Rabindra Raja Shahi
The heartbreaking and unsettling viral news about the mysterious death of B.Tech. third year student Prakriti Lamsal from Butwal studying at KIIT university in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha and the forced eviction of over five hundred Nepali students from university hostel along with mistreatment and manhandling meted out to them by varsity professors and bouncers and other local goons is a thing that deserves to be condemned in the strongest of words. The two lady professors in the heat of the moment even went to the extent of denigrating and defaming Nepal and Nepali government with their inflammatory and demeaning remark that Kalinga varsity’s food budget is bigger than Nepal’s annual budget and you students from Nepal have been taught free of cost out here. Of course, their misconduct towards our studying Nepali youths is sheer outrageous and regrettable. Their derogatory remarks are nothing short of disgraceful and condemnable, and make our blood boil with indignation as patriotic Nepalis. Our Nepali leaders at the helm of affairs did not speak even a single word. Even a parliamentarian trying to raise the issue about KIIT college’s rank inhuman and careless negligence toward Prakriti’s death was not permitted to speak up in the parliament by the house speaker. She was bluntly rebuffed and rejected. Shame on you grossly incompetent Nepal government that just looks on when three crore Nepali people and Nepal itself are being belittled and disgraced by a mere institute of KIIT college internationally in international media claiming as well as challenging that their budget is far larger than that of whole Nepal.Our Nepali rulers have- it looks- no sense of humiliation and indignity, rather they are thick-skinned and immune to the defamation. They are brazen- faced and shameless, spineless and chicken- hearted.
Nonetheless, Odisha parliamentarians, other Indian distinguished persons, different Indian TV channels, The Times of India and even local students came forward promptly taking the side with and supporting the agitating Nepali students and at the same time denouncing the university authorities in their strong words. The tragic and unfortunate incident triggered a furor almost all across India: each one was seen remarking that we have good relation with Nepal and this relation is age-old and timeless. They were saying that this kind of incident is very likely to sour and strain the otherwise very cordial people-to-people relations subsisting between India and Nepal. They were all feeling ashamed, they all felt guilty at the rough-shod manner of KIIT university because this is not the behaviour of India, this is not the tradition and culture of India as a great nation with its hoary and glorious history. I saw local students in Patna help our Nepali students, who were on their way back home Nepal, with providing food items and mineral water.
From the incident, I have drawn a couple of lessons: one- if the nation is weak, poor, and small, everyone bullies, dominates, humiliates and discriminates against us; we don’t get dignified treatment from others in such a condition. Secondly, the compulsion to study abroad for education has been created not by others, but by the crap education system and no hope for better future by studying in their motherland. In the third place, the country is run under kakistocracy, kleptocracy, gerontocracy and above all, under plutocracy because of which almost every sector is messed up and rudderless. It is the land of anti-national elements, quislings and traitors; it is the land of frauds and thugs; and it is the land of impunity and immorality and vanity. No Nepalis should be forced to leave their homeland out of necessity- be it for education, employment, or survival. A strong, self- reliant Nepal is the only way to ensure that its citizens are treated with respect and dignity they deserve, both within and beyond its borders.
Of course, the way majority of Indians displayed sympathy and support and comfort to the unjustly maltreated and misbehaved Nepali students demonstrates that Indian citizenry do love Nepal and Nepali people wholeheartedly. I salute them for their big heart as well as for their demonstration of regarding Nepalis as their own brothers and sisters. Indian South Block may have evil eyes on Nepal but Indian populace in general show their brotherly love and affection to Nepalis by which I am personally humbled and can’t but be pleased with them from the core of my heart. India, I assure through this modest write-up of mine, doesn’t need to feel the threat of escalation of anti-India sentiments in Nepal. On the contrary, a huge majority of Nepalis take a liking to India and obviously take it for a family.
Were I asked to choose between China and India though both are our immediate neighbors, my first preference would definitely go out to India as India and Nepal are like flesh and nail, like hammer and chisel, like body and silhouette, for, both the nations share almost everything in common: language, food habit, dress habit, religion and culture. We share a unique and fraternal relationship, which goes beyond the formality of state- to- state relations. Our religious scriptures are one and the same, our religious sites are the same, our world views and philosophies are the same and similar.
As close neighbors, Nepal and India enjoy excellent relations based on solid foundation of historical, cultural and social linkages. Both Nepal and India are a part of South Asian Civilization that consists of two great major religions of the world: Buddhism and Hinduism. Naturally, the invisible bond of South Asian Civilization and culture binds us together all the way from the splendor and grandeur of the Himalayas to the vastness and tranquility of the Indian Ocean. It is something we must nurture and protect for ourselves and for the generations to come in the future. So, our relation with India is the best of all albeit marred occasionally by Indian hegemony. Long live Nepal- India ties!
(Rabindra Raja Shahi is an Associate Professor at Triyuga Janata Multiple Campus, Gaighat, Udyapaur)
