What does Oli bring back from China?

On Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's recent trip to China

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu. This is Issue 166 of KALAM Weekly, the only newsletter you need to keep updated with everything happening in Nepal.

A great big thank you to Subel Bhandari and Sradda Thapa for being my two newest supporters. I value your readership and your support. We have a new goal of getting to 120 paid supporters by the end of the year and we’re also offering a 20% discount to anyone who wants to pledge a subscription. Click here to access the discount and support me. Thank you to everyone who’s supported me so far. I couldn’t do this without you.

In this newsletter:

• Reminder: Online event with Bhrikuti Rai

• Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’ accused of sexual abuse

• By-election results are in

• Four former government officials convicted in widebody scam

• Dharan Mayor Harka Sampang threatens journalist

• Recommendations

• The Deep Dive: What does Oli bring back from China?

Reminder: Online event with Bhrikuti Rai

Before we begin, just a quick reminder about our first online event with journalist and podcaster Bhrikuti Rai of BojuBajai fame. It will take place on December 11 at 7PM Nepal time. We will be talking about the media landscape in Nepal and why we both chose to step away from mainstream media and pursue new media ventures. She started a podcast and I started a newsletter. We hope to have a wide-ranging and informal conversation.

This event is for paid subscribers, who must have received an email with a registration link. Please don’t forget to sign up for the event! For all other readers, please pledge a paid subscription if you’d like to attend the event. Click this link for more details. In case you are a student or you really cannot afford to pay, just reply to this newsletter and I’ll make sure you’re able to attend.

Hope to see you there!

Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi’ accused of sexual abuse

Gopal Das Shrestha ‘Kalapremi,’ a well-known sculptor, has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse by at least five of his former female students. In a story published on Nepali Times, Subekshya Poudel reports on how Kalapremi inappropriately touched his much younger students, some as young as 16, and conducted inappropriate sexual conversations in person and over text. He reportedly even attempted to pressure a student to have sex with him. These experiences were corroborated by male students who witnessed his behavior. Kalapremi, for his part, denied the allegations of sexual harassment and abuse but admitted that his “actions may have hurt some people” and that he “should have been more mindful.” The women he harassed are now in consultation with a lawyer to file formal abuse charges against Kalapremi.

This story is similar to those that appeared in the wake of the MeToo movement in Nepal — men abusing their positions of power to prey on younger women. In 2018, Itisha Giri, Bhrikuti Rai, and I reported on former Kathmandu Mayor Keshav Sthapit’s harassment of a city employee. Then, I again reported on harassment allegations against Prashant Jha, a Nepali journalist who was Political Editor of the Hindustan Times in India. This was followed by numerous stories about influential men harassing and abusing women, including Tribhuvan University lecturers Krishna Bhattachan and Jagadish Murti Koirala, and theater artists Raj Kumar Pudasaini, Rajan Khatiwada, and Sunil Pokharel. Teachers abusing their students wasn’t— and isn’t—limited to universities either. In 2019, Marissa Taylor and I reported on how Bodha Raj ‘Basu’ Tripathee, a maths teacher at Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidyalaya, had been abusing minor students for decades.

Not much came of these accusations. Despite reports in the media and widespread backlash on social media, most of these figures returned to their jobs. Some even resorted to counter-attacks. Keshav Sthapit called the allegations against him a “rape of men’s rights,” while Krishna Bhattachan said that the allegations were “attacking the indigenous people’s movement.” Only Jagadish Murti Koirala faced a sexual harassment case, while Bodha Raj Tripathee was fired. Here’s hoping that Kalapremi will face legal action or at least active censure from the artist community.

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Dear readers, thank you so much for helping me get to a hundred paid supporters. We haven’t even hit December and we’ve already reached our goal! Can we keep the momentum going and try to get to 120 supporters? Your support will allow us to invest in more reporting and pay our reporters fairly. All of the support you show us will go right back into making the newsletter better! We are offering a 20% discount on all annual subscriptions. Click here to avail of the discount. Readers in Nepal can click this link for more information on payments and rates.

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By-election results are in

By-elections were held successfully across the country on Sunday to fill 44 vacant local-level posts. The results were a mixed bag. Of the 44 seats, the Nepali Congress retained 17 of its 29 former seats, while the UML and the Maoists increased their seats to 10 and 9, respectively. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), the fourth largest party in Parliament, won just one ward chair seat in Kathmandu. Still, the win was significant, reflecting the RSP’s popularity in urban enclaves. The party performed noticeably worse everywhere else. A surprising performance came from the Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party, a party that has long ruled Bhaktapur and has Kim Il-sung’s juche as its party ideology. The NeMaKiPa, as it’s often called in Nepali, won one ward chair seat in Kalikot. In Kirtipur, the most hotly contested local-level seat, the Nepali Congress emerged triumphant, holding on to its mayor.

By-elections like these allow the parties to test the waters and see how the electorate feels. After 2022’s general and local elections brought in a host of independent candidates and newly formed political parties like the RSP, the big three mainstream parties — the Congress, UML, and Maoists — were under pressure to perform, lest they cast away next election. The by-elections show that the shine of these new forces has dulled a bit, possibly due to the numerous controversies they’ve courted. The RSP’s chairman, Rabi Lamichhane, remains in police custody on allegations of fraud. The traditional parties are possibly pleased with their performance or at least content with the lack of enthusiasm for any alternative forces. Unfortunately, this will mean that they will continue to act the way they have, with little regard for the electorate's desires. But then again, what else is new?

Four former government officials convicted in widebody scam

On Thursday, the Special Court convicted four government officials of corruption in the 2018 procurement of two Airbus A330s jets by the state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC). The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had filed corruption charges against 32 individuals in the scandal widely known as the “widebody scam” after the widebody jets. Those convicted include former tourism secretary and then chair of the NAC Shankar Adhikari; NAC’s then general manager Sugat Ratna Kansakar; and former joint secretaries Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane and Shishir Kumar Dhungana. Kansakar was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail, Adhikari to a year and nine months, and Dhungana and Lamichhane to a year and a half each. However, Jeevan Bahadur Shahi*, the tourism minister at the time, was acquitted of all charges.

(*Note: I had mistakenly named Jeevan Ram Shrestha as the tourism minister who was acquitted, instead of Jeevan Bahadur Shahi. Very sorry for the oversight.)

The officials were accused of conspiring with a Nepali-born middleman to purchase the two Airbus A330s at inflated prices. In August, unsealed court documents from the United States’ Department of Justice revealed that Deepak Sharma, the Nepali-born British citizen, had bribed Nepali officials with $2.5 million in order to secure the Airbus deal for AAR, a US-based aviation company. Sharma was charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and pled guilty earlier in July. The CIAA has alleged that the conspiracy cost Nepal a loss of $13.38 million as NAC purchased the aircraft at artificially inflated rates.

Dharan Mayor Harka Sampang threatens journalist

On Wednesday, December 4, Dharan Mayor Harka Sampang took to social media to call out journalist Gopal Dahal. He posted on Facebook, “Gopal Dahal or any representative of the Center for Investigative Journalism must present themselves at Dharan's Green Tea at 10am tomorrow. Otherwise, I will end your investigative journalism, or my name isn't Harka Sampang.” Sampang was peeved at a critical report that journalist Dahal had authored for the Center for Investigative Journalism. The article, which was also published on Himal Khabar, pointed out Sampang’s increasingly erratic and arbitrary style of governance. In one recent example, Sampang left on a trip to England and made his relative and Dharan Ward-11 chair Lokendra Fago the acting mayor. By law, the deputy mayor should’ve been given that responsibility but Sampang said that the deputy mayor did not even wish a safe journey. “Why would I make him the acting mayor when he didn’t even wish me a safe journey?” he told reporters upon his return.

This was just one example. Sampang has been acting increasingly erratically ever since his election in 2022. He takes to social media to threaten anyone who’s critical of him. Videos have been leaked of him cursing at other government officials. And this isn’t even the first time he’s threatened a journalist. In July, he summoned journalist Sangita Dhamala to his office over her allegations that certain government officials were seeking bribes. During the heated exchange, Sampang lost his patience and ordered his city police to bodily remove her from his office. Last year, in May, Sampang verbally abused journalist Bhojraj Shrestha when the latter asked the former difficult questions.

Sampang was elected as an independent candidate in the 2022 election. He was a long-time social activist and was quite popular, leading many to believe that he would do good work as a mayor. Since his election, Sampang has initiated a campaign calling on residents to donate their labor to civic works. While his work has been appreciated by Dharan residents, many are uncomfortable with his abrasive personality and dictatorial style of work. He often sidesteps any criticism by saying that he was elected by the people and he answers only to the people. When journalists and others point out that he is violating the law, he says that he will write a new law. Time and again, Sampang has shown that he has very thin skin and will not hesitate to openly threaten and abuse those he doesn’t like.

Recommendations

Chiung Yao, the beloved Taiwanese romance novelist, died by suicide on December 4. She left behind a beautifully poignant note. Read it in English here.

‘Art lover’ accused of sexual abuse by Subeksha Poudel, Nepali Times

That’s all for this week’s round-up. The Deep Dive continues after the break below.

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The deep dive: What does Oli bring back from China?

A triumphant Oli returns from China on Thursday. (Image: Prime Minister’s Secretariat)

On Monday, December 2, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli flew to China with an 87-member delegation on his first official trip abroad. In Beijing, Chinese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Sun Weidong welcomed Oli at the airport. Oli then traveled to the Great Hall of the People, where he was received by Chinese Premier Li Qiang and accorded a guard of honor by the People’s Liberation Army. After delegation-level talks between the two prime ministers, Oli met with President Xi Jinping, where more substantial issues were discussed, and nine memorandums of understanding were signed. The two countries then issued a 12-point joint statement.

But then, on Wednesday, as everyone thought Oli was wrapping up his visit, the much-vaunted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation framework was finally signed, officially marking the next step in the commencement of China-funded infrastructure projects in Nepal under the BRI.

Before discussing the substance of the framework agreement, let’s consider how the announcement was received, particularly in neighboring India. It started with the Nepali media stating that Oli was “breaking with tradition” to visit China first, which was picked up by both Indian and Chinese media, but for obviously different reasons. Traditionally, any new prime minister first visits India, which is emblematic of Delhi's influence in Nepal. It is an acknowledgment that no one becomes prime minister in Nepal without India’s blessing. This practice is not set in stone; in 2008, Pushpa Kamal Dahal visited China first in a snub to the Indians.

This time, word around town is that Oli would’ve preferred to visit India first, but no invitation was forthcoming. Clearly, the Indians are still upset with Oli, given his past nationalist antics that have come at the expense of India. Oli was behind Nepal’s new political map that resulted in new geographical disputes with India, and he has irked the southern neighbor numerous times by mocking India’s national emblem and claiming that Ram, the hero of the Ramayana, was born in Nepal’s Thori, not India’s Ayodhya. To Hindu Indians, that was akin to India claiming that Buddha was born in India, not Lumbini.

However, it would be unfair to heap all the blame at Oli’s feet. The primary reason Oli has pursued China is India’s intransigence. Decades of internal meddling in Nepal’s domestic affairs have made the Nepali polity wary of India. They see China as a natural counterbalance to India’s domineering ways. Let’s not forget that Oli only brought Nepal closer to China when India imposed a blockade on a country reeling from devastating earthquakes just because it didn’t like the new constitution. Indeed, there is suspicion of India not just among Nepalis but almost all of South Asia. As the regional hegemon, India has done itself no favors by pushing its closest neighbors closer to China.

And so we come to Oli’s current China tour. He returns triumphant, bearing the signed cooperation framework as proof of his success. Nepal signed up for Xi Jinping’s flagship BRI program in 2017; seven years on, nothing had moved forward. As always, Nepal was to blame. First, it took nearly two years for Nepal to whittle down the number of projects proposed under the BRI from 35 to nine, at China’s insistence. Then, Nepal’s political parties disagreed on the financing model of BRI projects. While Oli’s UML party and Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s Maoists were more amenable to Chinese terms, the Nepali Congress insisted on grants instead of loans. The Congress party no doubt shared the same suspicions of the BRI as the Indians and Americans, both of whom the party is close to.

So this time, before this trip to China, Oli brought the Congress and UML on board the new framework proposal he would present to the Chinese. A task force was formed, and both parties relaxed their respective stances to find some middle ground. The full text of the framework agreement has not been released, but both China and Nepal appear to have agreed on a mix of grants and concessional loans. According to The Kathmandu Post, the delay in signing the framework cooperation was regarding the wording of grants. The Nepali side had proposed a “grant financing cooperation modality,” while the Chinese wanted an “assistance financing modality.” Eventually, “aid assistance financing” was the agreed-upon term.

This is a definite victory for Oli. The ten projects now being financed under the BRI include the Amaragadhi City Hall in Dadeldhura, a sports and athletic complex in Jhapa, Kerung-Kathmandu cross-border railway, Tokha-Chhahare tunnel road, Hilsa-Simikot road, Kimathanka-Khandbari road, Jilong-Kerung-Rasuwagadhi-Chilime 220KV transmission line, Madan Bhandari University, Kathmandu Scientific Center and Science Museum, and China-Nepal friendship industrial park in Damak. Two new infrastructure projects — the sports stadium in Damak, Jhapa, and a city hall complex in Amaragadhi, Dadeldhura are in Oli’s home district of Jhapa and Sher Bahadur Deuba’s home district of Dadeldhura. Even amidst all the geopolitical wrangling, Oli and Deuba have managed to extract their pound of flesh.

That aside, getting the Chinese to agree to “aid” over loans is to Nepal’s benefit. Let’s put aside the West’s hand-wringing over a debt trap and look at an example from Nepal itself. The Pokhara International Airport, financed by a Chinese loan, has been a disaster. Despite its name, there are no international flights to Pokhara, and the swanky new airport is collecting dust. When the airport opened, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song announced that it was a BRI project, much to Nepal’s surprise. Since then, Nepal has been attempting to get China to turn that airport loan into a grant but the Chinese disagree. They’re afraid that allowing Nepal to turn a loan into a grant would lead to a cascade of similar requests from other developing countries that have received Chinese loans.

Pokhara International Airport has not turned into a “debt trap” per se, but Nepal is paying interest on infrastructure that does not perform the purpose for which it was built. That, however, is not on the Chinese. China was more than happy to provide a loan; Nepal should’ve done its homework and assessed if an international airport in Pokhara was feasible, especially given India’s reluctance to provide any concession to Chinese investments or aid in Nepal. Pokhara, thus, should be a lesson to Nepal. The Chinese will fund projects if you ask them to, but will those projects benefit Nepal as a whole or just certain segments of Nepali society? Will a sports stadium in Jhapa and a city hall complex in Dadeldhura benefit Nepalis, or are they just peanuts for Oli and Deuba to toss to their electorate?

The larger question of whether signing the BRI framework agreement will bring Nepal closer to India is already moot, despite what the Indians think. “China’s influence in Nepal is beyond just the BRI,” Raunab Singh Khatri, a China scholar and co-founder of the fantastic Araniko Project newsletter, told me. “Whether it is physical infrastructure like hydropower, communication giants like Huawei, ZTE, or soft infrastructure like Confucious classrooms or Chinese restaurants in Thamel, its influence is much more significant than just the BRI. The influence is so profound that in the future, BRI could remain insignificant.”

Khatri recently wrote a very insightful piece on how increasing criticism of the BRI had made the Chinese more risk-averse and more focused on “small yet beautiful projects.” This means that Nepal’s desire for large-scale infrastructure like a cross-border railway could end up on the back burner as smaller, more feasible projects take center stage. Nepal would do well to recognize this shift in China’s approach to the BRI and act accordingly.

When Oli returns, his supporters will cry victory. They won’t be wrong, but they won’t be wholly correct, either. That this agreement is the first sign of any progress on the BRI in seven years should not be a cause for celebration. Yet, given that this is Nepal, seven years is relatively short. The framework agreement is just that—a framework. Implementation still depends on Nepal doing its homework and prioritizing projects that China can fund. Nepal should not see China as just a generous donor with endless pockets. It has its own geopolitical and commercial concerns. The BRI is not a grant-making enterprise; it is an investment, and China will seek returns. Khatri quotes a Chinese official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) as saying, “These days, we need viable projects and a good return. We don’t want to back losers.” Nepali politicians, bureaucrats, and even the public at large must understand this.

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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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