The Guthi Issue

Thousands have come out onto the street to show their disagreement with the guthi bill. And unless you’ve turned a blind eye to the news, you must have come to know about it.

Guthis have been around for a long, period of time. They have continued religious and cultural traditional practices, organized those practices well and preserved them well for the coming generations to continue. There are a number of Guthis all around the valley that have been peacefully operating and going about all these years. These guthis have their own lands and properties that they conduct events and festivities in. And that property does not belong to one sole person or head, it belongs to the concerned guthi; to the community. When things have been going about this way for so long, why the issue now to the government? Are the guthis not entitled to the land and property that they own bought on their respective funds? Are the guthis not entitled to raise a voice against the injustice to them?

Perhaps an eye opener to the issue is the water canon used on the protesters at Maitighar. I wonder where they got all that water from to attack on innocent protesters when there’s barely water available on the taps at homes to sustain. Is it finally the Melamchi water that they have been bragging about since the past oh so many decades? Aah! But that is a whole other matter! Coming back to the original matter: were the protesters progressing to any kind of violence to gain attention to their purpose? Of course not. And it was public holiday: mind it. And what else; this news is not getting the coverage it is supposed to; I wonder why?

The passing of the bill will cause a huge impact on the culture and traditional practices of not only the valley: but the whole nation. Who will take responsibility then?