KATHMANDU : Former prime minister and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Saturday took a jibe at the Nepali Congress while also indirectly criticising India.
Without naming India, Oli said that neighbouring countries are showing unnecessary interest in government formation in Nepal and urged them not to intervene in the country’s internal affairs.
As the political parties were preparing to elect the new prime minister, according to one UML leader, India, and the United States to some extent, wanted to see the continuation of the Sher Bahadur Deuba government, which did not happen. Oli’s latest comment is viewed in this connection.
In a dramatic move, after the Congress refused to let Pushpa Kamal Dahal lead the government in the first phase, the UML had abruptly come forward to support Dahal’s bid. Dahal claimed that Deuba had failed to honour his word to allow the Maoist chairman to lead the government in the first half of the five-year term. With the backing of the UML and other smaller parties, Dahal became the prime minister on December 25.
Addressing an orientation programme for newly-elected UML lawmakers on Sunday, Oli criticised the Congress leadership.
“Formation of the government was an important step towards protecting Nepali sovereignty,” said Oli. “Some acts were carried out in breach of diplomatic norms during the government formation process.”
UML leaders said that Oli felt it necessary to expose such manoeuvrings, as he did on Saturday.
“We formed the government by fending off external intervention. We are a sovereign nation. The Nepali people are happy to have formed their own government,” said a UML leader, wanting not to be named.
This is not the first time that Oli has lashed out at India. He kicked off the campaign for November 20 elections from the far-western corner of Darchula, the site of an old boundary dispute between Nepal and India.
Back in May 2020, the Oli government issued a new map incorporating Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh, which India had claimed as its own in the map it made public towards the end of 2019.
“Our friends are not coming through the front door. They are trying to come through the backdoor to change the government here, which is not possible,” Oli reportedly told his party’s MPs on Saturday. “It is not expected of a neighbour. We will lead our country in our own style and I urge [foreigners] not to intervene in our domestic affairs,” said Oli.
Relations between Nepal and India dipped to a historic low after the map row. There were some rounds of meetings between Nepal and India at the foreign minister and foreign secretary levels but India refused to take up the matter in bilateral forums. During his India visit, then-prime minister Deuba also raised the issue with his Indian counterpart but there has been no momentum in resolving the boundary dispute, an irritant in bilateral ties for decades.
“We do not expect such activities from our neighbours and friends,” said Oli. “Whatever assistance you can extend to us is welcome, but you should stop intervening in our internal affairs… Let such manoeuvrings stop and let’s work and act as friends. Let’s work together as per the principle of equal sovereignty.”
Stressing the Nepali policy of non-interference in others’ internal affairs, Oli said Kathmandu expects similar treatment from others. “I urge the neighbours to work with our government, no matter who gets to power.”
Oli’s statement comes ahead of the confidence vote scheduled by Prime Minister Dahal for January 10. Some media reports suggest that the Congress is trying to make Dahal fail the floor test, by wooing some coalition partners out of his fold.
Oli also criticised the role of Congress as it takes the opposition bench. The Congress indulged in petty games to prevent Dahal from winning the confidence of the House, he said. “The Nepali Congress is offering the post of prime minister to different political parties.”
There have been reports of the Congress reaching out to Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party with the offer of prime minister position if they agree to uninstall the Dahal government. The RSP is in government while the RPP is preparing to join the Dahal-led Cabinet. Some RPP leaders back the claim.
To Oli’s claim that “enormous effort” was being made to prevent the government from taking shape, Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa on Saturday said his party has not offered the prime-ministership to any party and it would take up the opposition role.
“We are not in the game of government formation,” said Thapa. “Our party president is meeting some leaders as per their request but he has not offered anyone the post of prime minister.”
Referring to Deuba’s statement that his party would stage a comeback, Oli said the largest force in the House was trying to topple the Dahal administration on January 10.
“They are indulging in petty games. They call on the chairman of one political party and offer him the post of prime minister. But if this government is toppled, the Congress will try to lead the government as the largest party with Deuba as the prime minister,” said Oli.
The Dahal government was formed as per Article 76 (2) of the constitution. If Dahal fails the floor test,
a new government would be formed as per Article 76 (3), whereby the largest party in the House claims the
government.
“We are sure the Nepali Congress will oppose and protest against this government for another five years,” said Oli.
“The Congress will try to entrap the government. Even when the Congress had won just 23 seats [in the House directly], it had used different power centres to install its prime minister. The Nepali Congress hopes to topple this government by driving a wedge between the ruling parties.”

KATHMANDU : A few political leaders, after their electoral defeats, have been engaged in wheeling and dealing to become lawmakers again, with the ultimate goal of getting prominent posts such as that of a minister. It is a terrible practice, say observers.
Nepal’s constitution mandates that ministers and prime ministers be appointed from among members elected to the federal parliament; in case of non-lawmakers, they
should become lawmakers within six months of their appointment to the executive posts.
As such, many key political leaders, for long, have been engaged
in closed-door dealings for by-election or any other option to get elected
to Parliament—after the public threw them out of parliament through
elections.
The Janata Samajbadi Party has been laying its claim to the post of Vice President in negotiations with the Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government. What’s interesting is the alleged ulterior motive of the Janata Samajbadi chair Upendra Yadav behind his lobbying for the major national position for his party.
Yadav clearly wants to be a lawmaker—and most probably the parliamentary party leader—through a possible by-election in Bara-2, in place of Ram Sahaya Prasad Yadav, the incumbent parliamentary party leader. If Yadav succeeds in electing Ram Sahaya the Vice President, the lawmaker seat from his constituency will be vacant. Upendra Yadav will then contest the vacant seat.
Article 62 (6) of Nepal’s constitution states: “In case a person who holds a political office to be fulfilled by way of election, nomination or appointment is elected the President under this Article, such office shall, ipso facto, fall vacant.”
Similarly, Article 67 (3) states that in case a person who holds a political office to be fulfilled by way of election, nomination or appointment is elected as Vice President, such office shall, ipso facto, fall vacant.
Shankar Pokharel, general secretary of CPN-UML, has also been manoeuvring behind the scenes to secure a lawmaker position after he lost in the November polls. As a common candidate of the Congress-led alliance, Rekha Sharma of Maoist Centre defeated Pokharel. Recently, Sharma was offered the post of Vice President in a bid to bring Pokharel to Parliament from the constituency. But she turned down the offer.
“Both KP Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal offered Sharma the vice-presidential job. But she rejected the offer,” a Maoist Centre politburo member said on the condition of anonymity. “Sharma did the right thing. She has defeated a political heavyweight, which is a great accomplishment.”
Rajesh Gautam, a political analyst, said the leaders who lost election have already been rejected, and if they succeed in becoming lawmakers, it will be an insult to voters.
“It is wrong to try to bring in leaders who lost elections to Parliament. This naked pursuit of power contraves the values of electoral politics,” he said. “Such leaders have been creating unnecessary disputes in the party and in broader politics just to get power, even after losing the polls.”
Historically, many key leaders have engaged in such closed-door dealings to become lawmakers, or to get elected to powerful positions.
Speaking at a function on Friday, Bamdev Gautam, a National Assembly member, said the provision that only lawmakers can get ministerial berths should be taken down. “Our governance system is wrong. Until the system to pick ministers only from Parliament ends, corruption will worsen,” he said. “So there should be a directly-elected executive and the system of appointing ministers from Parliament should end.”
Chandra Dev Bhatta, another political analyst, said that while becoming parliamentarians through the back door might bring short-term benefits, it will harm such candidates in the long run as their public image takes a hit. “Nor will it do any good to their mother parties,” he added.
National Assembly member Gautam has in the past been known for his power-at-any-cost mindset.
After Nepali Congress leader Sanjaya Gautam beat him in the 2017 parliamentary elections from Bardiya, his dream to become a minister and probably the prime minister was shattered. But he would not remain outside Parliament.
Article 86 (2 b) of the constitution, which discusses the composition of the National Assembly, says that three of its members, including a woman, will be nominated by the President at the recommendation of the Government of Nepal.
Bamdev Gautam, after his defeat, tried to woo other UML leaders to vacate their lawmaker position, but to no avail. Only Rambir Manandhar agreed to resign as an MP for Gautam. But Manandhar backtracked on his offer after being widely criticised for trying to subvert the electoral mandate.
Later, the President appointed Bamdev Gautam to the upper house at then-prime minister KP Sharma Oli’s recommendation.
While Gautam later began lobbying for a ministerial position, a writ petition was filed against his appointment to the upper house, arguing that a leader beaten in the polls should not be allowed to be a minister. The court in November 2020 cleared the way for Gautam to become a minister after the constitutional bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana scrapped its own previous order.
Bhatta, the political analyst, said that public frustration with the old faces has been growing. When a loser succeeds in getting a prominent post through a back door, it makes the situation worse. “Bamdev Gautam’s political career has taken a hit due to such shady activities,” he said.
On May 25, 2009, Madhav Kumar Nepal was appointed the prime minister. This was after he had lost the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections from two constituencies. Later, he was nominated to the Constituent Assembly, and he then stitched together a coalition government with the backing of 22 parties.
Even the Maoist Centre had supported his nomination to the CA, believing Nepal would be a great help in constitution drafting. UML CA member Sushil Chandra Amatya had vacated his seat for Nepal.
In return, former CA member Amatya was appointed the ambassador to Sri Lanka in July 2009.

KATHMANDU : The National Human Rights Commission has recommended that the government probe Janata Samajbadi Party chairperson Upendra Yadav and 129 others in connection with the 2007 Gaur massacre and take action if he is found guilty.
The constitutional rights watchdog has concluded that the killings of more than two dozen people were well orchestrated and both the then Madheshi Janadhikar Forum Nepal and CPN (Maoist) were aware of possible violence.
On March 21, 2007, as many as 27 individuals associated with the Maoists were brutally killed and another 115 injured in the incident.
As neither party took an initiative to averting the violence, the commission has also decided to draw the attention of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, then Maoist chairperson, Prabhu Sah, then general secretary of the Madheshi Mukti Morcha, Bindesh Yadav Rautahat, district chief of the then ‘People’s government’, the administrative wing of the Maoist party, and Yadav, the then MJFN chairman.
“The parties concerned must stop the politicisation of the incident and support the Nepal Police and the
district attorney in completing the probe,” reads the NHRC decision.
“They should publicly commit not to repeating such heinous crimes in the future.”
More than 15 years after the incident, the commission on Tuesday also directed the government to take departmental actions against then Rautahat district police chief Yogeshwar Romkhami; then chief district officer Madhav Prasad Ojha; Superintendent of Police Ram Kumar Khanal; deputy superintendent of Armed Police Force Dharmananda Sapkota; and sub-inspector Kamakhya Narayan Singh. If they are not in service, don’t give them an opportunity in future government service, the commission further said.
The commission has also directed the government to provide compensation of Rs300,000 to the families of each deceased and free treatmentfor the injured. The government has been asked to report to the commission within three months whether or not its recommendations have been implemented.
The commission had started an investigation immediately after the incident and the report was submitted on April 11, 2007. However, it took the commission another 15 years to decide on the matter.
The commission was headless when the incident happened and an investigation started. Though the earlier leadership had shown an interest in the probe, its tenure expired without taking a decision on the matter.
Surya Dhungel, a member of the commission, said clearing pending cases has been one of their priorities. “The commission had completed the investigation in 2007 itself. We took the decision after revisiting the report while also studying reports from the government’s probe panels and by different human rights organisations,” Dhungel told the Post.
“The Gaur police are yet to start a probe in the matter. As a result, the perpetrators of the barbaric crime remain outside the purview of law.”
The commission said the incident happened as the Maoists insisted on holding their programme in the Rice Mill area of Gaur where the MJF-Nepal had already booked a spot as the venue for its mass meet.
Several human rights commissions came to similar conclusions. In its report in April 2007, the Human Rights Watch remarked that there was no doubt that most, if not all, of the killings could have been prevented.
“On 21 March the MPRF [Forum] leadership allowed hundreds of its supporters to file into Gaur, armed with prepared bhaatas, knowing that if used, they could be lethal. It also cannot be excluded that MJFN supporters were carrying firearms,” the report said. At the minimum, the MJF-Nepal supporters were prepared to use lethal weapons and did so, it added The Maoists’ move of organising a rally at the same time and place as the MJF-Nepal, as it had done in other locations, was provocative, the human rights reported. “Its cadres also brought at least one weapon and at least one socket bomb to the rally. After its own stage had been attacked, the Maoists mounted a violent charge in the direction of participants of the MJFN rally and vandalised its stage,” the report added.

DARCHULA : A 10-year-old boy went missing after he fell into the Mahakali river while using an improvised cable crossing, locally known as tuin, in Byas Rural Municipality-4 of Darchula district. Although the incident occurred on Thursday, it came to light only on Saturday.
The victim, Dipendra Bista of Dokat settlement, was on his way to India, according to Binod Singh Kunwar, vice-chairman of Byas Rural Municipality.
Kunwar said that the incident occurred after the boy followed his mother, who had gone to the Indian side to collect thatch. The victim is a fourth grader at Bramhasthan Basic School in Dokat.
The District Police Office in Darchula is unaware about the incident. “A police team from Sunsera Police Post has been dispatched to Dokat to inquire about the incident,” said Police Inspector Jagat Gaha Magar. “We are yet to receive details about the incident as the incident site is in a remote area.”
The KP Sharma Oli government in 2015 had pledged to replace all tuin crossings in the country with suspension bridges but the plan has yet to materialise. Many people lose their lives while crossing the risky tuin in Darchula and other districts in the country.
In July 2022, 17-year-old Sachin Budhathoki of Byas Rural Municipality plunged into the river after the tuin snapped at Dumling in Byas-2. The incident took place while Budhathoki was returning home from a neighbouring Indian town. On July 30, 2021, Jaya Singh Dhami, 33, from Khangdang Mal of Byas-2 fell into the Mahakali river after Indian security personnel allegedly untied the cable of the tuin Dhami was using to cross the river.
The local people of Byas and other remote villages of Darchula, a hill district of Sudurpaschim Province, risk their lives daily to cross the Mahakali river through cable crossings for a lack of suspension bridges in the area. Accidents and deaths while crossing the river using tuins, wooden boats, tyre tubes, and wooden logs are reported every year.

Kathmandu : The Embassy of Nepal in South Africa on Thursday issued a travel advisory citing an increase in illegal activities under the guise of promising well-paying jobs in the African nation.
The Pretoria-based embassy said that cases of people being duped of millions of rupees under the assurance of a comfortable life and well-paying job in South Africa were on the rise, urging all to get visa-related information by contacting the missions of the respective countries or the Nepali missions abroad.
“The victims are made to travel through tough and dangerous routes, via India, UAE, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Mauritius, and other nations, to reach the African nation, after which they are left stranded,” reads the advisory. “Some victims are even left on their own during transit.”
In the notice, the embassy has also mentioned that vacancies for 140 sectors based on skill and experience were announced in August last year, adding that South Africa takes foreign employees only when they do not have enough natives to fill the vacant positions.
“It is misleading and false that it is easy to enter countries in Europe and America among others from South Africa,” the notice reads.

PARSA: Police arrested a 20-year-old man red-handed while he was stealing a motorcycle in Birgunj-12, Parsa on Friday night. The man was nabbed while he was trying to whisk away a parked Royal Enfield bike. A police team from District Police Office detained the accused with the bike.

EAST NAWALPARASI: The Narayani River Management Project has started constructing an embankment in the Gaindakot area. According to Shekharnath Neupane, an engineer at the project, construction work is underway along the Narayani at wards 2, 6 and 9 of Gaindakot Municipality. The project is estimated to cost around Rs1.74 billion.

KAPILVASTU: Count of aquatic birds has commenced across the country to study about the species and total number of water birds in Nepal. The count will be conducted with coordination of Wetland International and various organisations working in bird conservation. The count started from Taudaha lake and the Bagmati river in Kathmandu on Saturday.

Kathmandu : When the Nagarik Unmukti Party was registered last year, not many had thought that it would emerge as a dominant regional force in no time. Formed by Ranjita Shrestha, the wife of Resham Chaudhary, a former lawmaker serving a jail term, the party has won four seats in the House of Representatives and has representatives elected to three out of the seven provincial assemblies. It became the largest party in Kailali district in the local elections that were held within five months of its formation. The party won the leadership of four local governments, and 99 ward chairs and members.
Let’s take a look at how the party came into being and how it soared to success even before it marks the first anniversary of establishment.

When was the party formed and why?
The Nagarik Unmukti Party was registered at the Election Commission on January 3 last year by Shrestha. Chaudhary is behind the bars after being convicted of masterminding the Tikapur killings in August 2015 that left eight police personnel and a toddler dead. Both Chaudhary and representatives from the Tharu community have been claiming that he was framed.
Chaudhary contested the 2017 elections and registered victory from Kailai-1 on the Rastriya Janata Party (RJP) ticket while he was still in hiding. In February 2018, he turned himself in to the police. Then, on March 7, 2019, he was convicted by the Kailali District Court, a judgement which was later upheld by the Dipayal High Court. Shrestha says they had to establish a new party because the RJP, now the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party, never seriously raised the demand for Chaudhary’s release.
Chaudhary’s supporters have a feeling that Madhesh-based parties used the Tharu community as merely their vote bank to get to power.
Establishing a separate party was necessary to address the concerns of the Tharu people because the Madheshi parties did little towards that end, Shrestha says.

What agenda does the party carry?
The Tharu people who have their dominance in five districts—Kanchanpur, Kailali, Bardiya, Banke and Dang—staged a series of protests in the wake of the promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal in 2015, demanding a separate Tharuwan province. Chaudhary, a media professional and artist, was involved in the protests.
The killings took place when the agitation was at its peak. From the very next day, the police began a crackdown, arresting and torturing the Tharu people. Several houses were torched by ‘unknown’ groups.
A restaurant and a radio station owned by Chaudhary were destroyed. Dozens of innocent Tharu people were tortured in detention. Justice for the Tharu people and their proportional representation in the state machinery are the two major causes the party is advancing.

How big is the party?
The party has made its presence felt in three out of the seven provinces in the recent elections for all three tiers of government. It won the seats of mayor and chairpersons in four local units of Kailali, in addition to 99 other positions of ward chairpersons and members. With four seats, after a lawmaker who won as an independent joined the party, it is the ninth-largest in the House of Representatives. It won a total of 12 seats in the provincial assemblies. The Shrestha-led party has become the fourth-largest party, winning seven and four seats in Sudurpaschim and Lumbini provincial assemblies, respectively. It also has one seat in the Madhesh Province assembly.
The party fared equally well in the proportional representation category of election and became the ninth-largest force in national politics. Political observers say the party’s performance so far has been remarkable, considering that it was formed just before the polls.

Is it a regional party?
The results of the recently held polls and the agenda it carries ground it as a regional party. It won the elections in constituencies where the Tharu community is dominant. So far, the party has organisational structures only in around a dozen districts in the plains where the Tharus have a sizable population. However, Shrestha, the party’s chairperson, says they don’t want to limit the Nagarik Unmukti Party to a regional party. “It will gradually be expanded in other parts of the country as well,” Shrestha told the Post. “We have started forming party organisations in more districts, particularly of Lumbini and Madhesh provinces.
We will organise people from all the communities across the country.”
In the view of political observers, the party dwells on identity-based politics and it fared well because the Janata Samajbadi Party and Loktantrik Samajbadi Party left the identity issue behind and instead got engaged in politicking with no other motive than to secure power. They claim that the people from Tarai/Madhesh award the parties that play the opposition, pressuring the parties in power to address their concerns. History shows that Nepal’s regional parties have not fared well when they get enmeshed in lust for power.

What do the people expect from the party?
Tharu activists say people are keeping a close eye on the party’s activities. In addition to the release of Chaudhary, the party’s priority should be towards unveiling the report of the Lal Commission and ensuring justice to the Tharu community who have suffered at the hands of the authorities. The commission was formed to investigate the deadly violence involving police and protesters in the run-up to the promulgation of the constitution in September 2015.
Shravan Chaudhary, coordinator of Tharuhat Tharuwan Rastriya Morcha, said the leadership of the Unmukti Party must not forget that the Tharu people have huge expectations from it. “We believe the Lal Commission independently investigated the atrocities during the protests,” he told the Post. “We want to see the party taking the necessary steps towards unveiling it.”
The commission led by Girish Chandra Lal, a retired justice from the Supreme Court, was formed in February 2016 and submitted its report to the then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on December 16, 2017. But the report is gathering dust in the government’s drawers. Despite ruling from the House of Representatives, twice, the successive governments refused to make the report public. Madheshi parties have been making it a political agenda for a long time.

Will the party join the government?
Nagarik Unmukti Party is one among seven parties that have extended their support to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. However, it hasn’t joined the government. Release of Chaudhary was the party’s bottom line in joining the Dahal Cabinet. The erstwhile Sher Bahadur Deuba government in December had recommended President Bidya Devi Bhandari to issue an ordinance to revise the Criminal Code, clearing legal hurdles to withdraw cases that are sub-judice in the Supreme Court. Bhandari is still sitting on the ordinance that has received serious criticisms. There are only two ways for Chaudhary to get released—either if the Supreme Court gives him a clean chit or if the criminal code gets modified.
The party’s whip Ganga Ram Chaudhary has said it will not join the Dahal government as the ruling parties have not mentioned the Tharu uprising in their common minimum programme.

KATHMANDU : With the poor show in the November 20 federal and provincial polls and the rise of new forces from elections, the CPN (Maoist Centre) seems to have felt the need for some hard work to keep itself relevant. To bolster its chances, the party has decided to go for a broader
left unity.
A meeting of office bearers of the ruling party on Saturday formed a talks team led by vice-chairman Krishna Bahadur Mahara and entrusted the five-member team with exploring the possibility of a left unity and initiating the process.
The panel includes the party’s general secretary Dev Gurung, and deputy general secretaries Girirajmani Pokhrel, Shakti Basnet and Janardan Sharma as members.
“We will hold talks with different parties including Nepal Samajbadi Party led by Baburam Bhattarai,” said Basnet, the team member.
On Saturday, Bhattarai and his supporters met Prime Minister and Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal at Baluwatar and discussed various issues including the parties’ unity.
Ganga Narayan Shrestha, co-chair of Nepal Samajbadi Party, said: “We will form a talks team at our party’s political committee meeting on Sunday to lay the ground for unification at the earliest.”
Former prime minister Bhattarai, who used to be an ideologue of the Maoist party, is in regular touch with Maoist Centre leaders for party unity.
Bhattarai’s NSP had contested the November 20 polls with the Maoist symbol and won a seat in the House of Representatives and two seats in the provincial assembly.
The party’s Mahendra Raya Yadav was elected to the lower house from Sarlahi-2. Phanindra Devkota and Ganga Narayan Shrestha were elected from Gorkha 2 (a) and Sindhuli 2 (b) respectively to provincial assemblies.
The CPN (Maoist Centre) accommodated one lawmaker from Bhattarai’s party under the Proportional Representation system in the House of Representatives as the two parties forged an electoral alliance.
On Thursday, the CPN (Unified Socialist) revived its four-member task force led by party general secretary Beduram Bhusal to hold talks with left-leaning forces. The team includes Gangalal Tuladhar, Prakash Jwala and Vijay Poudel as members.
But not all Maoist Centre leaders are on the same page when it comes to unity among the left parties. Some are not hopeful that its attempts may yield desired results given the failure of the 2018 unity with the CPN-UML in less than three years.
“I think this talks team formation is just a ritual to reciprocate the decision of the CPN (Unified Socialist),” said Ganesh Sah, secretary of the Maoist Centre. “It will hold dialogues with the parties including the UML but I don’t think it will yield any substantive result.”
Sah doubts the motive as he thinks that all “feudalistic communist parties” that follow parliamentary democracy are focused only on reaping the benefits of power politics.
“I don’t think the Maoist Centre can yield any results if it intends to unite with the UML anytime soon,” said Jhalak Subedi, who comments mostly on left politics. “It seems that the talks team has been formed focusing on the parties led by Baburam Bhattarai and Madhav Nepal and the splinter groups of the Maoist party.”
“Since both the Maoist Centre and the Unified Socialist are under extreme pressure for a merger given their poor show in the latest polls, they could continue with the dialogue,” Subedi told the Post.

KATHMANDU: Nepal on Saturday reported its first Covid-19 death in 75 days, marking the first death in the fifth wave of the pandemic. The last time the country witnessed a death from Covid-19 was on October 24. The countrywide death toll has now reached 12,020 since the pandemic began, the Health Ministry said. On Saturday, three people tested positive to the coronavirus in 555 polymerase chain reaction tests, taking the nationwide infection tally to 1,001,020. According to the ministry, as many as 988,979 infected people have recovered from the disease so far, two of them in the last 24 hours. The number of active cases stands at 21 as of Saturday.

KATHMANDU: The task force formed by the ruling coalition to draft the government’s common minimum programme submitted its report to the top leaders of the ruling parties on Saturday. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel, who headed the team, submitted the report to CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli, who also heads the high level mechanism formed to cooperate in government functioning, at the prime minister’s official residence at Baluwatar. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal from the CPN (Maoist Centre), Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane from Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rajendra Lingden from Rastriya Prajatantra Party, CK Raut of Janamat Party and Ranjita Shrestha Chaudhary of Nagarik Unmukti Party were also present at the programme. Barshaman Pun of Maoist Centre, Mukul Dhakal of Rastriya Swatantra Party, Dhawal Shamsher Rana of Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Rakam Chemjong of Janata Samajbadi Party were the members of the Paudel-led drafting team.

KATHMANDU: The new Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song is arriving in Kathmandu on Sunday to take up his assignment. Chen’s arrival in Nepal was delayed after he and his wife got infected with Covid-19. China had proposed Chen, one of its senior diplomats, as the new ambassador to Nepal in November. He replaces Hou Yanqi, who has already returned to China after completing her four-year tenure in October. Hou assumed office in Kathmandu in December 2018. Chen is a familiar face in Nepal’s diplomatic circles as he has in the past been a part of several meetings with Nepali officials.

My last column discussing content as king triggered some private conversations in my academic circle, prodding me to reflect on other salient aspects of mediated communicative practices.
Look also behind the content, urged one colleague.
Journalists or providers tend to play
God, often consigning communicative ascendancy to content alone, commented another. If content is king, why the decline of the “authority” of content in recent decades?
Indeed, public criticism makes little discrimination between channels or their creations, lumping them into something called the media. It’s this media that is often
derided for all the ills, with little appraisal of the forces behind it. The problem is that much of such criticism overlooks the providers or producers.
A colleague joked, “If content is king, who is the queen, prince or princess? There are others who pull the strings and constrain the power of the monarch in ways often not realised by the general populace.”
Content and channels, in themselves, are neutral, until we begin to trace the designs and motives of the providers behind them. Measures of credibility such as accuracy, fairness, impartiality, respect for people’s privacy, public interest and community wellbeing are matters of the mind or imbued human values rather than of materiality like technology or contents. Let’s not confuse the light with the mirror.
The digital divide has largely been rendered obsolete, but now digital segregation is intensifying the knowledge divide. In a democratic society, issues of trust and credibility hinge on public competence to scrutinise the gods of small and large mediated things in newspapers, TV and networked platforms.

Untangling providers
The word provider, pradayak in Nepali, refers to “one who gives”. We have all become givers in the digital age. Who actually gives or what is given doesn’t even sound important.
Not too long ago, journalists and media producers would sniff at the provider label. Now assortment is in fashion. Providers include users; and commenters have emerged as formidable players. Not infrequently, they are the ones that sway public opinion, much to the awe of headline writers.
Demystify the providers for a fair appraisal of media credibility. Simply blaming the messenger with little or no regard to context risks normalising our mediated state of affairs.
A media-literate public strives for a deeper understanding of the principles governing providers. We uphold a liberal media order riddled with authoritarian tendencies. Individual providers, particularly in the West, remain averse to or are limited in their capacity in internalising self-regulation.
Journalism informs, edifies as well as amuses. Columnists opinionate and librarians circulate resources. Advertisers, publicists or propagandists push for sales and influence. The question is how well they do their jobs, not what they do.
Owners as providers also invite much scrutiny of their roles. Ideally, information and media content may offer knowledge and truth, but it so happens that they are often organised to gain profit and power to the detriment of editorial independence. The extent of conflict of interest in institutional media is yet to be unearthed. How deep and wide do negative stereotypes of owners as maliks or overlords go? Do public attitudes towards start-uppers signal something different about the growing number of new, independent providers?
Knowledge of media codes or genres and their representational potencies comprises another evaluative means. Sometimes, it is the format of the information or media content that limits how detailed or accurate it can be. A developing story is often likely to be inaccurate in details and lacking in appropriate representation.
It is not unusual to see users citing the published word as sacred: “It is true, I saw it in the newspaper!” The media tends to be selective, referring to certain salient characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, political loyalty, sexuality or cultural trait. How many users look for the subtext? One encouraging sign is that users increasingly contest narrow, unfair, oversimplified, prejudicial or stereotypical images in our media.
Provider impact is part of the equation. Reporters run after scandals and YouTubers go to the extent of self-objectifying. Too often, people believe the media affects others and not themselves. The subtleties of the effects of edutainment, media-induced social withdrawal, violence or empathy are seldom discussed.

Calls for transparency
Commercial imperatives do provoke occasional outcries over dubious investments, exploitation of workers and poaching of talent. The media is criticised for running ads at the expense of objective information. Paid subscriptions are hard to come by, and ads serve as the life blood for providers. Public calls for transparency barely extend to advertorials, sponsored content, click bait, and more recently, media merchandise. Add to the list journalists or TV hosts appearing in ads and commercials.
Many people tend to dismiss providers as pretentious, unruly and without reins. However, the seeming chaos in the media exists within some order, based on formal standards and ethical codes, at least among committed and organised professionals. Unlike government regulations, ethics is about self-imposed standards.
Not least of all, oversight or monitoring mechanisms could help bolster the discovery process. Regrettably, public awareness and use of such existing mechanisms, notably the Press Council, independent watchdogs and trade publications, looks dismal. Most users would prefer to vent out their grievances directly on the platforms.
Hostility and vitriol offend more and enlighten less.
The work of watchdogs and monitors also leaves much to be desired. Public criticism of the media is thus burdened with multiple layers of appraisal needs.

Adhikari is an associate professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China.

Back in 2009, when the Maoist government was in power, I’d read an article that compared the Maoists to Hamas. It speculated that despite different external circumstances and interventions, the Maoists would also tread the path of Hamas, slowly departing from mainstream politics. Today, Hamas remains a powerful militant force in the Gaza strip. But the nation has become a great game for Israel, the Futahs and Hamas. Fortunately, Nepal did not depart on that turbulent path.
The Maoist insurgency took the lives of around 15,000 Nepalis, but their exit was peaceful. However, the actions that led to their departure from the government were totalitarian. After this, there were opinions that this would slowly make the Maoists and their leader Prachanda inconsequential in the policy of Nepal. But history shows that Prachanda did not let the hypothesis become a theory. It has been 12 years since Prachanda was ousted from the government, but he has become the premier of the nation two more times.

Parasitic relationship
Prachanda has used the skills he acquired during the civil war in contemporary politics as well. Having spent ample time in the woods, he seems to have imbibed the parasitic instincts of flora and fauna there. A parasitic relationship is a symbiotic relationship in which one organism (the parasite) benefits at the expense of another (the host). The parasite relies on the host for survival and may cause harm to the host, either physically or by consuming resources that the host needs. His political career started with his flirtations with the monarchy, in which he wanted to align with King Birendra against the parliamentary parties. This was because he wished to have a parasitic relationship with one of the political forces and weaken the other. A few years later, he used the same tactics while aligning with the Seven Party Alliance, and forged a battle against the monarchy, consuming monarchy as an institution. Instances of this type of powerplay in his life outnumber his limited achievements.
After the first election, Prachanda reached a “gentlemen’s agreement” with Girija Prasad Koirala to make him the first president of Nepal. But he soon backed off in his quest for absolute power. Tales of his nepotism and newfound wealth spread during his short stint as prime minister. The poor and landless felt he did little to redistribute resources. Thousands of people continued to leave the country looking for work. He was accused of muzzling the press. He attempted to sack the army chief, alienating an already suspecting military establishment. Prachanda eventually resigned, furthering instability and leading the party to electoral defeat. Many in Nepal thought that this was the end of Prachanda’s political spell. But all were proven wrong. He went on to become prime minister in 2016 and in 2022.

Guerrilla warfare
Consider another strategy that Prachanda used during his wartime days. One of them is guerrilla warfare, which is a type of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics, including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare and hit-and-run
tactics. Guerrilla warfare is often used by groups seeking to fight a larger and more powerful force, such as an occupation army. On the other hand, they may be used by groups with a smaller military capability to resist an occupation or a more significant military force.
Prachanda’s political strategy involves ambushing and sabotaging. A few of his early ones were to his colleague and friend-turned-foe-turned-friend Baburam Bhattarai, during the civil war and after the latter’s stint as prime minister. Madhav Kumar Nepal, catapulted by Prachanda to the post of president, had a steep fall after the latter went back on his word. Shortly after the election results, Madhav Nepal was again ambushed by Prachanda when he was left with the Congress, and Prachanda brokered ties with Nepal’s mother party, the CPN-UML. Recently, Prachanda reached out to Madhav Nepal, asking him to join the Maoists-led government. One can wonder if Nepal is up for a double ambush in a span of a month. KP Sharma Oli was a casualty of Prachanda’s hit-and-run tactics when the latter withdrew his support from the government to become the premier for the second time. Sher Bahadur Deuba is a textbook example of Hegel’s saying that history repeats itself twice. Prachanda ambushed him right before the federal elections of 2017 and raided the electoral success of the Congress Party yet again after the elections to sabotage Deuba and form an alliance with KP Sharma Oli, perfectly exemplifying what Marx added, satirically, Hegel’s saying, “History repeats itself twice, the first time as a tragedy and the second time as a farce.” During his electoral campaigns, Prachanda admitted that aligning with KP Oli was a tragedy and isolating Congress was one of his biggest regrets. Yet, again due to his survival instincts, he has led his crew of frivolity to Singha Durbar yet again.

Tactics and results
Although from a normative point of view, these strategies and tactics have corrupted the political practice of Nepal. It has also taken away idealism, morals and values from Prachanda as an individual. But empirically, Prachanda and the Maoist party have gained much from these iniquitous contrivances. The Maoists’ electoral graph has been in a steady decline, from around 29 percent in 2008, falling to 15 percent in 2013, declining to 14 percent in 2017, and diminishing to 11 percent in 2022. Their seats share in the Parliament has fallen from 38 percent, 14 percent, 19 percent, and 12 percent, respectively. Despite this, they have led all the resulting governments, except from 2017. They have held strong portfolios in all the governments and have the same, if not more, access to state resources as their counterparts. This has been due to Prachanda’s survival instinct and his renegade.
If the word snollygoster—an unprincipled person, especially a politician—were to apply to anyone in the 21st century, Prachanda would beat all others by a significant margin. As the great American novelist William Gaddis once observed, “Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power”. Is it Prachanda who has corrupted the power play in Nepali politics, or has Nepali politics corrupted Prachanda?

Ghimire is a political consultant and electoral strategist.

RASUWA : The demand for Nepali products has started to pick up in the Chinese market as Beijing has reopened two-way trade from the Rasuwagadhi-Kerung port, which was shut since the start of the Covid pandemic.
Nepali traders have been exporting goods such as flour, turmeric, chilly, bamboo stool, grass broom, handicrafts, cosmetics, noodles and among others to Tibet via Rasuwagadhi.
According to the local traders, the Tibetans started placing orders for the goods via telephone calls with their Nepali counterparts immediately after the border was opened for export.
“The Chinese people love Nepali products,” said Mukunda Poudel, a local trader from Kalika Rural Municipality. “The Chinese traders have already booked two containers of bamboo stool made in Nepal.”
Poudel said he has started collecting the items amid the soaring demand from Tibet.
Around 150 Nepali traders along with Poudel have been exporting goods to China through the Rasuwagadhi border point.
The goods exported from Nepal are mainly sold in Tibetan cities like Lhasa, Shigatse and Amdo.
According to the Rasuwa Customs Office, since the resumption of export, nearly a dozen containers loaded with Nepali produce have crossed the border till Monday this week.
“The goods worth Rs13.11 million have been exported as of Monday,” said Narayan Prasad Bhandari, the chief customs officer.
The import and export via Rasuwagadhi were affected from January 2020 initially due to the snowfall and Lhosar, a local festival and the New year of Tibetan.
However, the operation got further impeded by the Covid-19 pandemic. The border was shut for five-and-half months due to the lockdown.
The import recommenced from July 6, 2020, but the export was still held back. The local traders have been troubled by frequent disturbances.
At present, 14 containers have been importing goods to Nepal daily via the custom point.
But still, Beijing has not allowed the movement of people from the border point.
The traders had faced trouble in exporting prior to January 29, 2020, as well. The Chinese officials had obstructed the import of goods citing the cause of language barriers and weather problems.
According to the traders, around 40 tonnes of turmeric and chilly used to be exported every month when the border point was functioning well. Rasuwagadhi is the oldest trading route between Nepal and China.
According to the Department of Customs, imports from China in fiscal 2020-21 rose 28.58 percent year-on-year to Rs233.92 billion.
Before Covid in fiscal 2018-19, imports amounted to Rs205.51 billion. In 2017-18, imports were valued at Rs159.98 billion, up from Rs129.87 billion in fiscal 2016-17.
Nepal suffers a huge deficit in its trade with China. If Nepal imported Rs233.92 billion worth of goods from the northern neighbour in 2020-21, its exports across the Himalaya were valued at a mere Rs1 billion.
This translates into a trade deficit of Rs232.90 billion, which accounted for 14 percent of Nepal’s total trade deficit in fiscal 2020-21.
Business with China started booming after 2015 when the Nepal government removed export duty.
In fiscal 2015-16 when Nepal was hit by a devastating earthquake, imports from China stood at Rs116.11 billion, up from Rs99.28 billion in 2014-15.
In the last seven years, imports from China have increased three-fold.
It normally takes two months for goods ordered from China to arrive in Nepal by sea freight, and two weeks by container truck overland across the northern border.

ALMATY : Workers removed the branding from McDonald’s outlets in Kazakhstan’s biggest city, Almaty on Friday after the fast food giant’s local business appeared to fall victim to collateral damage from the Russia-Ukraine war.
The brand’s exit from the Central Asian nation of 20 million divided opinion on social media and among onlookers near one of the Almaty restaurants where workers were taking down the large white letters from the top of the building.
“It was one of the nicest places where I used to spend time with my friends,” said local resident Karina, who only gave her first name.
“I doubt any other company will be able to compete with McDonald’s in Kazakhstan at the moment as no other fast food chain can replicate the menu that McDonald’s had for the same price.” Others described the brand’s departure as a minor inconvenience or said they would check out other fast food joints.
Chains such KFC, Burger King, and Hardee’s have restaurants in Kazakhstan and Popeyes said last month it would open dozens of restaurants in the former Soviet republic in partnership with local firm Centras Group.
Many Kazakhs, proud of their meat-focused cuisine, expressed incredulity that McDonald’s Kazakh licensee, Food Solutions KZ, could not source its beef patties locally and imported them from Russia until the war forced it to stop and ultimately shut down.
Industry insiders, however, say certificates and audits required by the US brand were expensive and lengthy, and local meat producers did not want to bother with them.
Food Solutions did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. McDonald’s said its agreement with the licensee had been terminated but did not answer questions about the reasons.

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG : Ant Group’s founder Jack Ma will give up control of the Chinese fintech giant in an overhaul that seeks to draw a line under a regulatory crackdown that was triggered soon after its mammoth stock market debut was scuppered two years ago.
Ant’s $37 billion IPO, which would have been the world’s largest, was cancelled at the last minute in November 2020, leading to a forced restructuring of the financial technology firm and speculation the Chinese billionaire would have to cede control.
While some analysts have said a relinquishing of control could clear the way for the company to revive its IPO, the changes announced by the group on Saturday, however, are likely to result in a further delay due to listing regulations.
China’s domestic A-share market requires companies to wait three years after a change in control to list. The wait is two years on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR market, and one year in Hong Kong.
A former English teacher, Ma previously possessed more than 50 percent of voting rights at Ant but the changes will mean that his share falls to 6.2 percent, according to Reuters calculations. Ma only owns a 10 percent stake in Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, but has exercised control over the company through related entities, according to Ant’s IPO prospectus filed with the exchanges in 2020.
Hangzhou Yunbo, an investment vehicle for Ma, had control over two other entities that own a combined 50.5 percent stake of Ant, the prospectus showed.
Ma’s ceding of control comes as Ant is nearing the completion of its two-year regulatory-driven restructuring, with Chinese authorities poised to impose a fine of more than $1 billion on the firm, Reuters reported in November.
The expected penalty is part of Beijing’s sweeping and unprecedented crackdown on the country’s technology titans over the past two years that has sliced hundreds of billions of dollars off their values and shrunk revenues and profits.
But Chinese authorities have in recent months softened their tone on the tech crackdown amid efforts to bolster a $17-trillion economy that has been badly hurt by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With the Chinese economy in a very febrile state, the government is looking to signal its commitment to growth, and the tech, private sectors are key to that as we know,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of investment advisory firm BDA China.
“At least Ant investors can [now] have some timetable for an exit after a long period of uncertainty,” said Clark, who is also an author of a book on Alibaba and Ma.
Ant operates China’s ubiquitous mobile payment app Alipay, the world’s largest, which has more than 1 billion users.
Ant, whose businesses also span consumer lending and insurance products distribution, said Ma and nine of its other major shareholders had agreed to no longer act in concert when exercising voting rights, and would only vote independently.
It added that the shareholders’ economic interests in Ant will not change as a result of the adjustments.

NEW DELHI/PARIS : Renault is considering building a mass-market electric vehicle in India, two people with knowledge of the ongoing review told Reuters, as part of a renewed push into a market where EV adoption is expected to grow quickly from a small base.
The study by Renault underscores how the French automaker is pushing ahead with electrification plans
even as it extends unresolved
negotiations with its partner Nissan Motor about investing in an EV unit it plans to carve out from its other
operations.
It also points to the shifting perception of the auto market in India, which posted the fastest growth of any major market in 2022. EVs were on track to be less than 1 percent of car sales last year but the government has set a target of 30 percent by 2030 and has had recent success in attracting suppliers for international automakers, with a range of subsidies.
Renault is studying launching a made-in-India electric version of its Kwid hatchback, the people told Reuters.
The review will assess potential demand, pricing and the ability to build the EV with local components, said one of the people, adding that any launch would be late in 2024.
The move is part of a broader plan by Renault to rekindle sales in a country where the carmaker remains profitable despite selling fewer cars in 2022 than a year earlier, the person said.
Renault India declined to comment on product plans but said the company has a “strong focus on electrification globally” as part of the strategy outlined by CEO Luca de Meo and that “India is one of the key markets” for the group.
India is set to become the world’s third-largest market for passenger and other light vehicles, displacing Japan, according to a forecast by S&P Global Mobility. Industry-wide sales grew an estimated 23 percent to 4.4 million vehicles in 2022.
That is a contrast to the outlook for the United States, where the market is expected to remain below 2019 levels next year, and China, where demand is weakening.

KATHMANDU : With the Nepali rupee sinking against the United States dollar, the government has to dish out more in domestic currency to repay external debts as the exchange rate works against it.
During the first quarter of the current fiscal year, fluctuations in the rate of exchange resulted in an exchange loss of Rs5.52 billion, according to the Public Debt Management Office.
At the beginning of the fiscal year on July 16, the exchange rate was Rs128.11 to the dollar. By October 17, at the end of the first quarter, the greenback had risen to Rs132.07.
The value of the Nepali rupee fluctuates together with the Indian rupee to which it is pegged.
According to the Public Debt Management Office, when there is an exchange loss, it does not necessarily mean that Nepal has to pay the entire loss to its foreign creditors. The exchange rate loss is calculated covering the entire outstanding external debt, it said.
“But Nepal had to bear part of the exchange losses in the payments made during the first quarter,” said Hira Neupane, information officer at the Public Debt Management Office.
There was an exchange rate gain of Rs12.51 billion in the last fiscal year 2021-22, according to the office.
When Nepali currency falls against US currency, it means higher inflows of remittance in rupee terms. But it also means more rupees flows out of the country to repay debts and pay for imports.
Though Nepal has debt liabilities in other currencies such as euro and yen, among other currencies, most of the payments need to be made in greenbacks. As the size of Nepal’s external debt is on the rise, the country faces an increased exchange rate risk.When the country was hit by a deadly earthquake in 2015, Nepal’s debts—external and internal—surged as the country had to spend huge amounts for money on the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure.
More resources were needed to manage the newly-created structures for the implementation of federalism and address the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Public Debt Management Office, Nepal’s external debt swelled to Rs1.02 trillion in the last fiscal year 2021-22 from Rs388.76 billion in fiscal 2015-16. External debt rose further to Rs1.05 trillion during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
The country was in debt to the tune of Rs2 trillion at the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
Nepal’s overall public debt accounts for 41.38 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while external debt accounts for 21.64 percent of the GDP.
Nepal’s GDP was worth $36.29 billion in 2021, according to official data from the World Bank. The country’s Gross National Product (GNP) was reported at $40.405 billion.
As per the Public Debt Management Act 2022, the government cannot borrow in excess of one-third of the GDP of the previous fiscal year. This law was passed to ensure discipline in external borrowings. Despite growing public debt, officials and experts say that the country continues to remain in a comfortable position in terms of the debt-to-GDP ratio.
The government’s recurrent expenditure has been on the rise while its revenue collection has fallen behind, which is expected to force it to take more domestic and foreign loans.
“At the moment, Nepal does not face a great exchange rate risk because of the low interest rate on external loans, most of which have been obtained from multilateral donor agencies,” said Neupane.
Borrowings from multilateral donor agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank account for 88.78 percent of the total external loans, according to the Public Debt Management Office.

NEW DELHI: Air India has issued show cause notice and de-rostered one pilot and four cabin crew as it investigates the handling of an unruly passenger on a flight from New York to Delhi in November, the airline’s chief executive office said on Saturday. The Tata group-owned airline has faced criticism from India’s aviation regulator following an incident on a November 26 flight in which a male passenger, while apparently inebriated, urinated on a female co-passenger. A second similar incident occurred last month on a flight from Paris to Delhi. “Air India acknowledges that it could have handled these matters better, both in the air and on the ground
and is committed to taking action,” the airline’s CEO and managing director Campbell Wilson said in a statement on Saturday. (REUTERS)

NEW YORK: Negotiations to keep about 10,000 New York City nurses from walking off the job headed into a final weekend as some major hospitals were already preparing on Friday for a potential strike by sending ambulances elsewhere and transferring some patients, including vulnerable newborns. The walkout could start early Monday at several private hospitals, including two of the city’s biggest: Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Montefiore Medical Centre in the Bronx, each of which has more than 1,000 beds. They and a handful of other hospitals are bargaining with nurses who want raises and an end to what they say are untenable staffing squeezes, nearly three years into the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

DES MOINES: Another Mega Millions drawing, another night without a big winner. No one hit all six numbers and won the estimated $940 million jackpot, pushing the lottery prize to an estimated $1.1 billion ahead of the next drawing on Tuesday night. The prize is now the third-largest in US history. The numbers drawn late Friday were: 3, 20, 46, 59, 63 and gold Mega Ball 13. There have been 24 drawings without a jackpot winner, stretching back for more
than two months. (AP)