Repeatedly cheated of justice by successive governments, Nanda Prasad Adhikari has ‘died’. That is the polite way of putting it. In reality he was murdered.
He was murdered by an apathetic state, and would have been alive if governments one after other hadn’t gone back on their promises that they would find and try those responsible for the murder of his son in Gorkha in 2004. His wife, Ganga Maya, would not be in danger of dying herself if there had been a genuine attempt to find justice.
Adhikari has become the first Nepali to give his life for justice for a war crime in this country, sacrificing his own life after 332 days without food. It was the government’s responsibility to save his life by dispensing justice but it failed shamefully.
If a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) had been set up as agreed to eight years ago between Girija Prasad Koirala and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Adhikari would not have to sacrifice his life. After Sushil Koirala came to power, the deadline for setting up the TRC kept being put off, prompting the Adhikari couple to continue with their hunger strike. The government can stoop low and blame donor-funded activists, but that is only a feeble attempt to absolve themselves of the crime.
The late Nanda Prasad Adhikari and his semi-conscious wife Ganga Maya have exposed the government’s criminal inability to dispense justice in the eyes of Nepalis and international public opinion. This has put a question mark over the government’s seriousness about setting up a TRC, as well as exposing its role in the death of morality in this country. A state’s primary responsibility is the protection of the life of its citizens, this government has lost the confidence of its people by its inability to fulfill that role.