Sometime back, I had to travel to and from the eastern part of Nepal and my experience was not at all pleasant. I had to go to Dhankuta from Kathmandu for some work. Even until I bought a night bus ticket for Sunday, August 30, the situation was normal but as the departure date approached, many problems started coming up. The bus company was not sure if the bus would be leaving from Kathmandu on that day as it was supposed to, because of the ongoing protests in the Madhes. Things turned out just as I had feared they would; on Sunday morning, I received the news that the bus would not be leaving for Dhankuta that evening. So, I had no choice but to take a flight, spending thousands of rupees more in the process.

Uncalled troubles

Luckily I got a plane ticket to Biratnagar for Tuesday morning. And as soon as my older sister and I exited the airport in Biratnagar, a bunch of rickshaw pullers encircled us and informed us that there were no buses or taxi services available from Biratnagar to Dharan. We could either hire a motorbike or a rickshaw only till Itahari. We decided to hire a rickshaw and the rickshaw puller charged us Rs 1,000 for the trip, whereas normally a bus would have charged less than Rs 100. Moreover, it took us two and a half hours to reach Itahari, usually the journey only takes half an hour at the most. But Itahari was also banda because of the Limbuwan supporters. Thus, there were no vehicles leaving for Dharan. So, we had to spend the night in Itahari. Miraculously, there was no banda the next day. So, early in the morning we could took a direct bus to Dhankuta.

Then after 12 days, there was the challenge of returning to Kathmandu in the midst of the ongoing ethnic unrest and frequent strikes; so taking a bus again was not an option. The option of taking the flight via Biratnagar was also not possible because of the curfews in Itahari and Biratnagar. Therefore, I had to fly via Bhadrapur paying an airfare of Rs 7, 910; I usually pay Rs 4, 365 to get to Biratnagar from Kathmandu. Also generally, the total bus fare from Kathmandu to Dhankuta and back would have been less than Rs 3,000. But this time I had to spend Rs 10,000 for the trip.

A lady I met in Damak had a different story. Her grandson needed to travel to Kathmandu for an examination. He had heard that the Army would be escorting buses to Kathmandu—it would take three days to travel to Kathmandu from Damak this way. So he got the ticket after making all the time calculations. Alas! At the very last moment, he was informed that the bus would not be going to Kathmandu, so he had no choice but to pay Rs 8,000 for a plane ticket. The grandmother sadly remarked, “Oh…I don’t understand what’s happening to this country!”

Need to reconsider

These are only a few examples of how the general public is suffering because of the short-sightedness of the so-called politicians. I have heard countless people cursing them. Most of the rickshaw pullers from Biratnagar airport to Itahari were Madhesis who were willing to work hard to earn their bread; they were not demanding a separate state. The Limbus were sad because of their interrupted chores. All that these people wanted was peace, security and the assurance that their government was concerned about their rights.  Even the protesters, I witnessed, were innocent people, including minors. One of the civilians remarked, “The 601 netas are safe and happy in Kathmandu. Only us, the commoners, are suffering for nothing! They should be in the front line of this battlefield, not the innocent ones!”

Currently, people in Nepal are dying almost every other day. What for? To further divide the nation? Or to fulfil the vested interests of political leaders? Is violence the best option to solve the problems? Why cannot we sit together for friendly dialogues to find solutions? What is stopping us? Do we have no humanity left inside us? How can someone drag an injured security personnel out of an ambulance and beat him to death? It feels like we are going back to barbarism instead of moving forward towards a civilised society. What is the reason behind this? The answer is simple: politics.

Sharma is a visiting faculty member at the Kathmandu University