By Shailendra Shukla
Shailendra Shukla
Shailendra Shukla
Student demonstrations and protests—as being evident almost every day in the Nepali capital for the past few weeks—are not a new phenomenon. In fact, they have remained a part and parcel of political movements in the country. Let me share my own experience.
It was 1967 or 1968, and Trichandra College was celebrating its 50th anniversary. There was a cultural program being presented at the Rastriya Naachghar where the chief guest was going to be the then crown prince Birendra. Although we had been presenting the cultural program for last two days to students and others, and I had a small role in a skit “Nepali qawaali”, this day was special and only the best were to be shown. Our ‘qawwali’ was deemed not fit for the prince, still I had managed to get a backstage pass from our Student Union President Keshab Mainali. Some time before the prince’s arrival a group of policemen came to the backstage. The team was lead by DIG Narayan Singh. A big bulky man, a wrestler in his younger days, he presented an imposing figure. On that day he also appeared to be quite drunk. He went around the green rooms– both male and female– shouting and yelling incoherently. His lieutenants, meanwhile, were trying to control him and finally were successful in guiding him away. Except for a little commotion in the backstage, it was otherwise not a significant event to us. The prince arrived, and the program continued without any incident.
Bringing memories back: Singha Durbar complex (File Photo)
Bringing memories back: Singha Durbar complex (File Photo)
The next morning when I arrived at Tri Chandra College for my classes, there were a lot of students outside the classroom. What was going on? Well, the students were on strike as used to happen quite regularly those days, and I’m afraid continues even now. The reason for strike? Last night the DIG went to Rastriya Naach Ghar and manhandled the students and even molested some girls. I was in a moral dilemma: I was there and the alleged incident did not happen, but I was not one to spoil a good strike (hey, I was just a teenager!), especially given my own opposition to Panchayat system, and furthermore who would have listened to me anyway? But this incident was one of those, out of many, which has made me somewhat cynical when it comes to politics.
There were speeches at the Saraswati Sadan by various student leaders. After the speeches, a procession started to march towards Singh Durbar. By then the procession had also been joined by students from other colleges. When the procession reached Singh Durbar, its gates were locked, and a heavy police force had gathered there. It just so happened that a flagged car was trying to get through the crowd to go to Singh Durbar. It turned out that the man inside was the then Speaker of Rastriya Panchayat Rajeshwor Devkota. The crowd gathered around Devkota’s car, pounding on it, and a visibly scared Devkota got out of the car and tremblingly climbed on top of the car and assured the students that their demands will be met. It was not even clear what their demands were, but Devokota’s car was let go.
By then, the students at the front were getting restless and demanding to go inside the Singh Durbar. Then some students started to climb the gates and some tried to pry them open. I had a hunch that something serious was going to happen soon. I told my friends that situation was getting out of hand and we should leave. We started to leave towards the Lumdi temple. Then suddenly hordes of police from three sides (Singh Durbar Gate, Padmodaya High School, and Lumdi temple) suddenly appeared and started beating up everybody in sight. Since our group was already in the bridge, we had nowhere to go. A lot of students leapt from the bridge. I also looked down from the bridge, but it seemed too high and the land underneath pretty dry and I did not have guts to jump. By then a policeman had reached me and hit me in my back with his baton. Being always an argumentative type of person, I could not resist asking him, while at the same time running away from him towards Lumdi, and also avoiding other policemen charging from that direction, “Hey, why are you hitting me, I’m trying to run away and is not that what you want”? “Barta kura garchhas? (Talk too much?) He hit me again. Somehow I was able to avoid further beating and went home. It was curious that the instant pain was not that great, but it kept hurting for weeks to follow.
The next day was filled with rumors. Lot of students had broken or injured their arms and legs due to the jump they had made, and Bir Hospital was full of injured students. The rumor the next day was that all these students were beaten badly by the police, causing such injuries. Anyway in a day or two, the DIG was fired, and students returned to classes waiting for another strike.
Another strike that I remember happened a year or so earlier. The exact reason escapes me now, but one did not need valid reasons for strikes. I suppose in dictatorial regimes, a student strike is a way of venting pent-up frustrations of the population rather than for any particular demand or grievance. The parents, who could not display their opposition openly out of fear of losing their jobs or being incarcerated, secretly supported all these strikes and got vicarious pleasure from the trouble so created. So there were strikes when students were suspended from exams because of cheating and there were strikes because the exams were too hard. Anyway, on this particular occasion, various student leaders gave speeches from Saraswati Sadan walls as usual. But a very young student gave the one that impressed the most. Many did not yet know him and the audience was truly fired up by his impassioned speech. After the speeches students lingered on or went home, boycotting classes. The police force had started to gather around the campus, and some students were arrested The strike continued for a few days, and a big rumor was going around the campus that the police had killed that young fellow who had given the fiery speech. And, indeed no one had seen him after that speech. This “news” took such a life of its own that Radio Nepal had to announce that it was not true and days later it announced that he had been found safe and unharmed at his relative’s house. That student was no other than Ram Sharan Mahat.