Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. This is Issue 155 of Kalam Weekly, the only newsletter you need to keep up-to-date with everything happening in Nepal. Before we begin, a quick shoutout to my newest paid subscriber — Hilary Wallace. Thank you for your readership and your support! If anyone else would like to support me, click the link below:
In this newsletter:
Nepal wins bronze at the Paralympics
An update on Prakash Tamang
It’s Teej and the misogynists are out in force
Another feud between Kathmandu Mayor Balen and the UML
Nepal wins bronze at the Paralympics
Nepal finally has a medal at the Olympics! The Paralympics, that is. Taekwondo player Palesha Goverdhan won bronze at the Paris Paralympic Games, the first in-competition medal for Nepal at any Olympic games — Summer, Winter, and Paralympic. Goverdhan, who was born with a congenital limb deficiency on her left hand, received a hero’s welcome in Kathmandu with an army brass band and hundreds of well-wishers. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli also hosted a reception at his residence in Baluwatar and announced a cash prize of Rs 6.5 million for Goverdhan.
Goverdhan’s win is a victory for Nepal but also helps shine a light on Nepal’s disabled community. Nepal is not welcoming of people with disabilities. There are few support systems for them, and inclusive infrastructure is sorely lacking. One only has to take a walk around the Capital city to see how callous the authorities are when it comes to people with disabilities. For instance, tactile pavements were placed around Kathmandu with donor support but they often hinder rather than help. Pavements frequently end with no warning, or poles and trees are in the middle of the pavement. It is evident that the authorities have put in tactile paving to satisfy donor demands for inclusive roads rather than out of a genuine desire to make cities more friendly to people with disabilities. Donors, too, are seemingly happy to sign off on this despite massive budgets for monitoring and evaluation.
Hopefully, with people like Goverdhan bringing medals to the country and more attention to the lives of people with disabilities, the authorities will try to pay more attention to their needs.
An update on Prakash Tamang
Last week, I wrote about Herne Katha, the seminal documentary series making headlines for its episode on Prakash Tamang, a man who was taken from Kathmandu to Tsum Valley, where he spent 34 years as a yak herder. After the documentary went viral, many criticized Herne Katha for not doing enough to help Tamang. My argument was that storytellers and journalists are not supposed to go around saving their subjects. Their job is to tell stories and bring them to wider attention. It is the responsibility of the state to take care of the people.
Since the documentary was released, Tamang has received much help. Tamang was denied a citizenship certificate as he lacked a birth certificate. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, apparently touched by the documentary, personally directed the local authorities to provide Tamang with citizenship and met with him. Former Koshi Province chief minister Sherdhan Rai and his spouse Jangmu Sherpa gave Tamang Rs 100,000 each. At the same time, a new house is being built for Tamang and his family under the leadership of Maoist former minister Sudan Kirati. The Gurkha Ex-Servicemen’s Association provided Tamang with land for the house. Numerous other individuals and organizations have given Tamang cash and promised to help him rebuild his life.
I’m happy Tamang is getting some support, but he will have to brace for his 15 minutes of fame to run out. Right now, he’s in the media’s eye, and everyone wants to help him, but eventually, the people will turn to the next media darling, and the money Tamang has received will run out unless he invests it wisely. Furthermore, people like the sitting prime minister and former ministers cannot simply hand over some cash and good wishes and call it a day. Tamang’s story is not Tamang’s alone. Millions of Nepalis lack citizenship, millions are landless and homeless. This is not an individual issue; it is systemic and needs to be addressed on an institutional level.
This is the issue that I commented on last week. The criticism of Herne Katha was misguided. They’re not responsible for Prakash Tamang; the state is. And as long as prime ministers and former ministers are content to deal with these cases whenever a documentary brings a tear to their eye, there will be more Prakash Tamangs across the country.
It’s Teej and the misogynists are out in full force
Today, September 6, Friday, is the festival of Teej. This Hindu festival was once supposed to be a day when married women fasted for the longevity of their husbands and unmarried women fasted to get a good husband. But these days, women have transformed the festival. Teej is no longer about fasting for a now or future husband; it has become an occasion for women to get together without men and have some much-needed fun. Women dress up, eat, drink, dance and make merry without worrying about what their husbands, brothers, or fathers will think. Teej, however, is still religious and remains quite toxic in its religious form. The days leading up to Teej might be filled with merrymaking but come the actual day, many women still end up fasting for their husbands and performing rituals for their longevity. Still, deep-rooted practices are difficult to transform completely and the little reclamation that’s been had has been beautiful.
But of course, this has not gone down well with men. Every year, men on social media get outraged at videos of women having fun, especially women drinking and dancing. They call this “सामाजिक विकृति” or social perversion. It’s the same this year. I suspect these men get a perverted thrill out of seeing these videos. Why do they continue to spread videos online if it's a perversion? Things have gotten so bad that the Kathmandu District Administration Office issued a notice warning women against “unnecessary extravagance” during Teej celebration or they could be charged under the Social Practices (Reform) Act. First, who defines what is unnecessary and what is extravagant? Second, the Social Practices (Reform) Act is probably the least enforced law in the country. It outlaws dowry practices and limits guests at weddings and other celebrations to just 25 others in addition to immediate family members. Dowry is still rampant, and absolutely no one has invited just 25 others to their wedding celebrations. So why is it being threatened over relatively harmless Teej celebrations?
Nepali men and the Nepali authorities cannot bear to see women enjoying themselves. Men feel so left out that a few years ago, they even came up with a song for Teej called बिच्च बिच्च मा (In the middle), about men wanting to get into the middle of all those women dancing. Never mind that every other festival is catered towards men. The festival of Dashain is fast approaching, and while men get to eat goat meat, drink whiskey, and play cards, the women slave away in the kitchen, making the goat meat and serving the whiskey. Women wanted just one festival to themselves and men couldn’t even allow them to have that. This Teej, I’ve witnessed numerous instances of men either showing up to women’s Teej parties and planting themselves there or women feeling compelled to invite their husbands. I guess there’s nothing that Nepali men won’t ruin for others.
Another feud between Kathmandu Mayor Balen and the UML
Will I ever tire of talking about Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah’s many fueds? Not as long as he has the energy to keep engaging in these petty shenanigans. As long Balen Shah continues to post, I shall continue to report.
On Sunday, September 1, Mayor Balen Shah wrote a lengthy post on social media blaming Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli for interfering in an ongoing criminal case against Rekha Kumar Sharma, a UML party and Lumbini Provincial Assembly member. In June, volunteers mobilized by Kathmandu Metropolitan City had identified several children working as domestic help. Acting on this information, a team from the city raided those homes and rescued these children. Four children were rescued from inside Singha Durbar, the administrative heart of the country, and one child from the home of the aforementioned Rekha Sharma. For the past two months, the city has sought prosecution against all the employers, including Sharma. Still, nothing seems to have moved forward, leading Shah to accuse Oli of interference.
The UML was not going to take this jab against their patriarch lying down. It is one of the few parties that has a dedicated team of ‘cyber warriors’ modeled after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell. They duly mass-reported Shah’s tweet as offensive, leading the platform to take the post down. His Facebook post, however, is still up. Shah, not to be outdone, continued tweeting. His last post was on September 3, saying “पोस्ट उडाउने हैन, दोषी समाउ सरकार । म गलत हो भने मलाई समाउ, हैन भने दोषी समाउ ।” (Don’t take down posts, prosecute the guilty. If I’m wrong, prosecute me. If not, seize the guilty.” The UML’s cyber warriors and Shah’s equally dedicated fans and followers have been going at it on social media, feuding and trying to get each others’ posts taken down.
As of now, this is where things stand, but if it devolves further, perhaps the situation will warrant a deep dive on its own. There’s a long history of the vendetta between Shah and the UML. For now, let’s leave it here.
The deep dive follows after the break below.
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The deep dive: The challenges before Arzu Rana Deuba
Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba (Image: Wikipedia)
All week, new potential ambassadors nominated by the Cabinet have been facing parliamentary hearings before their confirmation. These proposed ambassadors get a chance to respond to complaints against them while informing parliamentarians of their plans should they be confirmed. Oh, what a laundry list of goals and promises they have. Proposed Nepali Ambassador to Israel Dhan Prasad Pandit said that he would “play a role in ending the war between Israel and Hamas” and would advise the Israeli government to allow Palestinians to live in peace.
This would be hilarious if it weren’t so sadly misguided. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has killed thousands of people, a vast majority of them Palestinian civilians. Countless countries, including Turkey, Egypt, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, China, India, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, have called for a ceasefire. All of these countries have far more international clout than poor, tiny, landlocked Nepal. Yet, our potential ambassador seems confident he can end one of the most intractable conflicts in modern history. Pandit didn’t mention Bipin Joshi, the Nepali student whose whereabouts are still unknown, nearly a year since he was taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
As my friend and former editor Sanjeev Satgainya pointed out on Twitter, Pandit wasn’t the only ambassador who made promises he couldn’t deliver. The nominee for Ambassador to China, Krishna Prasad Oli, said he would work to increase the number of Chinese tourists to 1 million each year; currently, just over 140,000 tourists visit Nepal from the north. Dr. Shail Rupakheti, proposed as ambassador to Germany, said he would work to remove Nepali airlines from the European Commission’s ‘black list.’ Unfortunately for Dr Rupakheti, getting off the blacklist depends entirely on the Nepal government’s actions relating to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and not the German or European governments.
I’m not pointing these gaffes to dunk on these potential ambassadors; rather, to show the priorities of our diplomats. All of these proposed ambassadors are from the political quota, i.e., they are nominated by the political parties, generally based on some quid pro quo or as a reward for years of politicking at the party level. They stand apart from career diplomats — ambassadors who passed the foreign service exam, entered the foreign ministry as bureaucrats, and rose through the ranks of the Nepali foreign service to become ambassadors. Technically, the Foreign Minister oversees all ambassadors, but political appointees tend to find more wiggle room as they have other political patrons.
For more on how ambassadors are appointed, read this edition of the newsletter:
So this is part of the crop of diplomats that Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba will have to marshall and mobilize during her tenure as only the fourth woman out of 31 to take charge of the Foreign Ministry — after Sahana Pradhan in 2007, Sujata Koirala in 2009, and Bimala Rai Paudyal in 2023. This is not to say that there are higher expectations from Rana Deuba because she is a woman, but our expectations hinge on who she is — an articulate, confident, well-read, well-traveled woman who has been in politics for decades. Let’s put aside the many controversies Rana Deuba has been linked to and all the whispers about her ethical and moral compromises; there’s no real evidence anyone can produce, at least not yet. Let’s focus on her as Foreign Minister and what she can achieve realistically in that position.
Let’s also put aside grand strategy. Contrary to what many commentators and newspaper columnists argue, Nepal doesn't have one. Nepal’s broad foreign policy has always been party-centric. The country tilts to the north and the south, depending on which party comes to power. Certainly, the ostensible bedrock of non-alignment is always paid lip service, but when it comes to diplomacy, what is seen often matters more than what is done. Foreign Minister Rana Deuba’s grand reception in Delhi two weeks ago by the Indian establishment already says a lot about how India feels about the Nepali Congress in general and Rana Deuba in particular.
Instead, let’s talk about what needs to be done now, immediately.
First, there is Bipin Joshi, the Nepali student mentioned earlier whose whereabouts have been unknown ever since Hamas took him hostage during its brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The Nepali establishment has seemingly forgotten about this young man whose heroic actions have been reported on at length. Even activists who are demonstrating in support of Palestine don’t seem to spare a thought for Joshi. He wasn’t party to the conflict; he wasn’t a Zionist; he was just a young man trying to make his way in life as a student. It is possible to call out Israeli excesses and express solidarity for Palestinians while also demanding that Hamas release Joshi or at least provide his family back home with some closure.
At the top of Foreign Minister Rana Deuba’s to-do list should be to secure Joshi’s release. This can involve seeking help from regional actors like Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iran or globally influential actors like the United States, United Kingdom, China, and India. Rana Deuba can even seek assistance from the Israeli Ambassador to Nepal, Hanan Goder. Maybe Joshi can be part of the next hostage exchange, although that’s unlikely given what happened to the hostages that Israel recently sought to free.
But it’s been almost a year since Joshi was taken hostage. The last update on his whereabouts came in November when security footage from the Al Shifa hospital purported to show Joshi being transported by Hamas fighters. Since then, nothing. Given the indiscriminate nature of Israeli bombing, it is looking less and less likely that Joshi is alive. If he has been killed, either by Hamas or Israel, his family deserves to know. They need closure, and Rana Deuba can use her diplomatic mettle to lobby for Joshi’s release, whether alive or dead.
The measure of a state comes at times like these. When a citizen is held hostage in hostile lands through no fault of their own, the state needs to mobilize all its resources and goodwill to free them. Thailand showed us how to do things early on during this conflict. Their citizens, like Joshi, were not parties to the conflict, and they negotiated with Hamas via Iran to get them released. What the Nepal government has shown so far is that it doesn’t care. Even if you travel abroad legally through government-sanctioned channels and something unfortunate befalls you, you are on your own. Of course, most Nepalis already know this. The Nepali state is not here to help us; it is here to hinder us at every step of the way, extract its pound of flesh, and cast us to the winds. But, if Foreign Minister Rana Deuba manages anything related to Joshi — his release, an update on his status — it will send a message that at least someone cared, even if belatedly. It will also be a major public relations victory for the KP Sharma Oli administration.
Second on Rana Deuba’s list must be stemming the tide of Nepalis going to and dying in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. According to official statistics, 40 Nepalis have died so far fighting for Russia. The actual numbers are estimated to be at least double that. Despite the Nepal government’s pleas to Russian authorities to stop inducting Nepalis into the Russian army, it doesn’t seem like Russia has listened. After all, why would it? Russia needs cheap soldiers for its frontline. If Nepalis show up in droves, ready to join up for a chance at Russian citizenship and a few thousand rubles, why would Russia turn them away? But perhaps Foreign Minister Rana Deuba can do some more lobbying. Her force of personality is stronger than that of her predecessors and she could potentially succeed where others have failed.
There are vast international networks of unscrupulous agents who are still sending Nepalis to Russia. These networks are difficult to dismantle, but their Nepali anchors can be arrested. It is important to understand how and where they operate. These days, Nepali agents operate out of India and the Middle East, sending migrant workers already there to Russia with promises of citizenship and a few thousand rubles monthly. Criminal investigations are necessary, but so is a diplomatic push to get India and countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia to prevent their airports from being used by Nepalis to fly to Russia. This will require finesse, as legitimate travelers should not be hindered, but something must be done.
Rana Deuba can also use her influence with the Indian establishment to put pressure on Russia. At India’s behest, Russia stopped recruiting Indians and even deported Indians already admitted to the Russian army. India has become an important partner for Russia, and when India speaks, Russia listens. Maybe if Narendra Modi or S Jaishankar requested Russia to stop recruiting Nepalis and send Nepali conscripts back home, they might comply. Diplomacy is needed to get India to intercede on Nepal’s behalf. Some back home might decry it as an infringement on Nepal’s sovereignty, but preventing any more Nepali deaths in foreign lands fighting a war we have no stake in and ostensibly on the wrong side of history will be worth that kind of criticism.
To me, these are the biggest challenges before the Foreign Ministry. Balancing China, India, and the US is not up to the Foreign Minister; that is a larger policy decision that the Nepali state must take. Instead of getting embroiled in intractable geopolitical discussions that no Foreign Minister can resolve on their own, Rana Deuba must focus on tangibles. If she can do either of these two things — bring Joshi home and prevent any more Nepalis from going to Russia and dying there — she will go down as one of the most consequential foreign ministers in recent Nepali history. Will she do it? Can she do it? I don’t know.
That’s all for this week. I will be back next Friday, in your emails, for the next edition of KALAM Weekly.
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