. How fast did this happen? Again I may have to hum this poem:
I may be old
Jhalak Subedi is a political analyst.
