The survey results are in!
On everything I learned from the recent reader survey.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. This is Issue 164 of KALAM Weekly, the only newsletter you need to keep updated with everything happening in Nepal.
Before we begin, we are so very close to the goal of getting to 100 subscribers by the end of the week! We need just about five more paid subscribers so please spread the word! Thank you so much to everyone who has pledged a paid subscription so far. This week alone, General Sam Cowan, a longtime supporter of this newsletter, became a patron, while Prashanta Khanal, Avash Bhandari, Sujata Rana, and Shristi Thapa pledged paid subscriptions. Thank you all. But also a very special thank you to Kumudini Gurung Shrestha, who pledged six paid subscriptions for her family — Prabal Gurung, Pravesh Gurung, Arhant Gurung Shrestha, Vaidehi Gurung Shrestha, Yurop Shrestha and Merica Shrestha. I am so very grateful for your support.
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In this newsletter:
Online event: A conversation on the media with Bhrikuti Rai
Durga Prasai arrested on cybercrime charges
Daman Nath Dhungana has died
Oli’s China tour nears, BRI still under review
UML holds ‘show of force’ in Kathmandu
Recommendations
The Deep Dive: The results of the survey are in!
Online event: A conversation on the media with Bhrikuti Rai
As promised last week, I am happy to announce that the first Kalam live event will take place on December 11 at 7PM Nepal time over Zoom. I will be speaking to my friend and colleague Bhrikuti Rai, founder of the BojuBajai podcast and winner of numerous journalism awards. Bhrikuti and I share a similar journey in the Nepali media. We both started our careers at Nepali Times, albeit at different times. We finally worked together at The Kathmandu Post under Anup Kaphle, where I was the Features Editor, and Bhrikuti was an investigative reporter. But eventually, we both got disillusioned with the mainstream media and quit to go our own way. She started the BojuBajai podcast, Nepal’s first feminist podcast, with Itisha Giri while I joined The Record and eventually started writing this newsletter. We’ll be talking about the current media landscape in Nepal and what led us to try and make our own way in journalism.
This event is for all paid supporters so if you haven’t pledged a subscription, please do so. There’s still time to join this exclusive event! If all goes well, this will be the first of many to come. For those in Nepal who would like to support me, please reply to this email, and I will send you directions on how you can do so!
Daman Nath Dhungana has died
Daman Nath Dhungana, former Speaker of the House and a lifetime democracy activist, died on Sunday at the age of 83. Dhungana was the first Speaker of the newly reconstituted House of Representatives after the end of the Panchayat system in 1990. At that time, he was a member of the Nepali Congress party but increasingly moved away from party politics to act as a non-partisan activist. Alongside Padma Ratna Tuladhar, another seasoned activist, Dhungana played a critical role in bringing the Maoists and the parties together during the civil conflict and eventually, the Jana Andolan 2 protests that toppled the king and established Nepal as a secular, democratic republic.
Dhungana’s death marks one more passing of a seasoned civil society actor who was able to rise above party politics. People of his ilk are rarer today. Partisan politics has permeated all spheres of public life, and professionals today are much more compromised than ever. Despite being a Congress member, Dhungana was amenable to politicians from other parties, particularly the UML. His party presidents, particularly Girija Prasad Koirala, often resented him for the grace he showed to other parties. Dhungana was one of those rare personalities who could speak to politicians from across the spectrum, which is why everyone mourned his death. Our current crop of civil society actors should learn from his example.
Oli’s China tour nears, BRI still under review
As Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli readies to head to China for his first official visit in the first week of December, the ruling Congress and UML parties have undertaken a comprehensive review of projects planned under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Oli wants to sign the implementation plan for the BRI while in China, but the Congress is adamant that the plan cannot be signed in its current form. The Congress party, believed to be more amenable to American and Indian interests, is much more wary of a “debt trap” than the UML, which is seen to be closer to China. Oli himself wants to sign the implementation plan to show some concrete development on the BRI in Nepal.
The Congress and UML have formed a task force to conduct the review and assess where Nepal can ask the Chinese for adjustments. The Congress wants grants as much as possible, but the Chinese have been insistent on loans. Oli will ask the Chinese to convert the loan for the Pokhara International Airport into a grant. While the airport was not technically a BRI project, Chinese officials have touted it as a significant achievement under the BRI. Oli plans to use this rhetoric to finagle a grant, which would be quite an achievement if he could pull it off.
The BRI would be good for Nepal if we could get grants instead of loans. Even blended finance and soft loans would not be such a bad idea if Nepal could present a unified voice in front of the Chinese. There are geopolitical interests, though. India has already refused to entertain any links to Chinese-funded projects; it will not buy any electricity generated from Chinese-funded hydropower projects. The Americans and Europeans, too, continue to be wary of China and its increasing foothold in Nepal. But Nepal cannot afford to take sides. Fears of a debt trap might not be wholly unfounded but there is also a lot of hyperbole and Sinophobia mixed in. It is also prudent to give a close neighbor some benefit of the doubt. We should take assistance from all sides, provided we benefit in the long run.
Dear readers, I’m trying to get to a hundred paid subscribers by the end of the year. I am currently at 95, thanks to all of you who’ve subscribed recently. We are so close to getting to a hundred! Just 6 more to go!
I spend days reading, talking, curating, and writing to bring this newsletter into your inboxes. Please pledge a paid subscription if you value the work I do. If you cannot pay, please share with someone who might be able and willing. KALAM Weekly is truly a passion project and it cannot continue without your support.
Durga Prasai arrested on cybercrime charges
Controversial businessman Durga Prasai was arrested on Wednesday on cybercrime charges after sharing images purporting to show Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s investments in a Cambodian telecom company. Prasai has been making these allegations for some time now, but it was only after he shared doctored images on social media that the police took him in. Prasai said that he had paid nearly Rs 10 million to acquire the images, and if he actually paid that amount, he was hoodwinked. The images are clearly fake. KP Sharma Oli’s name is spelled wrong; he is called Khadka Prasad Oli on the documents when his name is Khadga. On many occasions, Oli has also made clear that he goes by KP Sharma Oli, not Khadga Prasad Oli.
Prasai is a shady businessman with deep pockets. He runs a medical college in Birtamod and has been pally with politicians, especially Oli himself and Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoists. In 2017, a widely circulated image showed Oli and Dahal dining on marsi rice at Prasai’s residence. Prasai claimed the dinner was instrumental in uniting the UML and the Maoists to form the short-lived Nepal Communist Party. But Prasai is a political opportunist who switches sides whenever it suits him. In 2023, saddled with over Rs 5.5 billion in loans, he began an unsuccessful debt forgiveness campaign. Then, after not receiving a license to conduct MBBS classes at his Birtamod college, he began a campaign against his former dinner pals. He suddenly began advocating for Nepal to do away with federalism and republicanism and return to being a unitary Hindu kingdom, coordinating mass rallies across the country in 2023 for the same. These rallies, coordinated and spread over TikTok, were the casus belli for the Maoist government at the time banning the social media site in Nepal. Prasai has constantly courted controversy and will likely parley his infamy into a political career.
Prasai’s arrest is not unwarranted, as he was knowingly spreading misinformation. Oli might be corrupt and might even have investments in a Cambodian company, as alleged. But Prasai has no proof, and sharing doctored images that defame a public figure is libelous. There is a need to move cautiously, though. Arresting people for social media posts is a slippery slope that could easily be misused. Defamation needs a strict definition, and the courts should draw a thick line between defamation and free speech.
UML holds ‘show of force’ in Kathmandu
The CPN-UML party, the same party that the prime minister leads and is currently leading government, held a “show of force” in Kathmandu on Friday. The rally started at Bhadrakali and culminated in a mass assembly at Durbar Marg, disrupting traffic across the city. The party had earlier stated that the rally would “raise awareness against anarchy,” whatever that means, and prevent “undemocratic forces from uniting.” Rallygoers chanted slogans expressing support for the Oli government and even threw in a few populist chants like “Justice for cooperative victims!” and “The country won’t progress with negativity, let’s move forward with positivity.”
The question here is, why does a party that is already leading the government need to hold a “show of force?” What objective did the rally serve except to inconvenience ordinary folk? The Oli government faces no current threat from the other political parties. The Maoists, their closest rival, are a distant third in parliamentary strength. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chief, has been critical of the Oli government but that’s only natural, given that his party is in opposition. But the UML seems to have taken those comments to heart with the “anarchy” objective seemingly directed at him. But Dahal can do little. He doesn’t have the numbers and he doesn’t have the popular vote.
So why do this? Perhaps the UML is making a statement. Parties in Nepal tend to hold such rallies from time to time just to send a message that they still command significant numbers. Let’s overlook the fact that these rallies are often staffed by people who are paid to hold placards and chant slogans. Besides those who got paid, the general public had to face hours-long traffic jams with public transport all but coming to a halt. I can’t believe the rally served any purpose other than to rile up an increasingly frustrated public against the UML. A poor decision all-round on the part of the UML and the prime minister.
Recommendations
US indictment of Gautam Adani puts India Inc’s reputation on trial, John Reed & Chris Kay, Financial Times
Letter to My Teenage Self: An Incarcerated Man Interrogates the Person He Once Was, Hector Ortiz, Narratively
नेपाली दल, मिडिया र रासोमोन इफेक्ट, संजीव सत्गैंया, उकालो
That’s all for this week’s round-up. The Deep Dive continues after the break below.
The deep dive: The survey results are in!
Before we get into this week’s deep dive, apologies to all my readers who were expecting a more newsworthy long read. As long-time readers will know, I sometimes use this space to talk more about the future of this newsletter and the media in general. I understand this might not interest everyone, but I believe it is necessary because I am trying to build a different kind of media product. The media in Nepal has always been top-down. The newspapers and the digital outlets publish what they will with readers as passive consumers. I want to change that.
In this digital age, access to information is not an issue. There’s information everywhere, from digital news outlets to your personalized social media feeds. But all too often, that information lacks context. Clickbait headlines and social media don’t tell you the full story. You are given isolated moments divorced from their past and future. I started this newsletter to do the opposite of that — to provide you with stories, not just information. I want to give you context in a contextless world.
That also requires listening to you, the reader. Two weeks ago, I heard this often at the Splice Beta media festival: that media is, too, a hospitality business. Any media must fulfill a need. I don’t know what your needs are unless I ask you, which is what I did with the reader survey, which ran for two weeks before closing. I received nearly 200 responses with so much great insight into what I’m doing right and what I need to improve on. Thank you to all of you who responded. If you haven’t redeemed your 25% discount on a paid subscription, you can still do so. You should have received a code when you filled out the survey.
If you still want to give me feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!
Here are key insights from the survey that I’d like to share with you since this newsletter is as much yours as it is mine. There are also some very encouraging quotes from the survey.
Readership
It should come as no surprise that most survey respondents (over 60%) are in Nepal. A not-so-small minority (around 15%) are based in the United States, while the rest are scattered across Europe (10%), South Asia, and a few other countries. What surprises me about this is that I have barely any respondents from Australia or Canada, both countries that host large populations of Nepali students and professionals. I imagine they, too, would like to stay connected with what’s happening in Nepal, so perhaps I need to make a concerted effort to reach out to potential readers there. I would appreciate any help from you in this regard. Please share this newsletter with your friends and family in Australia and Canada who might be interested in keeping up with the news from Nepal.
It was very interesting to note the profile of the survey respondents. So many of you are professionals with very interesting jobs and expertise. There are doctors, diplomats, UN officials, aid workers, teachers, writers, and poets. Going forward, I would love to engage with you further. There is so much you could help me with, besides the paid subscription. I could use your expertise and your insights.
I find the depth of research and analysis helpful in educating myself about happenings in Nepal while sparing me from all the grind work. Also, appreciate how you decipher complex ideas/issues in a simple, easy to grasp manner.
Something else that surprised me was that more than 80% of you said that you read the newsletter all the way through. A smaller percentage, around 12%, said that you skim through it, with a few focusing exclusively on specific sections. I had always assumed — wrongly, it seems — that the length of the newsletter was perhaps most daunting. Reading 3,000 words all the way through in the age of TikTok and Instagram Reels is no easy feat. It feels gratifying to hear that you spend so much time with my writing. However, some of you said that the newsletter could be too dense. Although I try to simplify what I write, Nepali politics, especially, is a labyrinth that is not too easy to navigate. I take your feedback to heart and will do my best to explain what is going on as plainly as I can.
Content
What survey respondents appreciated most about the newsletter was the summary of weekly news and events from Nepal. You also enjoy the deep dive, the commentary, and the contextual analysis.
I really appreciate your newsletter and your poised, evidence-based commentary/analysis on any given issue! At the end of it, I feel like I know more and always end up having an additional perspective on the issue in hand. So thank you for the blood and sweat you put into it!
This is very good to hear, as those are the primary elements that define the newsletter. They are part of my attempt at parsing the news from Nepal into one weekly publication and trying to provide commentary and context that helps to situate the news in the broader milieu. Thank you also to those of you who commended the quality of the writing. After over 160 editions written every week, I was afraid that I might be slipping.
Critical, explanatory discourse on contemporary issues that aren't just 'hey, this happened'. Personalised tone that is honest, and sometimes vulnerable -- breaks through the whole journalism has to be too stoic and objective thing (I'm not a fan of that anyway). The consistency is commendable and inspiring -- writing is so difficult, especially when there's so much going on.
There is always room for improvement, though. Some of you feel that the topics are too narrow, and there was some feedback that the issues are often national-level or Kathmandu-centric. I agree with that assessment. I live in Kathmandu and am a straight Khas Arya man who is comfortably middle class. I am also quite progressive regarding politics and social issues, which should be evident from my writing. That limits my perspective. I do my best to consult diverse sources and talk to people who might have differing outlooks. At the end of the day, this is a newsletter and it is going to be opinionated. This is something I need to work on more, which leads me into the next point.
The top two answers to the question, “What would you like to see more of?” were more recommendations of articles, books, podcasts, and the like, and more reporting. Given the analytical bent of this newsletter, I have so far refrained from reporting. The newsletter alone takes up so much of my time that I cannot invest as much time and effort into reporting, even though that should be the bedrock of any journalistic venture. This is why I am taking your advice and investing in more reporting. I’d like to be able to pay reporters a decent amount, at least above what the mainstream newspapers pay. Journalism is hard work and it needs fair compensation. So your paid support will go towards paying journalists. Watch this space for more actual journalism.
Kalam has a distinct voice, is high quality and I want it to survive.
Investing in more reporting goes hand-in-hand with more guest posts, which would bring in more diverse voices and perhaps alleviate the heavily male, Kathmandu liberal point of view that this newsletter currently has. Every publication, even a newsletter, can benefit from a diversity of voices, and I aim to bring in more people who can contribute. If any of you reading this would like to submit an essay, an opinion piece, commentary or are interested in doing some on-the-ground reporting, please reply to this email! Let’s collaborate!
Audience engagement
Perhaps what I learned most from the survey was how engaged my readers are. So many of you took the time to give me feedback, sometimes on how I can improve and other times, just to encourage me to keep going. That feels humbling and gives me the energy to keep going. Writing this every week is taxing and the threat of burnout is always just over my shoulder. But when I read feedback like yours, it makes me feel like I’m doing something that is worthwhile.
Tough time for journalism in Nepal, yet we need to see more work like this.
So I’d like to engage with you further. You are my community and without you, this newsletter would cease to exist. I need your support to keep going, of course, but I also need your feedback, your thoughts, and your contributions. Do you have certain expertise that would help inform my analysis? Do you have sources or ideas for reportage? Can you help me redesign this newsletter? Would you like to contribute writing? Can you help me market the newsletter better? I want to think that our relationship is more than just as writer and reader. We are part of a community that grows together and can hopefully succeed together.
Write to me. Let’s talk and make this thing better together.
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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