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NEIGHBOURS:
NEPAL
Twist
In The Script
Ultra
left groups in the kingdom come up with innovative ways to foment anti-India
sentiments
By
Deepak Thapa in Kathmandu
Ten
years after the 1990 Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, Kathmandu
streets once again looked like a battleground. But this time the demonstrations
were not directed at the establishment. They were initially directed towards
filmstar Hrithik Roshan and later at Indians in general in the kingdom's
capital, following remarks allegedly made by the Bollywood heartthrob
in a TV interview that the country he disliked most was Nepal and the
people he disliked most were Nepalese.
The very
statements seem unbelievable, but not to the mob led by student activists
of every political hue. They burnt Hrithik in effigy, carried out mock
funerals, forced theatres to stop screening his films, destroyed video
cassettes and CDs of his films and desecrated his posters. Though the
violence was most pronounced in Kathmandu, other major urban centres were
not spared. On Christmas day, various student organisations condemned
Hrithik's alleged remarks and asked people to boycott his films and cinema
halls not to show them. The next day, processions of students emerged
from colleges and handed the Indian Embassy a protest note. On their way
back, they clashed with the police, leading to police firing. Elsewhere
in town, a crowd tried to burn down a theatre that had been showing Hrithik's
latest film, Mission Kashmir. Again police resorted to firing and four
persons were killed, including a 12-year-old girl sitting in a house facing
the street.
Next morning,
life in Kathmandu Valley came to a standstill. Businesses were closed
and attendance in offices was minimal. Cable operators pulled Indian TV
channels off the air while demonstrators directed their ire at businesses
and residences belonging to Indians and to Nepalese of Indian origin.
In all this
there has not been a single witness who is known to have seen the TV show
that sparked off the protests. Private Indian TV channels, to whom the
actor had granted interviews in the recent past, offered video evidence
to show that Hrithik had never ever mentioned Nepal in any of his interactions
with the media. Hrithik's father Rakesh Roshan, who directed Kaho Naa
Pyaar Hai (KNPH) and whose spectacular success saw Hrithik becoming Bollywood's
hottest star, says he has no clue about who is behind the plot to defame
his son and why. He summed up the feelings of millions of Hrithik fans
when he said that his son had not been able to savour his success. When
KNPH became last year's biggest grosser, Hrithik could not find time to
celebrate its runaway success. He was mostly in a Mumbai hospital looking
after his father who had been shot at by the underworld for refusing to
hand over distribution rights of the film. And the campaign in Kathmandu
against the star began a couple of days after he married his childhood
sweetheart, Suzanne Khan, daughter of filmstar Sanjay Khan.
Hrithik
rejected demands by the Nepalese students organisations that he offer
an apology to Nepal and its people. In a statement issued in Mumbai, he
denied saying anything derogatory about Nepal and recalled that his family
had close association with several people of Nepalese origin. He then
took off for New Zealand with three close family associates-all of whom
are Nepalese.
There is
speculation in India regarding the timing of the incident. Especially
since the Mumbai underworld had set its eyes on the Roshan family after
the success of KNPH. The Indian government refused to comment on the reasons.
After last year's hijacking of IC- 814, however, there is concern that
there may be a deeper conspiracy involving the underworld and its links
especially with Pakistan's ISI. Something Kathmandu denies vehemently.
The student
leaders who took to the streets have since admitted they have not seen
the programme. The Nepali Congress Government's reaction did not help
matters. On the evening of December 27, the Ministry of Information and
Communication issued instructions to cinema halls all over the country
not to show any of Hrithik's films until the actor apologised. It was
obvious that the ban on the films was meant to defuse the situation, but
it gave the Opposition the excuse to say that since the Government had
demanded an apology, Hrithik must have made the alleged remarks. Some
pull-back was evident in the protests after a couple of days. Realising
that the matter was getting out of hand both the Government and the main
Opposition party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist),
warned people of elements taking advantage of the situation to destabilise
the country. As if on cue, pamphlets suddenly began appearing in which
an obscure organisation, the Rastrabadi Milan Kendra, recounted the "failures"
of 10 years of democracy and indirectly demanded a more proactive role
for the monarchy.
Most intriguing
is that the first demonstration in Bharatpur was reported to have been
held on December 12, two days before the Hrithik interview was aired on
Star TV. Newspapers have begun to comment on a larger conspiracy behind
the entire episode. No one has yet named names, but analysts say privately
that the situation would be quite to the liking of the Communist Party
of Nepal (Maoist), known for its openly anti-India stance and for demanding
a blanket ban on all Hindi films in Nepal. What Hrithik may or may not
have said is turning out to be a red herring for the latent anti-India
feelings among a section of the population. The resentment has always
existed because Indians or Nepalese of Indian origin control a large part
of the country's economy. The past decade has been a stormy one for Indo-Nepal
relations. Political leaders were quick to capitalise on the sentiment
to score points against the Government. The general-secretary of the Communist
Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), Bamdev Gautam, railed against the "Government's
subservience towards India". His counterpart in the underground Communist
Party of Nepal (Maoist) charged the Government of going to the extent
of killing citizens to appease India.
Politicking
of another kind was also taking place. Madhav Kumar, leader of the Communist
Party of Nepal (UML), stated that the protests were a sign of people's
dissatisfaction with the Girija Prasad Koirala Government. He could have
a point there since Nepal has had a sense of not having a government for
the past few months. The Maoist insurgency is in full swing, a hotel employees'
strike has crippled the tourism industry and Koirala himself is busy staving
off one challenge after another from within his own party. Even as the
rioting went on, Congress dissidents were busy with another attempt to
oust Koirala.
It may be
just another day for politicians but what has suffered is Nepal's image.
But the worst seems to be over, and sane voices are being heard over the
babel of hate. The influential Nepali-language daily Kantipur wrote in
its editorial of December 28: "It is most shameful that Nepalese
have to resort to 'blind nationalism' in reaction to what one Hrithik
Roshan out of a billion Indians feels about Nepal. Hrithik does not represent
a collective India and he cannot affect our bilateral relations. "
Now if only those who spill out on the streets could understand that.
-with
Vijay Jung Thapa in Delhi
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