The Maoists deride the Adhikari couple’s
fast-unto-death, the state administration is fearful and timid, and the
international community looks the other way.
By
Kanak Mani Dixit
Inside
the ‘Old ICU’ of Bir Hospital on Thursday morning, Nanda Prasad and Gangamaya
Adhikari entered the 38th day of their refusal to take food,
demanding investigation and prosecution on the murder of son Krishna Prasad.
Their act of ascetic rebellion, ongoing for nine years and culminating in the current
fast-unto-death, seems to have finally woken up the political class. But there
is no saying this will deliver justice rather than more tokenism.
The
Maoists were, of course, the first to react. Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Baburam
Bhattarai called a press conference to blame the Adhikari family for ‘social
misdeeds’ in their native Gorkha, tar human rights activists as ‘dollar
mongers’, and warn the Khil Raj Regmi government not to proceed with investigations.
The two former prime ministers went as far as to threaten revolt.
The
UCPN-Maoists argue that the place for Krishna Prasad’s murder, an ‘elimination’
the party owns, is the truth and reconciliation commission. But the commission
does not exist, sabotaged by the Maoist insistence on making it an instrument
for amnesty. Nor does it matter for Dahal/Bhattarai that UN Human Rights
Committee rulings, an OHCHR briefing paper specifically for Nepal, as well as
Supreme Court precedence, have clarified that a TRC can never supplant the
criminal justice system.
The
Maoist attempt at blackmail further holds that the peace process will derail if
conflict era crimes are raked up, that the elections will be foiled. The other
parties do not have the circumspection to speak up to reject such claims: there
has been no agreement to exonerate anyone of war crimes and criminal acts of the
conflict era; and it is the inability to prosecute Krishna Prasad’s killers that
would cast a pall over the upcoming elections, convincing the voters that might
is right in the ‘new Nepal’.
Run of politicians
On
Tuesday, President Ram Baran Yadav finally showed interest in the case and
spoke on the phone with the attending doctors at Bir. The political leaders too
woke up from their slumber, and on Wednesday a bevy arrived at the Old ICU – Sushil
Koirala, Jhalanath Khanal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Ishwor Pokhrel, CP Mainali, et
al. Health Minister Vidyadhar Mallik has been in regular attendance, and, on
Thursday, Chairman Regmi and Home Minister Madhav Ghimire came by to try their
hand at convincing the couple to end their fast.
The
couple had heard the arguments before: “Even to fight for justice you have to
be alive… The government has started investigations… It’s not possible to
arrest without going through the procedures… You can always start another fast
if the government goes back on its word.” Nanda Prasad’s response was the same one
he has always given to the rights activists, nurses and doctors: “On what basis
are we to end our fast, what is the adhaar?”
Gangamaya
is in visible pain, writhing under the sheets, tears in her eyes. She says, “Aba marincha kyare (I think one will
now die). One son was finished by the party, another is being chased all over, while
the government is finishing us off.” Asked to consider ending her fast, Gangamaya
says, “Hos, aba hamilai maarun. Khopne ra
ropne kaam nagarikana hamilai marna diyeko bhaye hunthyo.” (Let them kill
us. I wish they had let depart go without all this poking and piercing.)
Nanda
Prasad’s response has been consistent over the weeks, and he said nothing
different to Chairman Regmi: “Why are you wasting your time? I would eat if you
would arrest the guilty. The police is under your government, so what’s
stopping you? Bhanai matra ho, garai
hoina – you only talk, there is no result. Hamro bijog herna matra aayeko jasto lagyo – you seem to be here simply
watch us in misery.”
Health bulletin
Confronted
by the astonishing tenacity of the Adhikari couple, the doctors at Bir have
been studying cases of fasting activists near and far, including Irom Sharmila
of Manipur. Their’s is the ethical dilemma of allowing a voluntary fast to lead
towards eventual death. In literature search, they have found helpful
principles enunciated in the Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers of 2006.
That document deals with issues such as the ‘principle of beneficence’
versus ‘individual autonomy’ and the possibility of peer pressure and coercion
– and advises against force-feeding
of patients who voluntarily refuse to eat.
At
the Old ICU, Gangamaya’s condition is deteriorating fast while Nanda Prasad could
become critical at any moment, say the doctors. For not having eaten, they are
both on the path to ‘metabolic derailment’. Some days ago, rights activists
convinced the couple to allow intravenous drip, through which they are
receiving dextrose, sodium and potassium, but not essential fat, minerals and
protein.
Gangamaya’s
vital signs are dipping, with low blood pressure, deep vein thrombosis, spread
of infection (sepsis), and gastro-intestinal bleeding. Nanda Prasad is more
stable, but he has lost muscle mass. Wife and husband have both refused to be
fed by nasal tube (as in the case of Irom Sharmila), and the two will not submit
to a ‘central line’ providing sustenance through the sub-clavical or jugular
veins.
While
Gangamaya prefers silence, Nanda Prasad remains as lucid as he was a month ago.
He says, “I have not lost my faculties, but bolda
boldai marchu jasto lagchha (…I feel like I will die even as I am talking).
There is no need to keep us alive. This is our end.”
State capture
The
ministers of the interim government are concerned that the Gangamaya and Nanda
Prasad will die on their watch – the Accountability Watch Committee has warned
that the Regmi regime and leaders of the five-party High Level Political Committee
are accountable for the health of the couple. The ministers don’t want the kalanka (stigma) that would attach on their
persons, but seem unable to swing the sluggish government machinery into
action.
Indeed,
that entire machinery seems compromised by the fear of Maoist displeasure. The
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) could have given a more detailed
directive to the government. The Attorney General’s Office has gone through the
motions of forwarding the NHRC letter, rather than telling the police that an
earlier order to halt investigations (by the Bhattarai regime) stands
over-ridden. Meanwhile, the police force is impacted by the timidity of its
chief at Kathmandu HQ, as with the Dekendra Thapa case of last year.
Gangamaya
and Nanda Prasad, frail and weakening, seem to be more alert to this reality of
state capture than the great editorialists, which explains their dogged struggle
for justice in the face of all-round tokenism. Indeed, if a leaf has moved (to
use a Nepali expression) for accountability in the present instance, it is due
to a couple who will not forget their son, nor his murder.
The
adhaar (basis) that Nanda Prasad seems
to seek in order to break the fast is evidence of good faith in investigation and
prosecution. And his skepticism is well-founded – this is a couple that has been
humiliated endlessly for seeking justice, including a forced stay at the mental
hospital in Lagankhel.
Resounding
silence
May
Nanda Prasad and Gangamaya live a long life – long enough to see Nepal evolve as
a country of laws, where accused war criminals are tried rather than allowed to
run for office. And let the international community once so interested in human
rights in Nepal – OHCHR, the various embassies and their human rights cells,
the UN Secretary General’s Office, Amnesty International, ICTJ, ICJ, Human
Rights Watch, Medicin Sans frontieres, the international electronic and print
media, and so on – understand that their silence on the Adhikari couple’s fast
for justice is echoing across our Himalayan valleys.
Evidently,
we are alone in this fight against impunity. Gangamaya and Nanda Prasad are trying
to tell us something – we are responsible for ourselves, the rest are only
onlookers and well-wishers.
Published
in Kathmandu Post,
August,30/013.
