On the wrong track

Little is being done to stop the vicious cycle of deaths and injuries on our roads.

On Wednesday, amid the cacophony of which party or which politician took which ministry in the newly formed government, it was as if no one heard the news of a passenger bus plunging into the River Trishuli, in Gajuri, killing seven persons and injuring over 30. The devastating news made the headlines on several news websites in Nepal in the morning, but it was soon replaced by the goings-on in the political scene. Even the online portals that often narrated individual stories of victims earlier in such accidents seemed to have set different priorities on Wednesday. This invisibilisation of the loss of lives and limbs is as much a reflection of Nepali media’s priority today as much as it is a peek into the debased form of the country’s social and political discourses.