Rage in Nepal erupts over budget
Thu, September 25 2008
The area resembled a battlefield from early morning as hundreds of local youths went on the rampage, smashing down metal road dividers, kicking down billboards and setting them on fire and raising angry slogans against the new Maoist-led government.
The lines of shops on the roads remained shut and traffic vanished as tension simmered in the area despite its proximity to two major police stations.
The public anger of a nation once deeply religious and still unable to come to terms with its new-found secularism, was triggered by the ambitious budget unveiled by Maoist Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai Friday that made no allowances for Hindu festivals.
The $3.5 billion budget focused on education, health and building roads, and discontinued the traditional state largesse given for buying and sacrificing animals during Hindu festivals.
A UNESCO-declared world cultural heritage site, the square boasts of the old palace of the deposed Shah kings where once an infamous massacre took place on the orders of a promiscuous queen, and the palace of the Kumari, Nepal’s living goddess, where hundreds flock to worship or simply get a glimpse of the mystic pre-pubescent girl who is believed to have divine powers.
Last Saturday also marked the end of Indrajatra, the festival of the rain god, a major tradition for an agrarian nation.
Traditionally, the festival ends with the Kumari being taken around the capital in her chariot and the offering of animal and bird sacrifices.
However, this time the lack of state funds enraged the locals, who began protesting violently at the “state interference” in religion and a tradition that goes back centuries.
The anger is likely to grow next month when Nepal celebrates its biggest Hindu festival — Dashain — which corresponds to neighbour India’s Dussera.
Thousands of animals and birds are slaughtered at various Hindu temples throughout October and November as part of the rituals.
The Nepal Army and police both subscribe to the practice and last year the government sanctioned $26,500 for Dashain sacrifices alone and an additional $47,000 on other rituals.
By Sudeshna Sarkar
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