RAJBIRAJ: Loktantra Diwas was celebrated today across the country. But for the family of Dashan Yadav, the first martyr of the second people’s movement that ushered in loktantra, the celebrations hardly mattered.

Yadav’s family members regret that his sacrifice had gone in vain, as the state had failed to institutionalise the gains brought about by the movement.

Dashan Yadav of Khurhuriya, Malekpur VDC in Saptari, was killed in 2006 when their was a clash between people demanding democracy and police personnel.

Yadav’s eldest son Binod Kumar was killed by the state during the Maoist insurgency three years earlier.

Inarwati, Dashan’s wife, said both her husband and son had sacrificed their lives. “But for what?” she wonders now. “Leaders have failed to honour the martyrs by failing to draft the new constitution,” she said.

Dashan’s family bemoaned that the state had shown apathy despite the fact that the two members of their family had sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country and loktantra. Dashan’s other two sons Yogendra and Dipak are toiling in Malaysia after they failed to find jobs at home.

According to Inarwati, she invested Rs 1 million provided by the government to send her sons to Malaysia. She lamented that she was facing a hard time.

Saroj, Dashan’s son, complained that the family was assured that Dashan’s statue would be constructed in the village after the establishment of loktantra, but ‘it seems the announcement has been forgotten’. He said he had sought help from various party leaders to help him find a job, but in vain. “Political party leaders use sacrifices of martyrs as ladders to attain power,” he said, adding that the parties had failed to live up to the expectations of the country, people and families of martyrs.