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Followers of Hinduism celebrate lots of fairs and festivals round the year. Basant Panchami or Saraswati Puja is one of the main festivals, observed by worshiping Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. The festival heralds the beginning of the spring season and is very important for teachers and students. The fifth day of the new moon holds special significance in the Mithila region. The fifth day of the new moon of the month of Shrawan is celebrated as Mauna Panchami. People worship the Bishara goddess with special respect and reverence on this day. They also celebrate the famous festival of Madhushrawani. It is considered the honeymoon of the newly married bride and groom. Moreover they also pay due respect to the serpent god which is called Nagpanchami.The fifth day of Mangsir is celebrated  as Vivah Panchami.On this special occasion the marriage ceremony of Lord Ramchandra and goddess Sita is celebrated with great fanfare in Janakpur. The fifth day of the new moon on the month of Magh is called Vasant Panchami when the Goddess  Saraswati is worshiped in each and every educational institution in Mithila with interest and enthusiasm. Especially all teachers and students pay offerings to Saraswati, the Goddess of wisdom. She is not only the Goddess of wisdom but also the Goddess of knowledge, music, arts, science and modern technology.Goddess Sarswati is worshiped on Vasant Panchami day which is also called as Sri Panchami and Saraswati Panchami.People worship Goddess Sarswati to get enlightened with knowledge and get rid of ignorance for ever. It is also celebrated for attaining the blessing of Mother Saraswati.This special worship is performed by expert priest and Pandit who chant shlokas of Sanskrit and also read Saraswati Puran.She is considered mother of all the Vedas.She is also known as Bharati( persuasiveness), Shatrupad (survival), Vedamata( mother of the Vedas) Brahmi, Sharada, Vageshwari and Putkari.She is well known as the Goddess of speech.She is also revered and respected as the Goddess of aesthetics and alphabet because children of Mithila first of all learn alphabet on this auspicious occasion. Goddess Sarswati is represented as a graceful woman  in  white apparel, a symbol of purity and peace and chastity. She is the only Goddess, who signifies knowledge, learning, arts and culture. This puja is celebrated in a free and friendly atmosphere beyond the feelings of caste, creed and gender. It is a community festival scholars and students  community festival, which gives a suitable opportunity to forget all the  ill nourished feelings of the whole year. This festival  is celebrated in the spring season when Maithil people are mentally and physically prepared to make merry by worshiping the Goddess and distributing sacred Prasad among themselves. On this occasion, these people wear white new clothes befitting the occasion. The main person performing the pooja wears yellow clothes because yellow is the color of the spring season. This is an agricultural festival also because after a break of one month farmers  start to plough their barren fields on this day. The festival is observed somewhat differently in the Kathmandu valley. In the month of Magh, the Hindus celebrate Basant Pachami by listening to holy recitations from the priests about the advent of the spring season and its glory. On this auspicious occasion, a Vasant Shrawan ceremony is held at the courtyard of the historic Hanuman Dhoka, where the glory of the spring is sung and listened to. On this day, schools, campuses and universities all over the country are decorated tastefully with festoons and the goddess of knowledge is worshiped. Students as well as learned men and women gather at educational institutions in their native towns and villages for the celebrations. Goddess Saraswati is depicted as having four hands. On one hand, she holds a sacred scripture, a lovely lotus, while the other two hands hold the Veena, a stringed musical instrument. Her vehicle is a white swan. In Buddhism, she is said to be the consort of the respected Manjushri. Her earthen idols are immersed in nearby rivers and ponds on the following day amid recitations of prayers dedicated to her.

Elections are the backbone of democracy. Local elections are essential for the grassroots democracy for electing people's representatives to govern local governments.  After the promulgation of a new constitution in 2015, Nepal has held two local elections. These periodic polls were the hallmark of democracy of the young federal republic. Timely elections are the lifeline of democracy. The Election Commission (EC) has not been arranging after polls monitoring of the elections for a long time. It is a matter of great concern that some candidates do not maintain code of conduct during and after elections. Most of the candidates do not care for it because it is ritualistic and less realistic. The EC only urges the candidates and parties to abide by the code of conduct. It also imposes expenditure limits on candidates, asks for election expense details in a standard accounting format, and asks the candidates to limit the amount a party or candidate can spend for election purposes according to the provision of article 24 of the Election Commission Act. But most candidates cross the limit of expenditure during the election set by the commission. It is no secret that contractors, smugglers and black marketeers fund election campaigns in Nepal, but the election body has been rendered toothless by the political parties to take any action. Elections in Nepal are won by manipulation, muscle and money. It is true that some democracies of Asia are dying at the hands of the elected elites. They want to be dictators after winning the elections.  In the words of eminent economist Amartya Sen, “Balloting alone can be thoroughly inadequate on its own, as is abundantly illustrated by the outstanding electoral victories of ruling tyrannies in authoritarian regimes in the past as well as now in the present.” Expression of public views are thwarted by censorship, informational exclusion and climate of fear, along with the suppression of political opposition and the independence of the media, and the absence of basic civil rights and political liberties.  The constitution of Nepal, which came into effect on 20 Sept 2015, replaced the Interim Constitution of 2007. With the endorsement of the charter, the country saw a new political era. It formally demolished the centralized and unitary system of governance, and established a people-oriented federal democratic.  The people of Nepal have become the ultimate sovereign power of the nation. The constitution has provided a competitive multiparty democratic system, civic freedom, fundamental rights, human rights, periodic elections, voting rights without the right of rejection, full freedom of the media and independent judiciary. It is founded on principles of socialism, the rule of law, democratic values, durable peace, good governance and sustainable development.  Founded on the provisions of the constitution, three-tier general elections were held between May and December of 2017 elected about 35,000 local level representatives, including mayors, deputy mayors, ward chiefs and they get salary including all allowances.  Article 225 of the constitutions has mentioned that the term of local level-elected representatives shall be of five years. According to this, the government has constitutionally held the local elections this year as suggested by the Election Commission. But the tragedy is that in Nepal the date of elections is decided by the government and not by its election governing body.  The popular saying that power corrupts is nowhere more apparent than in Nepal. There is rampant corruption in this country from local levels to high levels. Elected representatives and government officials have looted the state coffers to a great extent. They spend less time understanding the plight and problems of the general masses.  I completed the tour of Dhanusha, Siraha and Sarlahi districts before local elections held on May 13. There, I met many intellectuals, civil society members and eminent persons to discuss election code of conduct and rule of law, among other issues.  Their concerns ranged from elected representatives and politicians blatantly ignoring the rule of law to engaging in corruption to misappropriating state funds to win elections. To conduct a fair election, Nepal needs an empowered poll governing body, one that is allowed to implement the code of conduct and regulations without any political hindrance. But a powerful EC alone will not do, it is also incumbent upon political parties and their leaders to respect the rule of law and be transparent when it comes to election funding.     Elections are becoming an increasingly expensive affair in Nepal. As a result, suitable and qualified candidates are unable to run an effective campaign. Honest candidates cannot win elections only because they cannot spend money.  Expensive elections have become a bane to Nepal’s democracy. Rather than competent and visionary candidates, businessmen and contractors are entering elections to further their vested interests. They can buy the votes because they have sufficient money.  Big businesses, NGOs and INGOs also fund political campaigns in Nepal to push their own interests. Parties and their candidates never declare the source of their campaign funding despite repeated urges by the EC. They do so because they do not care for the rule of law and impartial elections. Therefore, a one-sided effort from the election body to ensure free and fair vote and implement the election code will never work.       The author is a former joint secretary of Election Commission

Quick facts

Born on 25 July 1942 in Sisautiya, Sarlahi 

Went to Nandipath Jitu High School, Sonbarsa, India 

Graduated from SRK Goenka College, Sitamarhi, India; post-grad from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu

PhD from Delhi University, India; post-doctoral research on Folklores of Nepal, especially of Mithila from Indiana University, Bloomington, US  

Husband of Tara Devi Rakesh

Father to Prabhat Sah, Prashant Sah and Punam Sah 

I was born and brought up in a rural village in Sarlahi district. After completing my primary school there, I had to go to India for further studies. There was no high school in Sarlahi at that time.

From an early age, I wanted to be a teacher. So after graduating from India, I began teaching at my village high school, where I went on to work as the headmaster. Incidentally, I had to resign from the headmaster’s position due to constant political meddling.

I then left the teaching job and came to Kathmandu for my master’s degree. After coming to the capital city, I discovered that very few people there knew anything about the Maithili culture. This prompted me to write about it in Nepali newspapers and magazines, starting with Gorkhapatra in 1966.

As far as I can recall, I had no interest in writing before that. I loved teaching and even after coming to Kathmandu, I used to give tuition classes to make some money on the side. Thankfully, my writings on Maithili culture, history and literature were well received.

I was teaching at the Padma Kanya College at the time. I started as an honorary lecturer and got a temporary appointment after nine months. But to become a full lecturer, you had to pass the Public Service Commission’s test. My colleagues and seniors at the college continuously encouraged me to write. The publishers too were kind enough to entertain my writing on their papers. I was given a regular column and they even started paying me. My pieces were also read out on Radio Nepal.

I taught at Padma Kanya for four years before leaving for India for my PhD under the Colombo Plan, a government-sponsored scholarship. When I returned, I was transferred to Kirtipur Campus, where I worked for almost two decades.

I had to change two buses to reach the campus from my house. I did this for 20 years as I never got teacher’s quarters. I was deployed under the government quota, and to be eligible for the quarters you had to be directly employed by the Tribhuvan University.

After years of teaching, I began to lose interest in the profession, which was once my dream career. But I had the option of switching to government administration, and I did.

Ram Dayal Rakesh addressing an online event to discuss his book ‘Maithili Folk Culture’.

In 1992, I got appointed as a joint secretary at the Election Commission. For someone who had taught all his life, it was an uncomfortable job. My new colleagues were not particularly fond of me because I was against their spendthrift habits. So they rarely consulted me if something came up. Even the chief election commissioner at the time was unhappy with me. He kept me as a Jageda, a back-up officer. This meant I had only limited facilities and was not allowed to work. All I had to do was sign the attendance sheet.

It was around this time that I got a Fulbright scholarship for my post-doctoral research in Indiana University. I had developed a love for research because I used to do tons of them while writing my columns on Maithili culture and history. As a result, I enjoyed my post-doctoral research work very much.

After returning to Nepal, I served in a couple of government agencies. But I was not going anywhere in my career. I had no chance of getting promoted to the level of government secretary as I had no political connections. So I resigned from government service in early 2000.

I then went on to work with the then Royal Nepal Academy, the National Human Rights Commission, and the erstwhile Other Backward Class Committee. But these jobs too did not last long.

I retired for good in 2006 so that I could focus on my writing and research. But I have not been able to spend as much time as I would like to on these things because of my poor health.

I have written almost 45 books in Nepali, Hindi, Maithili and English. All this would not have been possible without my enduring love for folk culture and literature. I am also heavily indebted to my dear readers, my friends and family for their encouraging words and support.

Thanks to their love, I became the first Nepali recipient of the Premchand Fellowship of Sahitya Academy, India, and Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize, Japan. I was also honored by the Vidhyapati Memorial Prize for my contribution to Maithili folklore.

I write in multiple languages because, that way, writing never gets monotonous. At the same time, I feel that had I focused on one language, my works would have had more heft. Probably my contributions would have been more visible too.

My concern is that while countries like India, Japan and Thailand are doing a lot to promote the Mithila culture, authorities in Nepal are not doing much. Mithila is one of the richest cultures and is closely tied to Nepal’s identity. Our government should thus do more to promote and preserve this culture.

About him

Samir Dahal (Grandson)

I am awed whenever I see my grandfather’s room covered with books and awards. He is an inspiration. He has this unmatched love for folktales, which is only accentuated by his literary acuity and agility. His hunger to read and write is legendary. I aspire to follow in his footsteps.

Chandreshwor Mishra (Friend)

Rakesh ji and I share decades-long friendship. I have known him as a kind person who is always helpful to his colleagues, friends and students. His writings are based on solid ground research. He visits ancient places, collects information from indigenous people and publishes them in a simple form. We will always be in debt to him for his priceless body of work.

Kedar Bhakta Mathema (Friend)

People often become a little pompous when they achieve certain fame. But Rakesh ji is not in that category of people despite his recognition as someone who introduced various dimensions of Nepali folk culture to the world. His works are quoted by numerous international researchers, a rarity among Nepalis. And his legacy continues to get bigger by the day—kudos!