(Courtesy: Shakun Sherchand Leslie)
Headlines in the Kathmandu Post, January 3, 2008 (19 Poush / 2064) reads- Yadav makes a fuss again!
A video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQDl9l3_wsA
The photograph has two butch looking women, ushering an intense looking man in mud colored jwari vest, a white cotton scarf with a delicate border on the edge, casually cascading his shoulder. The loose, white sleeves covering his arms suggest he is wearing a khurta. The photograph abruptly cuts short the bottom, but any Nepali can guess that he is not making a fashion statement but asserting his identity.
Body language.
His right hand pinching the sides of his mouth- the pointer, the finger closest to the thumb, reveals a very well defined contraction of the muscle/ bone. His mouth has gone dry! He is being ushered to take a step that is soul repelling and yet he is moving forward. He needs courage! In the concoction of his face is the determination of the will. His eyes leak an emotion that is determined in purpose- angry, sharp and volition. Yet, the two women ushering him, reminds me of my own childhood when I was reprimanded and cajoled to meet an adult of importance whose wiles I suspected was very dangerous for the community. The two women besides him- one on his right with a red scarf, stands closer to him and looks like she is proud to be with him; the other on the left is making sure he follows track and does not lose him. Her ears close to the mobile, she appears to be taking instructions. His repulsion and volition spills over the edge of the page and sends a message of what preludes the third andolan.
Reported: In the State Hall, Singha Durbar, Prime Minister Girija P.Koirala waits in his chamber to administer the oath of office. There is no picture revealing him in waiting, but one can imagine a man, whose legs and hands are agile as the spider’s tentacles and his eyes as beady as an octopus, wearing a posture of grey nationality in his labeda surwal and a black topi giving height to his precarious position.
Language of oath: Matrika, sworn in as the Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation, inquires the language of oath. The tradition of oath taking has always been in Nepali. He demands his oath taking in Maithili, his mother tongue. Chief Secretary Bhoj Raj Ghimiri informs him the lack of provision of other languages in the constitution. An angry Yadav accuses the PM of his insensivity to Madeshi people.
Today, after much strife for social inclusion in the civil services by the marginalized groups, the reservations are merely a political stunt. As per the Civil Service Act, 45 % of total vacancies are for women, Janajatis, Madhesis, Dalits, disabled and backward regions. There is not a single chief district officer or police from the Madeshis. Why? In an exam conducted recently by the Public Service Commission, out of 2276 there were only15 Madeshis selected. The “problem of language” was acknowledged by Umakant Jha, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works. For most Madeshis and Janajatis, Nepali is a second language. In a country like Nepal, language is the key to retaining identity and culture. Akash Chaudary explained to me that he had passed the written, oral and physical exams for the recent Armed Police Force but was rejected on the basis of not being able to pay Rs.6 lakhs upfront. This grim fact reveals the selection criteria.
Party disobedience: He disobeys Prachanda, the Maoist Supremo’s “shining path”. Prachanda is at the mercy of the members of the 7 parties to bring him to abide by the rules. He reappears with Maoist leader Minister Dev Gurung.
Oath taking: PM Koirala recites like a high priest of the Sanhedrin in Nepali. Minister Yadav repeats the sentences in Maithili as a Madeshi layman.
Disappointment: Koirala is obviously disappointed with the ceremonial oath taking and leaves without extending his wishes to Yadav.
History: For the first time in history a government minister has taken an oath in his regional language.
During the Malla period, the official language was Sanskrit but the public language was Nepal Vasha ( Newari). Licchavi and Malla kings were republican by nature as they were governed by a council of ministers whose credibility lay with the approval of various communities.
Who is Matrika? Deconstructing Matrika is deconstructing history of feudalism. It permeates not only from the nooks and crannies of Singa Durbar but obviously those who usurped power to diminish the rights of its peoples, specially the rights f Madeshis, Janajatis, Dalits and Women.
Fuss: To deprecate Matrika’s fuss is to deprecate courage. You need courage by actions to determine the self in a country where deconstructing people like Matrika is the norm. One needs courage to go against the grain and construct the self and others. Nepal needs leaders who are guided by conscience rather than construed and conjured by laws. Laws, a discipline of man to encroach on another rather than free him have been the foundation of the fundamental rights in Nepal. A word like hoozor is held tightly by fools and the power it exudes crushes even the wise.
To deconstruct this incident is to know that courage is gathering. The courage of the deer’s to corner the tiger away from their waterhole. In simple human language in the past, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King and in the present, Mandela would call this fuss,
“Civil Disobedience Act”.
History not only repeats itself but teaches all that courage is the heart of human transformation. This incident reflects an honest and transparent sum of the whole unrest in the country.
Deconstructing Matrika is synonymous to deconstructing Nepal.
Related Posts:
Bahunists and Bahunism - No Room for feudal elements in the "new Nepal"
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/08/bahunists-and-bahunism-no-room-for.html
A Gurkha's Perspective on Bahunism
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/06/courtesy-anonymous-gurkha-listen-nepali.html
Bahunists and Bahunism - A mini-Dissertation on the Caretakers of Nepal's Feudal Tradition
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/03/bahunists-and-bahunism-mini.html
Ethnic Groups and Race Based Federalism: A Recipe for Disaster for Nepal
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/03/ethnic-groups-and-race-based-federalism.html
Nepal's Struggle with Feudalism and Fatalism - Moriarty, Martin and Manmohan as "Gods"
http://nepaliperspectives.blogspot.com/2007/05/nepals-struggle-with-feudalism-and.html
5 comments:
Before Girija lead NC used to threaten Palace, now madhesis are threatening Girija and NC.
Any lover of mother tongue would congratulate Matrika Yadav for his courageous stand.
Dr. Dhanakar Thakur
Founder President, Antarrashtriya Maithili Parishad
I agree with the author. "Deconstructing Matrika Yadav is like deconstructing Nepal" - literally.
And the more ethnicity based politics runs rampant, the quicker the Nepali state will disintegrate.
Thanks to Matrika Yadav and his master Prachnda and Baburam, the country once known as Nepal is soon to become a part of the Indian federation.
Idiots like Matrika Yadav, politicians without constituencies, are useless buggars who should be ridiculed, not memorialized.
When clowns are made Minsters rather than jesters as they should be, all you get is a dark comedy that is tasteless and sign of things to come.
When killng, extorting, and intimidating is badge of credibility then retracting views on a dime, misleading and mismanaging of state's affair is the norm. Have you watched the news lately?
Diehard
you are oh so foggy, dear. So annoyingly wordy, in your
vain attempt to be so other-worldy. Why don't you just peel off. All that stuf, the hatred and the anger. Revel, dear, but only in crystal clarity. Just like the $50,000 Swiss watch on the shelf that you see.
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