Probably, a forerunner

The Dudhejhari, Kailali district incident has come at a difficult time for the country. The deaths of the forest encroachers have to be condoled considering it to be that of our compatriots. However, the blame for instigating the gullible people from remote areas to claim the Dudhejhari forest, and even constructing hutment, can be plainly understood to be at the behest of the Maoist affiliated YCL. To lure people with false promises has been the forte of almost every political party, but the Maoists have no competitor in the sense that the people fall for their words as they claim to vouchsafe the landless people’s right to land. In fact, there is no denial that over the decades, even during the panchayat days, there was great rhetoric of the landless being allocated the land that was over and above the land ceiling slapped by the land reform measures. But, that was mere eyewash without any worthwhile gains being made. In the meanwhile, the fragmentation of the land holding had led to a great decline in productivity, and combined with the woes inflicted by the unpredictable climate, the farmers turned out the greatest sufferers. It is believed that the Dudhejhari squatters had come from the mountainous regions of Rapti and Karnali zones, where the livelihood of the people has always remained below the subsistence level. So, when a sister organisation, with a fair possession of fire power, of the frontrunner party UCPN (M) is involved then the situation is bound to be quite explosive, as the evidences are a pointer to.

The government is bound by duty not to allow illegal occupation of public land. But, the use of the police force to evacuate the squatters turned violent all because the occupants had access to firearms which shows how planned the move had been to occupy the public land. This is but one more case of how far the Maoists can go in flouting the laws of the land. That the Maoists are up to their old ways can be seen in the “peaceful” third phase of their protest programmes. The middle-path solution has all but been put into oblivion. When violent confrontations continue, peaceful passage is difficult to chart out. It is but a case where the words and actions do not match even a little. The Nepal bandh following the incident has every element to distrust the motive of the Maoists. Of course, the eviction of the squatters have given the Maoists the plank to spit venom at the government for using excessive force. But, in the given circumstances the police force had to resort to self-protection besides seeing to it that the public land was not encroached into.

This is but a clever ploy of the human shield where the innocent people have to bear the brunt but the mileage is gained by the political party concerned. Herein, the local authorities have also to bear some extent of the blame as they should have been aware of the illegal activities in Dudhejhari where hundreds of huts had been constructed before the security personnel moved in. An observer will be able to discern that the clouds of frustration are hovering, and the UCPN (M) knows how well to capitalize on it, which demands the government to come up with people-oriented relief measures urgently.

The neckties

So have school uniforms got anything to do with studies? Apparently, some guardians and school management committees of the community of government run schools of Morang district think that they do. So, now many government schools have made it mandatory for their students to wear neckties assuming that this would make them look smarter. Previously, only students of private schools wore neckties. The public schools are now competing with the private schools to enroll students. They are attempting to provide better education and alongside to see to it that their students pay attention to cleanliness and dress.

The government schools have introduced this dress code since the last few months and the guardians have noticed that the schools are actually providing education at par with the private ones. What more, many students who had left government schools to study in private ones have now opted to return to study in their former schools. So neckties, among other things, have also made a difference with changes in the conception of what parents have about government schools. This is but a positive outcome of healthy rivalry.