KATHMANDU: Civil society has passed a mother language march from Lalitpur Pulchowk to Mangalbazar against the oppression of language. According to Suman Sayami, chairperson of the Valley-wide Road Expansion Road Struggle Committee, the movement against language discrimination has been escalating since the Balaju Bypass Road Expansion.
While speaking his own language in the bypass, the police repressed him and arrested him. "Our land has been encroached upon by the government," says Saimi. At the same time, he was detained while speaking his own language with our community. As we are Newars, it is easy to speak our own language. We had gone there to advise them when Newar's house collapsed. We were talking in Nepali. He was arrested by the police for speaking in a language we understand. ”
Saimi said that they will continue to fight against land encroachment through the Valley-wide Road Expansion Victims Struggle Committee. He said that they are running a campaign against road expansion in 32 places of the Kathmandu Valley. Organizations including the Greater Civil Movement, Linguistic Rights Struggle Committee, Federation of Nepal Indigenous Tribes, Newa: Dey Dabu, various Khala Puchs, Valley-wide Road Expansion Road Victims Struggle Committee are affiliated.
"Language is our identity. We lose our identity when we can't speak our language. We continue to preserve the language we have spoken since childhood. We fight against linguistic discrimination, "said Rabindra Kumar Shrestha, a civil advocate." The constitution gives us the right to speak our mother language. The state has played games on our mother tongue by relying on the constitution. ”
In the constitution of Nepal, all languages are called national languages. Newa: According to the chairman of Dey Dabu, Naresh Tamrakar, the state has not been able to implement the rights given by the constitution in practice. "All languages are equal in a democratic constitution. In the Constitution of Nepal 2047, Nepal bhasa has been called the national language of others, ”he said.“ In today's democracy, do people have the right to speak the language? Arresting us on such false accusations is a language regression. We should be able to speak our mother language. Similarly, the Nepali language has been suppressed today. Police crackdown on any language could happen tomorrow. ”
Civil movement leader and journalist Narayan Wagle says that the engineer who was arrested for speaking Nepal bhasa language at Balaju Bypass has not received justice yet. He condemned the atrocities committed by the police. "Police have suppressed the religion, culture and traditions of Nepal bhasa language. This is not only the repression of Nepal bhasa language, it is the repression of the language spoken by all Nepalis, "he said." How long will the police repression of Nepal bhasa language last? What kind of state mechanism is this to measure language, religion, culture, tradition? There are different languages and religions in Nepal. Everyone should be able to speak their own language freely. As long as we do not feel that we have not received justice, we will continue to fight against language discrimination.”
