Behind rightists’ inflated optimism

It is necessary to extend the state’s arms to the beneficiaries of public services.

Dashain , the most extensively celebrated festival in Nepal, has just ended. This is also a festival that reasserts traditional social protocols and hierarchy. The custom of taking blessings from elders during tika , which should be a strictly private, familial, or religious affair, has been politically exploited for long by dictatorial regimes. The Ranas since the latter half of the 19th century, and then the Shahs in the latter half of the 20th century used it to test the loyalty of their supporters, sycophants and henchmen. Unfortunately, though, the rulers of democratic-republican Nepal, acting as if they were superior beings, continue to ‘bless’ the commoners. What’s more, there are takers of the ‘blessing’ who see the act as an opportunity to prove allegiance to the president, prime minister or head of an institution. The practice of subservience of receiving tika from bosses (who may not necessarily be elders) now has extended to even the head of a small bureaucracy or security apparatus unit.