On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
On Saturday, 19 September, on the occasion of the day of promulgation of the constitution, the Constitution Day was being observed by the government at the Nepal Army Pavilion. The President, the Prime Minister, the heads of the constitutional bodies, ministers, leaders from different political parties, high-ranking government officials, heads of the diplomatic missions were gathered at the Army Pavilion to observe the Constitution Day.
At the presence of the VIPs and representatives of the diplomatic missions, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli was delivering his speech highlighting the achievements made by the constitution in the last five years since the promulgation of the constitution. He was claiming that the nation is heading towards prosperity under his leadership and the present constitution.
On the other side of the Pavilion, at the Open Theater, around 500 hungry people were gathered to receive free meal served by the Hundreds Group. They were waiting for the meal with an empty paper plate on hand. Meanwhile, the security personnel informed the social workers arrived there for not serving meals as the constitution day was being observed at the Army Pavilion. The security personnel were saying that for the security of the VIPs food should not be distributed there on the constitution day. The social workers were requesting the security personnel to allow distributing meal as it was going to be wasted.
Due to the government announced months-long lockdown followed by prohibitory order, many people have lost their job and many of them are even unable to manage two-time meals. The Hundreds Group is the only hope to keep filled their stomach at least one time a day for those helpless people. There were seen many elderly citizens and also kids in the queue waiting for food. For months, the Hundreds Group, with the support of the kind people in the society, is serving the one-time meal to those hungry people. The government is doing nothing to those helpless people suffering from the pandemic and lockdown.
The cruel government which is claiming that no one will die from hunger didn’t allow permission to distribute food as the Prime Minister and President were attending the function!
Helicopters started to fly in the sky to shower flower petal at the venue on the occasion of the constitution day. Those hungry people started to hold the empty paper plate strongly as the paper plates could be swept away from the wind discharged by the helicopters. The scene was really pathetic.
Finally, after a standoff between the security personnel and the social workers, the hungry people could get the meal on that unfortunate Saturday!
Very few numbers of people, who are enjoying the power, are the beneficiaries of the present constitution in the country. There are two types of intellectuals in the country. One section, who receive euro and dollar, claim the constitution as the best in the globe, which has empowered the people. They say, after seven decades of struggle, finally, people were able to draft their constitution by themselves.
On the other hand, intellectuals having the patriotic stance believe the constitution drafted after spending five billion rupees, is very expensive to function from the country’s own resources and it will not serve the nation to make it prosperous and the people happy. Senior journalist Dev Prakash Tripathi, editor-in-chief of the Ghatana Ra Bichar vernacular weekly has given reasons why such an expensive constitution could not become acceptable to all and even after the five years of promulgation, the constitution has not been able to function.
I took senior journalist Tripathi as an example only as many intellectuals have condemned the present constitution as well as the present political leaders in different social networks.
Some status read as below:
“The only most expensive constitution in the globe, drafted in a foreign land lacks the nation’s vanity. The constitution has created division among the castes, languages, religion and ethnicity, has condemned the nation’s glorious history and defined the sponsored terrorism as the “glorious people’s war”!”
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“Characteristics of the existing constitution are pro-Christianity; recognition to terrorism; legalization for discrimination to the un-touchable group; plantation of the seed of disintegration; institutionalization of corruption; open conversion of religion; the attack on the Hindu religion; promotion of cunningness and dishonesty; exhibiting the optimum level of political dishonesty.”
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“The constitution has empowered the wrong people in the government and political leadership.”
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“The constitution is the outcome of the ten-year-old “people’s war”; 12-point agreement; end of the institution of monarchy; secularism; adoption of federalism, after all, it is for ending nationalism; intensifying caste conflict; destroying culture and religion; Christianizing the country; bankruptcy of the economy; forcing youths to go abroad and importing foreigners in the country.”
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“The constitution is for rewarding and empowering those who have defeated elections.”
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Aren’t the above quotes by different intellectuals expressed in the social networks enough to define the constitution?
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