The 100 days of Occupy Baluwatar, the youth-led grassroots movement for social justice, is a time for reflection. Reflection on what the movement has managed to achieve so far, on where it goes from here, and most importantly, the state’s response to its demands. The campaign started with a rousing call for an end to gender-based violence, but soon morphed into a larger movement for an end to impunity and justice for human rights victims, including the victims of gender-based violence.
The state has been unable to offer definitive answers on any of the signature Occupy cases like Sita Rai (who was robbed and later raped by TIA and police officials), Chhori Maiya Maharjan (who has been missing for a year) and Saraswati Subedi (who was found hanging at her workplace under mysterious circumstances), among many others. Other demands like punishment for former Maoist lawmaker Bal Krishna Dhungel for his involvement in the murder of Ujjain Kumar Shrestha and a summon to Nepal Army official Niranjan Basnet in relation to Maina Sunuwar’s murder case continue to be sidelined as conflict-era cases to be dealt by proper transitional justice mechanisms.
Some believe Occupy Baluwatar should have stuck to the issue of violence against women. By wading into the larger and more intractable issues of impunity and human rights, the campaign, they claim, has lost its initial appeal. They note how a similar protest in India triggered by the rape of a medical student in New Delhi eventually resulted in the rewriting of Indian laws. But whether or not Occupy Baluwatar was the right place to raise the issue, it is hard to see violence against women in isolation. In the current climate of impunity, there is no deterrent to hold perpetrators of gender-based violence to account. The comparison with India is also out of place because India is a functional democracy, with an elected legislature where the Delhi rape case could be vigorously debated. Without a legislature to raise the issue of gender violence, the protestors here were forced to adapt as and when they saw fit.
They could be in for a long haul. The Khil Raj Regmi government formed ‘with the sole mandate of holding free and fair polls’ is unlikely to take up ‘extraneous’ issues. But waiting for an elected government is not an option either. What if there are no elections in the foreseeable future? Even if elections are held, won’t the politicians start repeating the same-old trope of ‘transitional politics’ to delay vital action? Any interruption now could break the momentum the movement has build up over the last three months. This is the reason the protestors seem to be in a mood to give continuity to their movement, giving out a strong message of their tenacity. But there are dangers ahead.
One is of the nonviolent ‘satyagraha’ adopting a more confrontationist approach if the protestors’ voices continue to be ignored. The other big risk is of it being co-opted by certain political interests (or to be seen to have done so), which would again be a deathblow to its credibility. But whatever happens from now on, so far Occupy Baluwatar has been able to distinguish itself as a unique platform for the victims of rights abuse and set a strong precedent for future social movements. That is no small achievement.
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