Hunger Strikes, Dr. Govinda KC and the Failure of the Nepalese Social Mob.

Yesterday, on the Cusp of Midnight, Something Revolutionary Happened according to the Nepalese Community on all Forms of media: Social, Print, And T.V. The Corrupt Nepalese Political Establishment finally bowed down to The Moral Strength of a Single Man, Not a Group, Not a Movement, But a Man who did nothing but  fast until death if positive  changes were not made to the Nepalese medical system. 

And what a momentous achievement it was, what a stand, what a mode of change. Nepalese all over the world were overjoyed. Here, was a man who at once had done something unheard of before. Changed the country and brought forward a wave that all of those typing and posting their statuses and tweets could embrace as a Moral Victory of their own for they had been with him every step of the way if not in action then in thought. That they too had been part of a radical overhaul of the Nepalese Medical System that had failed so many innocent, and Hardworking Nepalese. But they weren’t for He had not.

For He Had Not, and they weren’t part of something revolutionary, For they had failed so much morally as people of Activism. That they could not get off from their High Horses Long Enough to realize that even while Succeeding they had failed terribly. Why You Ask?? I will Tell You Why??

Let Us unwind back a Few Months, A Year Maybe, and Lets Zoom in and have a look. What do we have here? A Nepalese Couple: A Husband and A Wife, Two Similarly innocent Nepalese People Both on a Fast until Death. Their Demands: Justice, Not Sabotaging Someone Else’s Investment, Not Closing Down a Legitimately Setup Business, Not trying to stop someone from doing something perfectly legal. No, they were asking for something very much more; For the Government to bring the killers of their son to justice. Now that was something not worth supporting, something not worth getting behind on social media, not worth posting a status about or tweeting .  Why? Because, where’s the glamour in it, where is the sense of being on the moral High Ground. Just thinking about taking down the Medical Mafia is way more exciting than helping an old couple get justice for their murdered son. Where is the fun and excitement in relentlessly striding towards justice, with no regards for anything until justice was provided. There was no fun, no excitement in that. You had to have had utter and total devotion to that movement, stopped our lives and then pushed on until Justice was Served. But why do that? Why waste a day’s salary protesting for some old couple to get justice for their murdered son. Why should have we ? Why? It was not Logical  , It was Not Practical and most of all it required an effort from our side, A true effort as warriors for justice, Not as warriors of the keyboards.

And then there was another movement, a stop start movement, A Movement which in its 6^th iteration had achieved the same thing which its previous 5 iterations had achieved. A Few promises, a few claps a lot of jubilation and in practice nothing but a sense of achievement for those involved in it. Why, because the movement was never a true movement, It was not a relentless movement which did not take any breaks until its objective had been fulfilled.   Because you did not need to be warriors of justice here . This movement did not require you to truly expend your blood, to sweat, or to  toil. This, war only needed you as keyboard warriors, warriors of social media. Talking your big talk about how the country is run by the corrupt and how a change is required. And because you really did not need to be the change yourselves, you could just get behind a man with a Messiah Complex who once the going got tough would let go easily thinking something is done. If this does not work out there’s always next time. Because there was no chance of a continuous struggle until true justice was exercised.

And because if you’d been with  Late Mr, Nanda Prasad Adhikari and Mrs. Ganaga Maya Adhikari, they would not have stopped at the 14^th or the 15^th day just because the government made promises. Everyone, with half a mind knows better than to trust our Government and its shallow Promises. Okay, maybe  they would have believed it once and they did. Because the 1^st time no matter their skepticism they would wish for justice and so got caught up in the lies our government assured them of.

But the next time, the next time the government would not have had it easy. They could not make them false promises with no intent of keeping them because if they’d fooled them once the shame was on them but if they’d fooled them twice they’d be the one’s ashamed.  They’d see right through their flattering guise and tell them that they’d keep on fasting until the promises were brought in action. And that was what Mr. Nanda Prasad Did, and he found god before he had found justice. And his wife is continuing her fight without him, all alone. At least, even when she had lost her son, she had her husband to support her but now she’s lost both. Just imagine her, a woman still fighting having lost her loved ones one by one but still staying strong just for justice. For Justice! .Justice that all the net-activists have completely forgotten about.

But no one is talking about her on social media or on TV. Why? Because she’s not interesting enough. Doctor KC is doing it for the 6^th time.  6 times really? How many times has she started and stopped. Once, Twice, No, she’s being doing it for so long no one probably knows when it was that she started; Nobody even remembers her or him or their dead son and why should they? Why?. Because if we really cared about the wrong in our country we had to be there with her , we had to be her sons and daughters. We had to stop our lives and join her crusade for how long until she’d gotten justice. But we don’t really care do we, at least The Social Mob Does not and how Could They??

They cannot just get excited for a few days and then stop caring and get excited again the next time like when Dr KC is in a mood to bring forth change. So, we stopped talking about her and when we stopped talking about her we forgot she existed. Because talking about it, is not fun, it is not exciting, it just makes us sad and who wants to hear something sad. No one, we want interesting, we want Dr. KC fasting for the umpteenth time just so we can have our share of moral victory. Just so we can feel proud of doing something while doing absolutely nothing. When in essence we have failed so terribly that if we thought about it long enough and hard enough we’d actually feel guilty about it.

But maybe it’s just me who thinks this way, Maybe I am a Cynic, Maybe everyone who stood up for Dr KC is standing up for her and doing everything they can to get her justice. But it surely does not look like that from where I am standing. But let’s take a moment away from where the social mob failed at and return to what they actually achieved.  Let us see what the keyboard warriors of our country have achieved. And since this is a revolution in the field of medicine and medical service let us begin with achievements regarding medical service and the quality of it. Let us consider a, to do list that outlines the most serious problems facing Medicine and Medical Practices in our country.

•  Affordable Health Care to the poor and disenfranchised of our country  √
• Opening More Hospitals and Educating More Doctors to improve Doctor to Patients Ratio in The Country.  √
•  Making Doctors Accountable for their mistakes/the lives that are lost due to their negligence √
• Stopping the widespread corruption of Hospitals which offer even basic medical services at an astonishingly high and almost illegal prices √
• Allowing Medical Colleges and Hospitals to run efficiently such that they have very low overheads which even if passed to the patients do not increase the overall cost of Medical Services. √
• Opening More Hospitals and medical colleges which increases competition and decreases monopoly of select institution so they have to offer their services at a fairer price through open but strictly monitored competition. √

Some of you might be wondering why I Checked  all these Criteria’s, when this supposed revolution did not address any of them or rather in some cases even made the situation worse than it is. It is because I want to tell you exactly where we all have been misled partially due to our ignorance and partially due to a lack of complete understanding of the context and the merits of this so called revolution. So, here is my done list for this supposed revolution:

•  Stop opening of New Medical Colleges for the time being which is valid.
• Cancel Or Not Renew Licenses for Newer Medical Colleges which offer a threat to the real medical mafia who have had an unopposed monopoly in the market for so long.
• Close perfectly legal Medical Colleges which have followed all the rules to get their License. And sink the investments of hardworking people who might have invested their life’s savings on these ventures. People who have acted according to the law and complied with every rule and regulation.
• Decrease the quota of Medical students per college without a guarantee of more colleges. Hereby, reducing the employee pool thus guaranteeing a job to every doctor by compromising on quality. Because if there are 100 positions that need to be filled and only 100 apply they get the job defacto. No Competition which means loss of quality due to any lack of choice.
• Even more subsidized education without any guaranteed return to the nation. For instance If 35 lakhs worth of scholarship is provided to a student. He must do obligatory service to pay back at least 50% of that investment with interest.  Then only he can be termed qualified to work on his own accord. No such provision meaning significant outlay from the government with no guaranteed return.

As can be seen clearly, we observe that this strike or movement actually has no positives for the general population of Nepal in need of medical services. It rather caters to Medical students and Professionals by  reducing Competition, Making doctors even less accountable by allowing them to openly strike and disregard their Hippocratic oath , and even refuse to provide medical services which I might add should result in some of their practitioners licenses being Revoked. Which the Government and Nepal Medical Council are unable to do. So all in all this revolution has mainly done these things: 

• Allowing doctors to be more unaccountable than ever before, Strike while on duty, neglect their Hippocratic Oath and even refuse to treat patients which is an affront to a patients Human Rights which The National Human Rights Association conveniently fails to even mention allowing Doctors to not behave as professionals and get away with it.
• Create a precedent wherein anyone having a beef with someone else’s legitimately setup business can shut it down just by fasting until death. For Instance I could shut down CG industries and Bankrupt Mr. Binod Chaudhary even if he has done everything by the book and according to the law by just fasting till death if I just happen to be involved with his work but think it wrong . And that is a very dangerous precedent we are setting here.
•  Neglected any reference to providing affordable and quality healthcare to the people of Nepal and not dealt with the real issues of Nepali medicine rather problems that medical students and doctors have which make all these celebration worthless when we think about it. The poor guy still gets no healthcare. Medicine is as expensive as ever and so is medical care and the no of doctors per people decreases making healthcare an even rarer amenity.

Hence, I Salute the Social Mob for Not Taking a real Stand and rather a superficial one. Just think about it guys what would you rather do, get a mother justice for her murdered son or help increase facilities for doctors which in no way will have any bearing on your lives but would give you some excitement and a reason to cry out every few months for the umpteenth time. And to do what. Let Doctors do as they please! I know which path I’ll choose but that path needs warriors not of the keyboard but of the heart and of perseverance. Here’s to hoping the real social movement of Nepal wakes up not just a social mob yearning to fuel their activism complex.

Yours Truly,

A Disappointed Nepali.