Our Tarai has been burning for weeks but our indifferent government doesn’t care. Our police personnel are being killed by the protestors. Is it because of police brutality that the protestors are out there lynching police personnel in broad daylight or our politicians have hired goons and killers to do the dirty work?

Our police wallahs are killing the protestors as well. Those leading the protests should ask their cadres to protest peacefully instead of arming themselves with axes, swords and other home-made weapons. Our protestors can learn a thing or two from Dr KC. You don’t need violence to make the government listen to your demands. Let just hope that your demands are as genuine as Dr KC’s.

Our indifferent government is to be blamed for the mess in Tarai. They should have known better. They failed to do their homework and they are still failing to assess the real situation and provide adequate resources to the security personnel to contain the violence. We cannot let our security personnel get lynched everyday and keep quiet. We cannot let our protestors get shot and then think it’s okay either.

Shooting protestors will not bring an end to the bandas in Tarai. It’s the politicians who are leading such protests who are responsible as well. They only way to put an end to the ‘Burning Tarai’ campaign is to at least get the Madhesi and Tharu politicians to sit down for talks with our incompetent government and stop their protests for now.  

Please don’t shut down Tarai for months and let the people across the country suffer from shortages of essential items. Please do not restrict our movement. Please do not shut down schools and businesses. Our kids need to go to school and we need to go to work so that we can make enough to pay our kids’ school fees.

It’s about time the intellectuals, civil society members and ordinary folks from all walks of life join hands and take to the streets both in Tarai and across the country to demand an end to such violence. Who will benefit from burning police posts and government offices? Only the criminals and politicians who support such criminals will get to do whatever they want. They will get to rule with their own set of laws. They will get to extort and kill freely because there will be no police or any government presence in their area. Is this what we want in Tarai?

It’s sad to hear of such losses every day. Why is our incompetent government silent? Why can’t it talk to those leading such protests in Tarai and work hard to resolve the differences? Well, it’s because our politicians only care about their petty political interests. They want to make sure that they are in power or they will be in power in the future. It’s just a game for our clowns while common citizens have to suffer due to their juvenile antics.

 Our incompetent government thinks that the protests will die down once the Madhesi and Tharu activists get tired and then go home. It’s the same with Dr KC and his hunger strike. This is not the first time Dr KC is fighting against pickpockets and con artists who want to only profit by opening medical schools in the country without adequate infrastructure. He is fighting against those thieves who are affiliated to our political parties, who have invested heavily in the medical education in this country and want to extort from the students by charging whatever they deem fit.

Dr KC wants to kill corruption in the medical education sector. Our incompetent government would rather be happy if Dr KC died and they can go back and grant licenses and whatever needs to be done to let the byaparis make money by opening as many medical schools in the country. Yes, that’s how our politicians think. Let the people die while they continue to enjoy the loot and share power till we will be left with nothing.

Our politicians are safe. They get security from the state. They get to meet each other over drinks and boast whose cadres are more violent. They really don’t care about the people. We thought that our politicians would now see the light and come to their senses after the Big One shook us all. But nope, our parasites have already forgotten the sufferings of those people affected by the earthquakes.

We thought things would move forward after we got a CEO of our National Reconstruction Authority. Homes, schools and government buildings will be built. But it seems that our politicians are still stuck with the old mindset where power and money takes centre stage while the rest are not relevant to their agenda.

The government is supposed to provide security, maintain law and order and open our borders and prevent protestors from bringing the Tarai region to a halt. But it just doesn’t care. Our President and Vice-President should visit Tarai and talk some senses to the protest organisers but of course, our politicians are too scared to visit the crisis zone.  

How do we end the Tarai crisis? If it’s only about power and money then maybe we, the common folks should offer voluntary donations to those shutting down Tarai. Yes, it is not right but it looks like we don’t have much option because our government sucks. Let the goods pass freely from the border to the capital, so that we won’t have to suffer from shortages and be at the mercy of black-

marketers who will jack up the prices to make a quick profit.

Maybe, our police personnel should offer protection money to the protestors so that their lives will be spared and our protestors won’t burn down police posts and government buildings.  Our schools and businesses should offer some chiya kharcha as well so that our kids can go to school and businesses can make some money. After all, this is New Nepal where every con artist masquerades as leaders needs some dough and it is us, the people, who have to pay.  

Guffadi is a grumpy old man who blogs at guffadi.blogspot.com. You may contact him at [email protected]