Aashish Mishra

There aren’t words in English language sufficiently harsh enough to condemn the recent murder of headmaster Rajendra Shrestha at Miklajung of Morang district. Barbaric, evil, heinous – these terms do no justice to the crime that has been committed. Eerily similar to the killings seen during the decade-long insurgency, Shrestha’s murder by the cadres of the outlawed Biplav faction has left the whole nation disturbed. Yet, for all that the murder was, it may not have been entirely unforeseen and it was perhaps even preventable.
The people of the area have been demanding a security presence for almost two years. The nearest police station is one-and-a-half hour walk away at Aitabare. The nearest police offices are at Urlabari and Belbari. There are no security personnel stationed in the area and there are no patrols as well. The state’s security apparatus only barely exists in Miklajung Rural Municipality and its Ward No. 1 where the incident happened.
This was why the Maoists had made it their base of operations during the People’s War. It was where the then rebels gathered, held meetings, trained their soldiers and managed weapons. The locals repeatedly called on the government to station forces there but their calls fell on deaf ears. Eventually, the war ended, but the security vacuum remained.
As a result, the members of the Biplav group have once again found a safe haven there. The local representatives know this. They have been seeing the writing on the wall and have been warning both the provincial and federal governments for quite some time. Last year, when unidentified individuals burnt three excavators brought to the rural municipality to construct roads, a delegation even met with the Home Minister and informed him of the volatile situation. Still, no action was taken and now, a teacher has lost his life.
The fact that inaction resulted in a death is already shameful enough. But what is utterly unacceptable is that security still hasn’t been beefed up. The people there are still living in fear. The killers are still on the loose and nobody knows when or if they will ever be caught. There are a lot of questions swirling around and an aura of uncertainty in the air. How will we bring the killers to justice? Will there be any consequences for the larger group and its leaders that ordered the murder? The Netra Bikram Chand-led faction was banned two years ago. Yet, how come its members are still able to roam around, kidnap a well-respect principal of a school, kill him and openly and confidently release a press statement claiming responsibility?
We need to ask and seek answers to these questions right now because we need guarantees that people cannot literally get away with murder in this country.
Turning from the state to the supposed “rebels”, what is Netra Bikram’s objective anyway? What change is he seeking to bring and why has he resorted to violence to bring it? Our current political system gives space to all political views; no matter how extreme. In fact, Chand has everything to gain by entering the mainstream democracy. He can emerge as a very strong challenger to former Maoist leaders like Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai by capitalising on the dissatisfaction of many of their supporters. His claimed intolerance of corruption, agenda of a communist utopia and revolutionary past can translate to significant gains in the polls. Let’s not forget the victory that the Maoists obtained in the first Constituent Assembly elections bearing the same characteristics. He can do the same.
No “cause” is worth killing civilians for and we cannot let Rajendra Shrestha become another Muktinath Adhikari – a casualty of a larger conflict that they had no stake in.