Story of Dashain Returnee

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

I have been waiting for this Dashain festival since last two years. This is the first chance of going home and staying with friends and relatives to celebrate the Dashain festival in two-year time. I have heard from relatives and friends that a lot of things have been happening in Nepal; major changes in political, social, and economical structure and so on have occurred; I want to see them with my own eyes; so, a few days before the beginning of the Dashain festival, I flew into Kathmandu by an international airline. I can see the whole range of the Himalayan Mountains while flying in Kathmandu. The sky is blue; the air is cool. It was really nice to be back home at this time of a year. The rains have gone, with them the muddy and wet days, too.

After getting the stamp on my passport at the Immigration, I came to the Custom Office. The custom officials checked my handbag. I have two bottles of whisky. One of the lady custom officials took out a bottle and place on the table and told me you might go.

I have two bottles of whisky as I bought them at the counter with sign of ‘buy one get one free’ at the duty free shop at one of the international airport lounges. Some of the travelers bought even more. So, I was the only person carrying only two bottles of whisky. However, I have to go with a single bottle.

Some of the travelers have been arguing with the custom officials; some even threatened them with forcibly taking the bottles; others attempted to grab their whisky bottles from the table at the custom office. We were in the atmosphere of confusion at the Kathmandu airport.

Later on, I learned that the Finance Minister of the new coalition government of six political parties has instructed the custom officials to enforce the law on personal belongings to bring in with the travelers. The law permits a traveler a single bottle of whisky to bring in.

I thought whether the custom officials would record all those confiscated whisky bottles in the official ledger book and then make the miscellaneous income to the State or they simply would share those bottles among them and celebrate Dashain nicely at the cost of the industrious Nepalis working abroad and coming to Nepal for Dashain.

Then, the turn of taxi drivers, I found a number of taxis at the airport but they were quite expensive. I paid five hundred rupees for a five-kilometer ride. I asked the driver why so expensive the taxi in Kathmandu was; the answer was the price of gasoline has doubled. I heard the price rise in petroleum products at the international market and shortage of petroleum products in Nepal for more than two years during the Girija administration but the supply of petrol has been smooth after the new government came to power. It must be the miracle the new government has performed resolving the problem of shortage of petroleum products the Girija administration could not solve.

With my heavy baggage, I went to the counter for buying a bus ticket to Dharan: my hometown. “You have two options to travel to Biratnager and from there to Dharan: one via Indian territory and another traveling to Koshi by bus and then by a ferry to cross the Koshi River and then take a bus to your final destination.” I was really confused and asked him, “Why is it so?” “Because the Koshi River had swept away around 10 km of the East West highway.” “Yes, yes, I heard that the floods in eastern and western Nepal had caused havoc and led many families homeless.” The ticket seller said, “The bus fares have gone up, too.”

I changed my mind and decided to fly to Biratnagar and then take a bus to Dharan, as I would not be able to travel on a bus with my baggage then transfer the baggage to another bus and so on easily. I went to town to buy an airline ticket. While traveling I noticed a lot of new market places tall and new buildings coming up on both sides of streets; I also noticed some youngsters walking as if on a latest fashion, most probably they are from the prosperous East Asian countries.

While waiting for buying an air ticket, I casually said, “We have a lot of East Asian tourists particularly the young ladies; they look like Thais, Malaysians and the Philippines.” “No, they are all Nepalis,” said one of the fellow ticket buyers. “O! They wear jeans not even kurta not to mention saris,” said I. The man quick to respond and said, “Nowadays, none of the young ladies wear saris, some of them still wear kurta but most of them wear jeans; the sari stores have switched to jean stores.” “What a change,” I thought.

The airline fares have increased tremendously. One-way fare to Biratnager cost me five thousand rupees. However, a large number of private airlines have been operating on this route but still tickets are heavily booked. Either Nepalis have been rich or the damage to the East West highway has forced them to travel by air.

I read in one of the newspapers that a large number of Nepalis like me working in the Middle East or other countries have sent about Rs 150 billions in the last year to Nepal. If we divide it among the 25 millions Nepalis then it comes six thousands rupees to each Nepali. Again, it is a change. I have never thought that such a large amount of money has been flowing from abroad to Nepal.

At the Kathmandu domestic air terminal, a large number of travelers are waiting for flying to different parts of Nepal to be at home for Dashain. I happened to sit nearby a group of people talking about the Nepalese politics. Some of them were saying that Prime Minister Prachanda was not for a parliamentary system of governance; others said that the Prachanda administration was for setting up a people’s democratic republic; yet others said that former Prime Minster Girija Prasad Koirala vowed to fight for democracy to death. One of them clearly said that Girija had lost the power to Prachanda and he would never be able to get it back, as Prachanda would be able to enforce even emergency if a need for it arises. Another countered it saying that Girija would get it back within six months, as the current coalition of six political parties would fall within that period. Third one said that Girija has already started intriguing to tear down the current government, as he was the master of intrigue.

The debate about the political situation in Nepal continued while waiting for planes to come. One of the persons in the group said that recently, Girija has blamed the current government for delay in the work on crafting a new constitution, and then Girija said, ”That does not matter much as we have a constitution of 1990.” Thus, Girija was still for the revival of the monarchy. Then, another person countered it saying that Girija has delayed four solid months for turning over the power to Prachanda; he attempted to continue his government but could not; so, he should take the blame for delay in crafting a new constitution. A third person added poor Girija has been orphaned after the fall of the monarchy; Girija attempted to save the monarchy at any cost but could not do so after the Madheshi movement; Girija could have stood the pressure put up by the Maoists if the Madheshi had not added the pressure on him to scrap the monarchy; he had been so faithful to the monarchy throughout his political life, he was for giving a new life to the monarchy again; he did not like to learn the lessons from the defeat of the candidates advocating for the monarchy in the election for a Constituent Assembly. His faith in the monarchy has ruined him. He would have been a president; he was fit for that job, too but his never ending moves for saving the monarchy has ruined him.

One of the group members has very harsh words for Girija. He said Girija did not understand that the monarchy has fallen because former king Gyanendra scrapped the Constitution of Nepal of 1990 that had a sound foundation for the monarchy to stand; once that constitution was burnt down, the monarch had nothing to stand on. Similarly, Girija did not strictly follow the Interim Constitution and acted accordingly rather started doing very confusing things saying in favor of a baby king or a ceremonial king going against the Interim Constitution. Girija behaved like an infamous historical Nepalese Prime Minister called Jung Bahadur Rana using his orders as the rule of governance rather than following the rule of law. So, it is hard for the politically intelligent Nepalis to believe in what Girija in the context of his past performances. Nepalese voters have repeatedly mandated him to govern the country since 1990; so he got a chance of being a Prime Minister number of times in the past but he could not keep the power for a long time because of the dictatorial nature of his working style. Nepalis would not commit the same mistake again; so, the chance of Girija coming back to power has been slim.

The political debate at the airport lounge was very interesting to me, as I have had no such a chance to learn so many things in a so short time. Thanks to the company of the politically well-educated group of Nepalese people even for a short period I have been able to grab some knowledge about the current politics in Nepal.

The plane for flying to Biratnagar has arrived at Kathmandu; the airline staff made the announcement for boarding the plane. We boarded the plane to Biratnagar. While flying to Biratnagar, I saw beautiful mountains and hills and then approaching to the Biratnagar I have an aerial view of the damages caused by the floods in the Koshi River; some say it was a man-made disaster but it might be both man-made and natural calamity. I am sorry for the people in my home area and in the Western Nepal for the loss of their lives and for others loss of livelihood at the time of the most enjoyable festival called Dashain.

Biratnagar also has changed. It has been bigger and more commercial town than industrial. People are busy with their business. I took a three-wheeler to the bus station; a bus was about to leave for Dharan; so, I hurriedly boarded the bus. The ride was smooth, as the road built by the British has not damaged yet thanks to the maintenance done by the British agency.

The British had a recruitment center at Dharan to recruit Nepalis for serving in the British Gurkha Army. The British also has set up an agricultural extension service center at Lumle to serve the retirees from the British Gurkha Army in the area. So, the British built a road linking Biratnagar with Dharan and then with Dhankuta and to Hile to have an easy access to the Lumle Agricultural Center. So, we can easily travel from Biratnagar to Dharan and then to Dhankuta and beyond. Recently, the British has turned over the recruitment center to the Nepalese government, which in turn built a medical college in that area. The British Court had recently ruled giving the Gurkhas the rights to live in Britain; so most of the Gurkha retirees have been happy with the ruling of the British Court.

Dharan also has grown to quite a big town. It is a commercial and cultural town. People of different ethnic groups and races live there. So, we see different people living in harmony in such a small areas with high population density. It is an inner terai area, as we call it; so it is not as tropical as Biratnagar and life in this town is more comfortable than in other terai towns in summer and winter as well.

I was surprised to find the young generations particularly the youths are politically very conscious in Dharan. Some say the people in Dharan are more aware of the political events than the people in any parts of Nepal. They say that the politically least interested people are the Kathmanduites, as most of them are for earning more wealth than others and living more comfortable life than others.

In Dharan I found that every political party has made a youth group. The Maoists have the most publicized youth group called Young Communist League (YCL), the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML) has recently formed a youth force apparently to counter the influence of the YCL; similarly, the Nepali Congress (NC) has the tarun dal that takes the order from the mother party NC and could do anything following the order from the leaders of the NC.

Madheshi People’s Rights Forum (MPRF), Terai Madheshi Democratic Party (TMDP) and other terai political parties have not reached Dharan, yet, although it is an inner terai area. Some local politicians say that the MPRF is a cocktail of all dissident politicians formerly belonging to other major political parties such as NC, CPN-UML and the CPN-Maoist; so, it would have a hard time to keep all people cohesive in the future.

I found that most of the local politicians and people agreed that the current government headed by Prachanda has been moving fast and taking one decision after another and earned a good reputation after the Prime Minister Prachanda’s visit to China, India and then to UN during a period of almost a month. They agreed that Prime Minister Prachanda was a good communicator. So, he could force the then-Prime Minister Girija to put forward the proposal for removing the monarchy at the Constituent Assembly, and then even force Girija to resign and take his place.

Concerning the economic and social development under the current government, local people have more doubts than the belief in the possibility of developing those sectors very fast as envisaged by the CPN-Maoist leaders. Certainly, the Maoist leaders have the vision unlike the leaders of the NC and the CPN-UML but still some people say how they are going to transform the vision into a reality remains to be seen. In the past many leaders have made promises such as rising the living standard of Nepalese people to the Asian standard not defining it; and making a promise of making Nepal a Singapore and so on without firm policies and programs.

One more interesting thing I found is none of the locals except for the diehard Girija supporters likes Girija. Most of them complained that Girja had done only good for the people of his circle, family and relatives. So, it has led to corruption in the NC members. Girija was not shy of keeping the corrupt politicians within his circle of confidants; in fact, Girija himself was one of them. At one time, the Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) called him to the office to report on his family assets; Girija rather went to the Supreme Court of Nepal challenging the call of the CIAA. However, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the CIAA but Girija never showed up at the CIAA office. After the fall of the monarchy, Girija became the interim Prime Minister, and then the CIAA took back the subpoena served to Girija.

Most of the people and the opposition politicians and members of the tarun dal and youth force ask how the government is going to do so many things with so little money mentioned in the budget speech delivered by Finance Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai within the short term of the current government. Some people attempt to clear up this doubt, saying that the current government is not similar to the past governments that did not perform; in addition, the government is not doing everything but creating an environment conducive to the private companies and individuals to do everything possible in a short time; so, the government does not need to have a large amount of money for building hydropower stations, roads and other infrastructures.

The most remarkable recent development is the flight of tailors from Dharan to Darjeeling to make Nepalese dresses. The Darjeeling Hill Government of India has introduced the mandatory wearing of Nepalese dress when the current Government of Nepal has relaxed the need for wearing the Nepalese dress for even the State employees. I heard a large number of Nepalese dresses are made in Kathmandu and then shipped to Darjeeling to meet the needs of the local people for Nepalese dresses.

Another remarkable thing I noticed is the Nepalis have been calling for strikes and closure of roads and towns with so much of ease; some even threaten the government of launching a movement for even a minor thing. If a road accident happens on any road then the family members of a victim close the road until they are satisfied with the compensation for the loss of their loved one. Calling anybody killed by some criminals for the government to declare such a person as a martyr has been the fashion in Nepal. So, we do not know the real or accidental martyrs among the recently killed Nepalis.

One thing I don’t like is the Home Minister closing the restaurants after 11:00 PM in Kathmandu on the pretext of stopping the performance of disco dances and other things happening beyond the social norms. I do not contradict the reasons given by the Home Minister for closing the restaurants but vigorously oppose the closing of the restaurants causing the loss of 70,000 jobs of the restaurant workers. The Home Minister could raid the restaurants that run the anti-social businesses and punish them for any anti-social activities but not closing all restaurants for wrong doings of a few restaurant owners. So, the Home Minister needed to take back the decision on closing all restaurants immediately.

My visit to Nepal has been the most memorable, as I got the chance of learning so many things happenings in Nepal during my absence. I wish Girija will learn lessons from the past mistakes and improve his image if not to the extent of becoming Nepalese Mandela but at least to being far away from becoming Surya Bahadur Thapa. I hope the Home Minister would let the restaurant owners do the business as usual at the same time stopping all activities going beyond the Nepalese social norms. I really hope that the current government would shake up the bureaucracy and whip the State employees to work fast and create an environment conducive to the private sector work hard and contribute to the development as envisaged in the budget speech delivered for the fiscal year 2008. I am going back to work broad after celebrating the Dashain festival with my family members.