While
innocent citizens are denied access to state mechanisms and justice,
perpetrators are most secure near state and political machinery
APR 03 -
By chance, a few Occupy Baluwatar
campaigners were invited to a meeting in the Gender Based Violence
monitoring unit at the Prime Minister’s Office to suggest policy reforms
on issues related to violence against women and to recommend ways for
the government to improve its response mechanisms. That Occupy
campaigners were invited, one might think, was a great feat in itself.
However, one couldn’t help but see the futility in the exercise
considering that more policy is probably the last thing that’s necessary
to address incidents of violence against women. What’s more is that the
state is incapable of fulfilling six demands related to a mere five
cases of violence against women, but is headstrong about sitting in
meeting after meeting to address “VAW” through policy formation and
reform.
Even in the presence of continued street pressure and an entire
committee formed inside the PMO and the Women’s Commission, fundamental
demands, such as making a person’s whereabouts public, following court
orders, implicating high-ranking officials and registering FIRs, remain
ignored. But, as for the meeting at the PMO, missing an opportunity to
push the cause of justice would have been unwise.
A chance sighting
As is usual, after about an hour of queuing up in the scorching sun,
using “force” to get a couple of extra names—of those who didn’t have
their citizenship cards—sent to the right window and waiting for the
rest of our names to be sent to the window, finally a group of us
accomplished the incredibly difficult task of entering Singha Durbar.
On the way towards the PMO in a car, at the junction in front of the
building which houses the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the
Ministry for Women, Children and Social Welfare, we almost collided with
a Hero Honda Pleasure scooter, causing both vehicles to come grinding
to a halt. To our utter shock and dismay, murder convict Bal Krishna
Dhungel, against whom there is a Supreme Court order for life
imprisonment, and “farar” according to the police, was sitting on the
back seat merrily making his way into the ministry building. What a
coincidence. But we’ll come back to him in a bit. First, to finish the
story about the meeting at the PMO and our suggestions on formulating
policies to curb “VAW”.
Who is the criminal here?
Upon reaching the PMO building, the guard stopped us for interrogation.
We clarified that we had been invited by the GBV monitoring unit for a
meeting to discuss important matters. Unfortunately, that invitation was
no good. We needed a piece of paper, a “chit”, that was supposed to
have been given to us at the main gate. Upon telling the guard that the
gatekeepers took away the “chit” and didn’t return it to us, he chose
not to believe us and insinuated that somehow we got inside without
permission. “Obviously, we didn’t fly in,” we told him, but to no avail.
Even after a woman from the GBV unit came up to receive us, the guard
still denied us entry. Frustrated with the scheme of things, we decided
that, alas, after an hour and a half of trying to get to this meeting,
to which we were invited, our efforts were wasted. Ultimately, and most
unfortunately, no suggestions from the Occupy campaigners have been
incorporated into the long term policy guidelines drafted by the GBV
unit at the PMO that would supposedly work towards curbing violence
against women.
So dysfunctional it’s scary
Meanwhile, we had seen just a while ago, with our very own eyes, murder
convict BK Dhungel walking into a nearby ministry with no one to stop
him. It’s quite repugnant that a group of law-abiding citizens, who have
been on the street for nearly 100 days demanding justice for victims of
all kinds of abuse, should be denied entry into the PMO, even as
invited guests, while BK Dhungel, the murderer of one Ujjan Kumar
Shrestha of Okhaldhunga (for personal—not political—reasons, according
to the SC), roams unstopped from one ministry to the other inside Singha
Durbar. While we fear the bureaucratic hurdles and political ineptitude
of those residing behind those tall gates, Dhungel (and other convicts
like him) revel in their inefficiency and the injustice this state
promotes.
To add fuel to frustration, since the new Chairman of the Council of
Ministers, Khil Raj Regmi, came into office, (who, by the way, signed
the SC order that states that there are no legal hurdles to arrest BK
Dhungel) the Occupy campaigners have been requesting a meeting with him
to hand over our updated list of demands related to justice for victims
of violence (four against women and two against men). But, while we have
been put indefinitely on the waiting list, the news doing the rounds is
that murderer BK Dhungel has already met him as Dhungel’s cousin is one
of the ministers in Cabinet. What a blow to our efforts.
Reap what we sow
Similarly, when, on March 17, supporters and cadres of the UCPN
(Maoist) came to occupy our protest site, overnight, instead of rallying
support for the cause of justice, the campaign was bombarded by
criticism from all corners claiming we’d got what we’d asked for, that
we were anti-Maoist, raking in dollars, funded by the Nepali Congress,
UML, Ishwor Pokhrel and all other anti-Maoist forces. In fact,
acc-ording to the most powerful politician of all, we were engaging in a
“street dance” and trying to “derail” the peace process. And yet, not a
single organisation—political or otherwise—thought it necessary to
condemn the attack on the citizen’s right to peaceful protest, right to
justice or the attack on democratic norms. Perhaps that would have been
different had we actually been funded by a political party or
international organisation.
The joke, it turns out, was on us all along. As innocent victims and
citizens continue to fight for justice, the perpetrators of all sorts of
heinous crimes continue to walk free, happiest and wrapped up warm in
the loving arms of this just state.
Posted on: 2013-04-03 08:38
http://www.ekantipur.com/2013/04/03/opinion/jokes-on-us/369414.html
