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Kathmandu Monday January 01, 2001 Paush 17, 2057.
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A day to forget
Wednesday, the 12th of Paush, was a day of
shame for Kathmandu. Just because one film actor in Bombay allegedly said something in an
interview and we Nepalese started to cut off our own noses wantonly. We burnt our own
cars, vandalized our own roads and damaged our own buildings. We insulted our own guests
and terrorized innocent people. We killed each other. Is all this our famed Bahaduri?
We will be the laughing stock of the world if
it turns out that the film actor made no such remarks. If this is an example of our
present character we do not need any enemies. We are perfectly capable of self-destruction
without any help from outsiders. If this is how we behave we cannot complain that others
hate us.
It was reported that this time our students
were in the forefront of the protests. But the people I saw going around the streets were
not students. They were plain hooligans who had left their education, values and
patriotism at home that day, who did not know what they were doing or why they were doing
it.
For this, each one of us is responsible. The
political parties - because not a single one of them had the guts to condemn the incident
outright or discipline its cadre. Each had one eye on how to embarrass the opponent and
another on how to get some mileage out of the trouble. What disaster will it take for all
our political parties to come out with one voice on at least one issue in Nepal?
The government shares responsibility - for
failing to instill confidence in citizens that it can tackle an issue with professionalism
so that people do not have to take law into their own hands.
The newspapers share responsibility - for not
verifying its facts before publishing a potentially damaging item or not rectifying it
later. We rightfully condemned the Indian media for false reporting during the Indian
Airlines hijack and so-called invasion of goods from Nepal. This time our own media was
found lacking.
Padma Jyoti
Former president of FNCCI |
