[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6135-S6136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING SUVASH DARNAL

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I have spoken before about Suvash Darnal, 
an extraordinary Nepalese Dalit activist who was tragically killed in a 
traffic accident in Virginia on August 15, 2011.
  Mr. Darnal was only 31 years old when he died, but he had already 
made more of his life than many people who live to be twice or three 
times his age. He grew up impoverished, with nothing to look forward 
to. In large measure because of the adversity he experienced and his 
inherent thirst for knowledge, he became a passionate advocate for his 
people at home and around the world. As I have said before, his 
integrity, his humility, his vision, and his dedication live on as an 
inspiring example of why caste discrimination has no place in the 21st 
century, in Nepal or anywhere else.
  From 2008 to 2009, Mr. Darnal was a fellow at the National Endowment 
for Democracy. Carl Gershman, President of NED, was among Mr. Darnal's 
admirers and has helped to convey the lessons of Mr. Darnal's life to a 
wider audience.
  I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Gershman's account of recent events 
in Kathmandu in remembrance of Suvash Darnal be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                        [From the kathmandupost]

                           (By Carl Gershman)

       Aug. 28, 2018.--I visited Nepal recently to attend two days 
     of memorial events held in honour of Suvash Darnal, an 
     activist for Dalit rights who perished in a terrible car 
     accident in Washington in 2011. I first met Darnal a decade 
     ago when he was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the 
     National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the organisation that 
     I head. 1 found him to be an unusually gifted democracy 
     activist. He had a marvellously engaging personality, and he 
     impressed many people in Washington as a sophisticated 
     analyst of Nepal at a time when the country was just coming 
     out of a civil war. He was also an ardent and effective 
     spokesman against caste discrimination.
       Darnal had the ability to make the Dalit issue come alive 
     for Americans, partly by

[[Page S6136]]

     drawing parallels with America's own history of slavery and 
     racial discrimination. There are obviously great differences 
     between the US and Nepal, as well as between racial and caste 
     discrimination. But experiences have a way of travelling 
     across borders and cultures in our globalised world, and in 
     his public presentation as a NED fellow on discrimination 
     against Dalits, Darnal called for a programme of `affirmative 
     action', an idea that was developed in the US after the civil 
     rights movement to highlight the need for proactive measures 
     to address the deeply rooted problem of racial inequality.
       One of the attributes that made Darnal such an effective 
     activist was that he understood the importance of 
     organisation and the need for institutions of civil society 
     capable of taking collective action. When he was only 20 
     years old, he took the lead in creating the Jagaran Media 
     Centre which was both the largest Dalit media outlet in South 
     Asia and an advocacy group fighting to eliminate caste-based 
     discrimination.
       When king Gyanendra took power in 2001 and shut down 
     Nepal's nascent democracy, he helped found the Collective 
     Campaign for Peace, a coalition of 43 non-governmental 
     organisations that became the secretariat for the civic 
     movement fighting for the restoration of democracy. And when 
     he returned from his fellowship at NED, during which he had 
     thought deeply about the need to change the pure-impure 
     dichotomy of the caste-based culture and system in Nepal, he 
     created the Samata Foundation to bridge the gap between 
     politics and caste.
       What has impressed me about the Dalit movement in Nepal is 
     that it did not succumb to discouragement by Darnal's tragic 
     death, but has found a way to build upon his legacy of 
     struggle and organisation. The programme of remembrance on 
     August 14-15 consisted of three major events--a conference at 
     Tribhuvan University at which five young Dalit scholars and 
     practitioners presented papers on different dimensions of the 
     continuing struggle against caste discrimination; an evening 
     forum where four prominent international scholars placed the 
     Dalit issue in a global context; and a concluding award 
     ceremony at Kathmandu's City Hall attended by 500 people at 
     which frontline Dalit activists were recognised for their 
     efforts to carry forward Darnal's vision of social justice.
       These events took place at a time of deep anxiety among 
     Dalits over the rise of nationalism in Nepal that has led the 
     Left Alliance government to dismiss demands for minority 
     rights and the inclusion of marginalised groups as 
     inconsistent with the need for national unity. This problem 
     was addressed by a paper delivered at the Tribhuvan 
     University conference by Amar BK, a PhD candidate at the 
     University of Pittsburgh in the US, who wrote that despite 
     the hopes for an end to untouchability engendered by the 
     adoption in 2007 of a progressive interim constitution, the 
     recent rise of Hindu religious nationalism has caused an 
     anti-Dalit backlash. Other conference papers highlighted the 
     persistence of exclusion and discrimination in the judiciary 
     in Nepal and the need to refute `dominant narratives' against 
     affirmative action, such as that the policy undermines 
     meritocracy.
       Despite the current backsliding on the Dalit issue, I was 
     heartened that the movement is pressing ahead at every level. 
     In Parliament, Dalit Members of Parliament are preparing 
     shadow bills on the critical issues of land reform, 
     employment, housing, health care, education and the defence 
     of political rights and freedom of assembly and association. 
     At the state level, the Samata Foundation is developing a 
     leadership academy to train new Dalit members of Provincial 
     Assemblies. Training and protection are also being provided 
     to the thousands of Dalits who have been elected to positions 
     on local councils but who are being blocked by old-line 
     forces from carrying out their responsibilities. And, of 
     course, there are continuing efforts to address the critical 
     long-term need for youth education and capacity-building.
       What especially impressed me was the invariably positive 
     and hopeful attitude that the Dalit activists take to the 
     challenges they face, despite the legacy of harsh 
     discrimination and a bloody civil war. At the Tribhuvan 
     University conference, for example, grassroots activist Sona 
     Khatik movingly described the terrible injustices she had 
     suffered, yet said that she had decided early on to take her 
     revenge by doing good deeds, not by using violence. Darnal's 
     widow Sarita Pariyar also took the path of nonviolence by 
     invoking the memory of Dr Martin Luther King when she spoke 
     about ending the scourge of caste humiliation.
       This positive attitude exemplified the spirit of Suvash 
     Darnal, who always rejected the politics of grievance and 
     victimisation. He never appealed to people's sense of guilt 
     over the injustices done to Dalits, nor did he ever ask for 
     sympathy, let alone pity. Rather than put people off with 
     rancour and righteous anger, he preferred to draw them in 
     with humour, warmth and wit. He always took the high road and 
     appealed to common ideals of social justice and shared 
     humanity. The Dalit movement is building upon what Suvash 
     accomplished, and is using his example as a model and 
     inspiration. If they succeed, they will make Nepal a stronger 
     and more successful country, and will give inspiration to 
     others around the world who are responding to new threats to 
     democracy at a very troubled time in world history.

                          ____________________