I ramble

I had decided to keep my blog 'politics free', but with the new developments, or let us say no developments, I have this serious urgency to write down my thoughts here.

For the past four years and especially the last couple of months, all that people talked about was the constitution. There were speculations on whether it will be made or it will not be made. Everybody had an opinion. Everybody shared their opinions. Honestly, I did not have much of an opinion. Whatever little I had, I refrained from sharing, because I knew that my opinion is not going to matter, that it is not going to bring the constitution.

So, now, some of you might call me a pessimist. But, let me just recap a few episodes of what my optimist Nepali daju bhais, didi bahinis, sathi sanginis have been doing in their bid to put pressure for the timely drafting of the constitution and put forth their demands.

Many hit the streets. Nepal saw a record breaking number of strikes this year and a lot of them ever since the formation of the CA. Our country looked like a jigsaw puzzle in my mind. Everybody wanted a share of it, without having to share their part with others. Some parts of the country, like the Far West has not yet come out of the closure plague. People are finding it difficult to meet their daily needs of food and medicine. Terai areas have been miserable. Kathmandu was not spared either. Everybody had their own sets of demands, everybody had their own agenda. Where did all these bandas take us? We are left without a constitution.

People wrote. Hundreds and thousands of articles have been written on the constitution, on CA, on federalism, on people's rights, on what nots of the constitution. The intellectual circle, the common people, the youth, the students, the political activists, the journalists, and many more people wrote on issues important to the constitution. Especially since the beginning of this year, the papers had nothing but the talks of the constitution. How much did this intellectuality lead us to? We are left without a constitution.

Social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter were full of expressions. Everyone expressed their frustrations, their disappointments, their hatred, their disapproval, and many more feelings through their status updates, photos, cartoons, and other forms of art. (Here, I too was a part of some halla khalla on a website, but it was more to raise awareness among the youth, than anything else). Moreover, last month, a movement was launched on Facebook where everybody started putting 'Nepali' to their names in a bid to show that they are Nepali first before being a Brahmin, a Chhetri, a Newar, a Janajati, a Madhesi, a Muslim, a Christian, a this, a that. I am sorry, but I did not participate in it, because I didn't buy in the so called 'virtual movement.' If you think you are a Nepali first, why do you even have to write your surname. Why can't you be just Mr X Nepali, rather than being a Mr X Shrestha Nepali, or Mr X Pradhan Nepali? It didn't make sense to me. Anyway, the point is, what happened out of these online movements? We are left without a constitution.

People participated in Sadbhaav (Solidarity) Rallies. People en masse showed their presence in different places with their best of white clothes, and a candle to pray for peace and prosperity, and of course a constitution. What came out of it? We are still left without a constitution.

So, now, what happens now that the CA has been dissolved and we are left without a constitution for which we waited for four years, for which we spent billions from our nation's reserves? Just think about it. What happened today? The first day after yesterday. I woke up in the morning with a heavy heart. Many people must have. But what really happened today? Life was as normal as any other day.

The milk van came early in the morning in its usual time to deliver milk packs. Nepalese woke up to read their daily dose of news in the national dailies. Families had their breakfast together, some even had their lunch together since it was an off-day (It was Republic Day today-my foot!). Friends met at cafeterias to have aaloos and momos, lovers went out for a spin, vegetable sellers did a good business, movie theaters were overly crowded, shopping malls were no less, neta haru clicked pictures grinning, the paan shop played the same boring music, the men who come every morning to play badminton in the ground behind my house arrived on time and made the same kind of noise they make everyday, the same people who were busy carrying out the 'virtual movement' were busy posting their new pictures on the same forums. Nothing stopped. Nothing changed.

Having a constitution in the country was not going to be a magic wand. We already have an Interim Constitution in place, that we have been following for five years. We will continue following it. But the point is that the Prime Minister has been giving a signal for another CA election. Do we want it? Are we going to vote in it? Do we Nepalese want to repeat the same mistake again? If we do, we are fools. I am not going to vote if the CA elections happen this November.  I will rather not exercise my right than to feel guilty about it later. I am not, I am not. I am not. This is my personal movement, lu jaa! Je parla, parla.