KATHMANDU, JANUARY 30

The self-immolation by Prem Prasad Acharya Santosh in front of the Parliament building in broad daylight has sent a chill up the spine of the country in the midst of a rather cold winter weather.

The country had barely recovered from the unfortunate Yeti Airlines crash leading to the demise of 72 persons on board than this incident has plunged the whole country in yet another ocean of grief.

If incidents like this one can occur at the front gate of the Parliament building while in business, at a time when the Prime Minister was passing by, one can well imagine how it can be prevented in the nooks and corners of our mountainous country Nepal, where many commit suicide by jumping off the desolate steep cliffs.

A person is set on fire only after one's demise in Nepali culture. A live person would take this scary course only to prove innocence in the past. Accordingly, Sita had to face this fire ordeal to demonstrate that she was spotless following the rejection by a washer man to let his wife enter his house after she had been away for a night, saying that he was unlike Ram who accepted Sita despite being kidnapped by Ravana for days together.

Many people have set themselves ablaze in the past, but the first recorded incident is said to date back to the year 396 when one 45-year-old Fayu jumped into the flame in China.

This was about the time that the Swayambhunath Stupa was constructed by Vrishav Dev, the great grandfather of Licchavi King Man Dev in our country.

Joining the dead husband in the funeral pyre, known as the Sati system, was quite routine. The notable one is that of Queen Rajrajeswori, who had been banished in Helambu but was later forced to join King Rana Bahadur Shaha in the raging funerary fire by then Prime Minister Bhimshen Thapa in a bid to crush his opponents in the year 1805. It was Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher who banned this evil practice forever in 1920.

The self-destruction by Tibetan supporters in protest against the Chinese takeover of Tibet is another glaring event. In 2013, one Karma Ngedon Gyatso committed the hara-kiri on August 6 even in Nepal at the Bodhnath Stupa premises.

The Buddha, after the 15th week of his enlightenment, had preached to his disciples not to indulge in two extremes of sensual pleasure and self-affliction and instead adopt the middle path that produces vision and knowledge leading to calmness in life. A Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, however, said in the seventies that to express one's will by burning oneself is not an act of destruction but an act of construction, and thus to suffer for the sake of one's people is not suicide.

A long suicide note posted in Facebook indicates that Acharya was highly frustrated despite his sincere efforts. It will be appropriate to mention an episode of the currently ongoing month-long Swasthani recitation regarding the self-immolation of Sati Devi, the consort of all powerful God Mahadev of the Hindu pantheon, after she could bear no more the insult meted to her beloved husband by her father, Daskshya. Acharya had tried all the means available under the sun, including going for a foreign job in Qatar. But the loan ballooned so fiercely that he did not have any other al-ternate than to take such an unfortunate decision.

Acharya's act has to be viewed side by side with several such unfortunate incidents that occur in the country every day. To provide attention only to Acharya's sorry plight will be to do injustice to several similar other individuals.

After all, on an average, 17 persons are said to commit suicide every day in Nepal.

Only two days after Acharya burned himself to death, one person in Jhapa took resort to felo de se. The question arises as to whether it was a normal suicide or otherwise. Murder not suicide featured prominently on placards carried by his sympathisers in a demonstration rally staged to protest against the death of Acharya.

Acharya appears to have made several attempts to end his life in the past.

Many others who commit suicide leave notes behind their departure from this rather cruel world as did Acharya. The major difference is that it occurred in a public place visible to many people. Moreover, his suicide note is elaborate and written in an appealing manner. This is the reason why this incident has attracted the attention of the whole country, putting it heads and shoulders above its counterparts.

An inquiry committee has been set up to look into the life taking act of Acharya, which was not done in the case of other similar events. He has blamed some of his relatives, his business partnering firms as well as individuals, loan giving banks and non-government organisational relief agencies. The committee cannot recommend punitive measures to the aforementioned people and institutions based on the allegation of one party.

But it can certainly extract the essence of his allegations and make recommendations to address them in the future.

The main essence is the culture of delayed or even non-payment in Nepal even after the signing of an agreement showing one reason or the other. This is rampant in both the government and non-government sector. It is not only that justice delayed is justice denied. It is also that payment delayed is payment denied.

The second one is the forced bribery paid to the government authorities, which Acharya has disclosed while importing vegetables from his native place to Kathmandu. The third is utter distrust of the government and the faith in the new parties and leaders.

Acharya's departure has certainly triggered an Arab Spring kind of revolution in the minds of the Nepali people as did Mohammed Bouazizi, a street vendor, after he burned himself in Tunisia. Whether it will manifest physically, only time will tell.

A version of this article appears in the print on January 31, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.