While innocent citizens are denied access to state mechanisms and justice, perpetrators are most secure near state and political machinery
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
No comments:
Post a Comment