{"id":1829,"date":"2020-01-06T12:48:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T07:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meromauka.com\/news\/?p=1829"},"modified":"2020-01-06T12:48:38","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T07:03:38","slug":"one-more-thing-the-state-has-a-problem-with-truck-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meromauka.com\/news\/one-more-thing-the-state-has-a-problem-with-truck-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"One more thing the state has a problem with: truck poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> The Department of Transport Management has outlawed the quirky verses on the backs of public vehicles, saying they cause distractions and road accidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those ubiquitous verses\u2014often chuckle-inducing and occasionally straight-up cringeworthy\u2014plastered across the rear of buses and trucks on Nepal\u2019s roads might soon disappear.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Transport Management issued a notice last week ordering all public vehicles to remove these poignant verses about love, lust, loss, satire and occasionally social criticism,\u00a0popularly known as\u00a0<em>truck sahitya<\/em>. The department said that the decision was taken in the interest of road safety\u2014to prevent drivers from getting distracted while trying to read amateur poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after the department\u2019s decision, ridicule followed on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-cdn.kathmandupost.com\/uploads\/source\/news\/2020\/miscellaneous\/_TRUCK_SAYARI_FOR_TKP_201905240646.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Aashruti Tripathy\/TKP<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHow about they first focus on improving the condition of roads,\u201d one Facebook user wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs if truck sahitya cause road accidents!\u201d another one said. \u201cNow the transport management department should make it mandatory for drivers to recite&nbsp;<em>hanuman chalisa&nbsp;<\/em>before they start their vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The decision might have drawn a humourous response but it arrives as one more instance of the KP Sharma Oli administration steadily\u00a0tightening the noose\u00a0around people\u2019s freedom of expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just last week,\u00a0the controversial IT bill\u00a0was endorsed by a parliamentary committee, raising alarm bells about the future of free speech on the internet in Nepal. This past year, the government also\u00a0arrested a number of singers\u00a0and artists on charges of offending socio-cultural sentiment. Although the artists were eventually released, many commentators saw the move as another censorship attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nepal, however, is not alone when it comes to limiting attempting to curtail freedom of expression, especially those of writers, artists and poets. There is an ongoing global trend where authorities are increasingly suppressing people\u2019s voices.\u00a0Watchdogs of free speech\u00a0have repeatedly pointed out that freedom of expression has declined globally over the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In neighbouring India, as mass protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act continue, there has been immense scrutiny on those criticising the Narendra Modi government. Protestors are alleging that the measures in the new legislation are an\u00a0attack on the country\u2019s secular constitution. Last month, after students at a college in India chanted the poem \u2018<em>Hum dekhenge<\/em>\u2019 by the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz at one of their protests, the\u00a0college set up a panel to\u00a0investigate whether the poem is \u201canti-Hindu.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Politician and poet Bishwa Bhakta Dulal \u2018Aahuti\u2019, who has been vocal about the government\u2019s increasing authoritarian streak, said that the recent ban on truck poetry is part of a larger attempt to stifle anything that makes the authorities uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCurtailing working-class people\u2019s simple form of expression is the height of authoritarianism,\u201d said Dulal. \u201cThe government is trying to do everything it can to create a single narrative and silence critical minds and voices, like we\u2019ve seen in a lot of countries worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s important for writers, activists and civil society to unite in this climate of fear, said Dulal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-cdn.kathmandupost.com\/uploads\/source\/news\/2020\/miscellaneous\/_TRUCK_SAYARI_FOR_TKP_201905240660.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Decorating vehicles with quirky lines that take a jab at the system is a popular trend across South Asia,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1278386\">particularly Pakistan<\/a>&nbsp;and India. In Nepal, this truck poetry has made it to magazines and also taken on the form of countless memes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the book&nbsp;<em>Trucksahitya: Sankalit sirjanaharu<\/em>, journalist Subida Guragain has compiled hundreds of verses from the bodies of buses and trucks. The ban is a worrying sign that the government is bent on tightly restricting people\u2019s freedoms, said Guragain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRemoving people\u2019s earnest expressions on public vehicles is completely wrong and goes against the freedom of speech enshrined in the constitution, which the government has claimed to be the best in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to implement those freedoms, not limit them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After saying that he is tired of attempting to engage with the \u201cfools who make these rules,\u201d Guragain summed up his frustrations succinctly with a verse from the back of a truck:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Himal chha, pahad chha, bibhinna taal chha<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Buddha janmeko desh ma buddhi ko anikal chha<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Translation: \u201cSnowy peaks, mountains, and numerous lakes abound<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\n\nIn the land of the Buddha, wisdom is nowhere to be found.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Transport Management has outlawed the quirky verses on the backs of public&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,17,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment-news","category-nepal","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>One more thing the state has a problem with: truck poetry | Buy sell anything in Nepal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meromauka.com\/news\/one-more-thing-the-state-has-a-problem-with-truck-poetry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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