As I walked closer to it, I was surprised to see hundreds of people – all from the Tarai region, which was evident from quite afar by their attire – inside and outside the building’s premises getting ready to head out en masse. [break]
Not able to contain my curiosity, I started a conversation with an elderly man, who was a part of the gathering. He told me that they had all come from Dhanusha district and were getting ready to take part in protest rallies. By then, it became obvious to me that they had all been transported into the valley by Kamal Thapa’s pro-monarchy Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-Nepal) to show the world that they have the numbers to enforce the Kathmandu valley shutdown that was called on Monday.
Seeing me converse with the elderly man, who was almost my grandfather’s age, a few more joined us. As I interacted with them, I learnt that most of them were very simple village folks who did not even know that they were here to demand that republicanism, secularism and federalism should be decided through a referendum. The only thing that everyone seemed to know was that they were here to take part in rallies.
They told me that about a 1,000 of them were putting up at the building while many, many others were housed elsewhere in Gaushala. They further informed me that the party had arranged for over 25 buses in and around their hometowns to transport people into the valley.
I was also told that though they hadn’t been paid to come to Kathmandu, the party had made arrangements for their food, transportation and lodging. However, a member of a four-member musical band proudly told me that they had been paid 10,000 rupees (for three days) to move around with the protesting groups.
As our conversation proceeded I noticed the almost zero presence of young men in the gathering. When I asked about the reason, an elderly man told me that most of them have either joined the UCPN (Maoist), CPN-UML or Nepali Congress (NC).
Don’t get me wrong. My intention here is not to point out that like the grandfathers and grandmothers in the gathering, Kamal Thapa’s ideas are outdated. Rather, it is to elucidate how bandas in Nepal are a staged affair. RPP-Nepal like the UCPN (Maoist), CPN-UML, NC, or for that matter any other party, has the right to organize bandas.
However, it is a shame how parties in Nepal stage-manage their bandas and label it as ‘popular support’. In some ways, this is also fine by me (if people are willing to join the protests, who are we to stop them?)
However, what is completely intolerable is how the public is coerced to support their bandas by resorting to vandalism and violence. For me, that is atrocious. If the parties have the right to call bandas, people have the right either to support or boycott it. Coercing people to support them by burning their two- or four-wheelers and physically assaulting them is an infringement on their rights, which, ironically, all the parties claim to be fighting for.
LESSON FROM MUMBAI
When a banda is called, the state has to step in and tell the people that it is there to ensure their safety and security. However, it is very, very unfortunate that in our country it is the security personnel who discourage people to move around during such shutdowns.
I stopped moving around in my two-wheeler from the day a policeman stopped me and asked me not to proceed because party workers (thugs rather) had blocked the road ahead. Shouldn’t he have been clearing the road instead of discouraging me not to drive around the city?
Citizens will dare to move around only if the state instills confidence in them that it is there to protect them. Else, why would they risk their limbs and lives when they know that they stand no chance against a frenzied crowd of goons and gangsters? I think it’s time we learnt from what recently happened in Mumbai, India.
The Shiv Sena, a party whose very name sends chills down the spines of every Mumbaikar, threatened to disallow the screening of the latest Bollyhood flick My Name Is Khan in Mumbai. Everyone who had been following the row between Shiv Sena and Shah Rukh Khan had thought that cinema halls would be reluctant to screen the movie and moviegoers would stay away from theaters.
That is certainly how the script would have unfolded had the state not stepped in. But, the Indian state ensured foolproof security by deploying about 2,000 security personnel in the theaters and Mumbaikars thronged to cinema halls in droves.
The incident sent a clear message that if the government is ready to provide security, citizens would not be cowed down by anyone. I hope that the Madhav Kumar-led government would learn something from what happened there and take appropriate steps whenever a shutdown is called in the future.
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