Learning of one’s candidacy on the radio

Rukmini Chaudhary

Rukmini Chaudhary was only 12/13 years old during the popular People’s Movement of 1990. Her father Krishna Gurau Th aru was the Regional Chairperson of the Nepali Congress, Constituency-4 in Chitawan. Th ere used to be torch rallies, and strikes under his leadership. She was responsible for informing her father about the arrival of the police while he used to conduct meetings at home. Other than during meetings, her father never stayed home. Police would take them to the police state t question about the whereabouts of their father. However, despite several attempts by the offi cers, they never divulged any information.
She recalls, ‘Although they would try to lure us by giving us food, we did not say anything. When our uncle came to take us back, we would be released.’ Rukmini’s father was actively involved with for Nepali Congress for some 40 years. It was her father’s political involvement that inspired Rukmini to get involved in politics, accept challenges and face them with determination. But after she married Sanatan Devi Satgauwa Th aru of Deukhuri, Dang in 1997, she spent a few years as a housewife adjusting to her new home. Her husband was in a technical assistant post in the VDC. She says, ‘When my husband’s job was going to be permanent, it was politicized.

#Occupy Baluwatar

ARPAN SHRESTHA- Only the perpetrators of the horrendous TIA rape and robbery are perhaps not enraged with the ugly abuse of powers against a young returnee immigrant who owned forged travel documents, the news of which transpired into peak tolerance for many. Similar cases could have happened before and there are definitely many untold, unreported and unfiled cases of violence against women (VAW) in Nepal. Given the context, how do voters across the divided society unite and fight for law, order and justice without having to take shelter under donors, I/NGOs and political parties, non-profits or even religious outfits?

This piece doesn’t intend to show a roadmap to the question just asked and nor exerts the resignation of authorities on moral grounds because in a moral society, resignation would’ve come voluntarily. But isn’t our political climate too obvious? What follows is strictly a close observation of what was initially a drop-in petition to the Caretaker Prime Minister (CPM) to take immediate action against the accused of the TIA rape case and how it evolved to the yet evolving ‘organic and leaderless’ movement that is now OccupyBaluwatar.