Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai is a NCP youth close to a media darling akin to his Congress counterpart Gagan Thapa who stand out in Nepali establishment politics for their young age, looks and rhetoric finessed through early recruitment. His late inclusion in the Oli cabinet absolved him of the public scrutiny attracted by his colleagues. Bhattarai’s organizational politics, however, appears to have cushioned him from gauging the actual strength of public antagonism against the system and government when he chose to delay a connecting flight from Nepalgunj and was caught evidently unaware of the furor delayed passengers poured on him because of the abrupt postponement of the scheduled flight for which passengers had already boarded. The matter would have ended had he faced a few more words of antagonism and tendered his apologies. The apology came with separate claims trashed by his protagonists, in this case activists against corruption wherein the spearhead is an outspoken youth gaining popularity for his narrative on the prevalent corruption and recent government persecution in a Surkhet incident in course of an anti-corruption rally there. The matter doesn’t end here unfortunately. A press conference designed to explain the activists’ point of view was interrupted by government goons who snatched the activist, Gyanendra Shahi and the already present police took over after a scuffle on grounds of protective custody. A series of claims and counterclaims have resulted since and the government has even banned Shahi from entering several districts, or the party youth have, and the rumor is that government is to clamp down on segments of the population opposing the prevalent system.
A less publicized incident of similar incarceration has taken place previous o this incident when people of the Shiva Sena party were picked up from the Hanuman Dhoka vicinity on grounds of preventing them from demonstrating with black flag in course of the Indra Jatra festival. Although the bulk of the people detained were released several hours later, Shiva Sena leader Anil Basnet and several other remain under custody without charges at time of writing and have been juggled from one place to another under detention without charge. The anti-corruption campaign backed by senior lawyers saw to the ultimate release of Shahi a day later while the Shiva Sena activists have yet to seek legal recourse it seems. Whatever, the state has declared itself poised for extra-legal action disrupting not only press conferences and the ensuing public reaction on the streets. Complaints have had to be made at the Human Rights Commission and the judicial remedies have been sought for this flagrant violation of common laws enshrined in the constitution by none other than government wings where violence and the threat of violence have been exhorted to by none less than the ruling party president Pushpa Kamala Dahal.
A new phase of this state excess appears to have been augured in by government. On the one hand, this reflects the uncertainty in government at the public movement while, on the other, this has added to the prevailing public insecurity. Surprisingly the professional media organizations, university officials from whose premises the youths hail and the law and order machinery appear casual bystanders. The streets appear once again poised for change and the anticipation of state terror is high.
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