But now the small abode of Suraj Biswas at Bhadrapur-9 is frequented by high profile leaders and the small matter of getting democracy restored has also been attained. [break]
Everyone from the Speaker of the Constituent Assembly to government ministers make it a point to visit the Biswas home while they are in the district, but the family itself feels aloof amidst all the ado as their son is absent.
“Political leaders come and so do ministers, but that never is a substitute for one´s own son; this heart can´t be consoled,” says Suraj´s desolate mother Meena.
It was April 19, 2006 and protestors from across Jhapa were shouting slogans at district headquarters Chandragadhi. The local administration had put up barbed wire to prevent the protestors from entering the government offices, but the demonstrators were determined to break through the security cordon.
Unable to contain the multitude, police resorted to tear gas but the protestors remained undeterred and youths like Suraj were sprinkling water from pipes to dull the effect of the tear gas. The agitators finally managed to place the flags of political parties at the main gate of the District Development Committee (DDC) office at around two in the afternoon.
The army immediately announced that it would open fire if the demonstrators did not step back. But they did not listen. Around 2:15 p.m. Suraj had already joined in the procession, dropping the water sprinkling.
The soldiers suddenly opened fire and the crowd dispersed. Suraj, like most others, ran east toward the stadium for cover. “A bullet struck him in the head even as he neared the stadium and he fell to the ground,” Gopal Mandal, another demonstrator, said.
The Jhapa Red Cross team that came to the rescue of injured demonstrators found Suraj lying dead at the spot. They were returning after taking Rajan Giri, who was also hit in the gunfire, to Mechi Zonal Hospital some two and half kilometers to the south.
Suraj´s identity was established from his driver´s license. “The bullet had struck near the right ear and destroyed the head,” rescue team leader Lok Raj Dhakal recalls.
Suraj, 24, had served his own lunch that day and hurried toward Chandragadhi for the demonstrations. He had taken to working as a driver after quitting his studies and used to operate a taxi to Sikkim, India. He had returned from Sikkim just three days earlier.
“He left home in a hurry that morning… Neighbors suddenly told us about the incident at five in the evening,” Suraj´s elder brother Sanjay recalls. Sanjay, his father Shanti and his mother were all at home at the time.
“I wanted to go after learning about it and everybody prevented me,” Shanti, who runs a bicycle repair center in Chandragadhi, says. “But I went any way. His body was at the hospital. They didn´t allow me to go near the body,” he adds.
Suraj had wanted to build a concrete structure in place of the family´s wooden house before his elder brother´s wedding. “I will make money and we´ll build the house,” his mother Meena quotes Suraj as saying.
He couldn´t fulfill that dream while he was alive but the family has used the compensation money of one million rupees given them by the government to build a three-room concrete house.
“It was his wish and we also didn´t have a proper space for receiving high profile visitors,” Meena says. Suraj´s elder brother married two years ago and is currently working as an assistant at Jhapa Cottage and Small Industries.
Suraj´s father was living in obscurity four years ago, but has since received accolades and felicitations as the father of a martyr. He has just returned from Kathmandu after taking part in a sit-in by the families of martyrs to press for the constitution to be written on time.
“We now have a (concrete) house and respect in society. The elder son has a government job. But the younger son is gone,” a tearful Shanti says pointing out the irony.
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