With our present state of hibernation and alienation from the real cause we advocated, we are being more indifferent to those martyrs who gave up their lives for the very cause. The calendar shows us the time and our face shows what we are doing with it. Time is passing by and with it our love for our motherland. Many of us are still in the state of utter confusion with this association and therefore redefining it to suit our own interest. Our cry for ‘Repatriation’ and ‘Justice’ will turn to lackluster unless we realize our total participation in a committed way.
We accept as truth that suppression of any kind or by the use of forces is by no means palatable to the people of the world. Fundamental civic rights are the actual conditions which govern the happiness and well-being of any people for pragmatic socio-economic prosperity in the shadow of self-reliance and self-determination. As obvious, feeling for the nation should emanate truly from our heart where reality should guide against fictitious mentality of ours. Never be the ‘One Nation One People’, ‘King Top Democracy’ or ‘Gross National Happiness’ policies proclaimed by Bhutan king good fit into real life of today. And we, by simply voicing for repatriation, popular democracy and human rights in and outside of Bhutan without no-one listening is like begging alms without no-one giving.
We have a task to fulfill and the task is ‘Justice to Bhutanese Refugees’. If we have a place to go, the destined place is Bhutan…. but how and when? If we try to ask these questions within ourselves, our inner conscience will answer these questions and the probable answer would be to forget about the whole gamut once and for all as we are cowards …. who die many times before actual death. Let us remember for the daring, the destination is never far off, only the initiative has to be taken. Dr Radhakrishna had rightly pointed that….if we want to build a great nation, we must try to train a large number of young men and women who have character, who look upon others as their own living images, who subordinate self to service, who regard greed as an evil and eschew violence and practice love and compassion. Bhutan is our nation and today it resembles a badly battered ship and so it has become all the more important for the people inside the country and the refugees in exile to coordinate to re-design her.
“Where there is a will there is a way.” There is enough of opportunity to universalize our cause for human rights and let us strive hard to make our struggle meaningful for the betterment of our tomorrow. We should judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing while others judge us by what we have been doing. However, in our context, it is just the contrary. We tend to think only today without realizing what is in store for us tomorrow. Our mentality contains something like—today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we shun; today we desire what tomorrow we fear. Being refugees and as grown ups with our days getting numbered…the only solution at our disposal is to work for our children if not for our country, but we should be clear in our perception that only a free Bhutan with independent system and human rights will define the legal status of the Bhutanese refugees where they intent to return or identify with.
A loved and familiar face of today is the nightmare of tomorrow. The children and the grown ups who succumbed to their premature death in the initial phase of our exodus at Maidhar Camp in Jhapa District in Eastern Nepal are the glaring examples of our sacrifice. The plight of the mother then, requires no elaboration. The whole camp area used to smell with roasting human flesh of dead bodies cremated on the banks of Kankai river. Remember the days when we struggled for a square meal there but a very distant factor common to all was the love for the country then. However, with an easier life now, resettled in wonderful countries the love for the motherland is slowly and steadily getting evaporated. Some of our martyrs perished leaving behind their dependents to let their dreams cherished…but when?
It could be a fitting tribute to the martyrs if we wake up from a deep hibernation and redeem our pledge very substantially to free Bhutan from the hands of tyrants. We should also pledge our dedication to the service of Bhutan with greater cause for humanity. It would be equally a fitting farewell to the host country and the International Agencies which are in a state of premonition with victims of terrorist attacks in many countries adding to an unending list of displaced people, all of whom need special care. When our sincere efforts will justify our cause, only then we can heave a sigh of relief to realize that we have compensated our debt to our country and martyrs.
Let us endeavor to guide our people irrespective of age factor in the right direction. Without proper guidance in human values and discipline, our energetic youngsters would tend to think bullish activity and hooliganism as acts of bravery with conflicting ideologies. They think to foster corrupt politics intended to take revenge and resort to armed battle killing innocent people in the country.
To quote B P Koirala, the great mentor of Nepalese democracy, “tolerance as a basis of Democracy, must be based on justice and bold action carrying-out responsibilities. It must be strong enough to protect society from the spreading of evil ideas and jealous Gods.” Our courage, determination and planned aim will definitely help us to erect monuments of immortals in Bhutan, so that our next generations will not repeat the mistake of being refugees in quest of destiny, in an alien land with alien people. Nelson Mandela has said, “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” There are many options left at our disposal but the ONE AND THE ONLY ONE OPTION to re-characterize ourselves is through total solidarity with the Bhutanese people and a unanimous resolution to erase barbarism in Bhutan. We must remember that ‘a lie on the throne is a lie, still, the truth in a dungeon as truth, still and a lie on the throne is on the way to defeat, and truth in a dungeon is on the way to victory’. “Right to return and re-build Bhutan” must reverberate in the hearts of all the Bhutanese committed for good Bhutan and to identify themselves as good Bhutanese when repatriated or resettled in any countries vis-à-vis wherever we live.
Editor’s note: This is the second and final part of the two series opinion the writer submitted to BNS.
