Picture By: DWIT News

On Wednesday during my commute from home to college I took the small inner road from 'City Center' to Putalisadak like always. At the junction of the main road and the smaller road, there was a crowd gathered. Some of the people in the crowd were carrying the flag of Nepali Congress (Major Political Party of Nepal). Those people were blocking the road and not letting any vehicle to pass through. They said they were having a program of the party. I did not even bother to ask them what the program was about because, to me, it did not seem important enough to require blocking the road. While the places allocated for mass gatherings like Khula Manch (Literal translation: Free Stage) remain empty, the political parties--who are supposed to work for welfare of the citizens--block the road to conduct their program.

Nepal is a democratic country and the citizens of the country are free to travel anywhere whenever they feel like it. It is a right given to us by the Constitution of Nepal, but then there is this group of people who call themselves members of a political party and sabotage the right of citizens to travel anywhere freely. In this case, it happens to be the very party that had fought for democracy in Nepal time and again. To me, it looks like they are making fun of people in a democratic country by not letting them practice their rights. It is not that the political parties should not conduct any programs or call for mass gatherings, it’s that they should do it more often than not. However, in doing so, they should not be making the lives of people on whose votes their existence depends harder. There are places like Khula Manch that were built for the sole purpose of serving as a place for mass gatherings. I just want to request the political parties to conduct as many mass gatherings and programs as they can, but want to tell them not to make a hard enough life for people even harder.