Off the Record 122: Kantipur vs Rabi Lamichhane
Issue 122 • 29 December 2023
It’s December 29, 2023, and you’re reading Off the Record.
I’m Pranaya Rana and in this newsletter, we’ll stop, take a deep breath, and dive into one singular issue that defined the past week.
You can read Off the Record for free by visiting this link and subscribing to receive this newsletter in your inbox every Friday.ﾠAll posts are free but you can pledge a subscription if you like my work.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening from Kathmandu on the cusp of the new year. I hope all of you celebrating had a great Christmas and I wish you a happy and healthy new year.
I was hoping to get away with a short newsletter before the year is out but alas, that was not to be. Brewing drama between a new politician and the establishment media has had Kathmandu in a twist. Opinions are divided and there’s a lot of mudslinging from both sides. For a blow-by-blow account, scroll down to the deep dive.
But, as usual, a quick recap of other events.
Dahal completes a year in office
For a man with just 32 seats in the federal parliament, Pushpa Kamal Dahal has certainly done well for himself. He managed to cobble together a coalition to support his bid for prime minister and despite all naysaying, he’s remained in office for a year now. That might not sound like very long but this is Nepal, unstable governments have been known to collapse in months.
On Tuesday, Dahal invited editors of the major newspapers in the country to brief them on his one year in office. Some were quite enamored with Dahal, as the editor of The Kathmandu Post writes in his editorial: “Journalists love interacting with Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the country’s three-time prime minister. He can be uncannily honest, often revealing the inner workings of the government and his party as he gets into the conversation.”
Dahal started his third stint as prime minister with a bang. A slew of corruption cases were exposed and pursued, including the Lalita Niwas land grab, the fake Bhutanese refugee scam, and the Tribhuvan International Airport gold smuggling. Dahal and his Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha even arrested several high-profile politicians and bureaucrats, giving hope that perhaps the days of political impunity were over. But that was not to be. All of those cases have now fizzled out, hampered largely by Dahal’s coalition partner, the Nepali Congress. Dahal needed the Congress to stay in power and so, he bent to the will of Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
There’s been progress in the energy sector with a lot more hydropower projects coming online and Nepal signing agreements with India and Bangladesh to export power. But Dahal alone cannot take credit for these as they’ve been in the works for quite some time now.
But everything else has been pretty lackluster. Dahal has now begun to accumulate more and more criticism, sometimes due to his family and other times, due to his inability to address any of the pressing issues of the day — a flagging economy, massive out-migration, and mass unemployment. Even a crisis like a Nepali citizen being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas has yet to be resolved. Dahal barely even addresses the plight of poor Bipin Joshi. Dahal has one more year in office, if the gentleman’s agreement between him and Deuba is to be believed. So he has another year to pull up his straps and get to work, if he wishes to leave behind a legacy of work rather than a legacy of nepotism, as many suspect he is working towards.
Pilot responsible for January crash, says report
A governmental investigation report on the fatal Yeti Airlines crash in January which killed 72 people has reportedly placed the blame squarely on the pilots. According to the report, which was released on Thursday, the co-pilot inadvertently pulled the wrong lever when directed by the pilot, causing the plane to lose thrust and eventually crash. The Kathmandu Post quotes a member of the investigation committee as saying, “It appears that human factors such as high workload and stress resulted in the misidentification and selection of the propellers to the feathered position. Our investigation shows that the pilot monitoring had lost concentration in the cockpit. He seems to have repeatedly ignored calls from the pilot flying.” In aviation parlance, the co-pilot is the ‘pilot monitoring’ while the pilot is the ‘pilot flying’. The Post report is quite comprehensive in its details, much more so than I can go into here so you can read that article if you like.
In crashes like these, the blame is almost always placed on the pilots, whether warranted or not. Generally, as the pilots are no longer alive to defend themselves, it’s easier to simply hold them responsible and move on. The conditions leading to stress on the pilots or their mental health are rarely looked into. In this instance, the pilots were apparently concerned about their salaries, which hadn’t been paid for a long time. That could’ve been a reason for the ‘loss of concentration’ for the pilot monitoring. But even if not, a pilot doesn’t simply lose concentration out of the blue. There must’ve been reasons, personal or professional, that led to his mental state. A true investigation requires a look into the pilots’ personal lives and their professional working conditions.
Governmental reports like these tend to overlook the role of management or the working conditions at the airline in question. Since these airlines are usually operated by powerful men with powerful connections, there is pressure to relieve them of any responsibility. Here, the airline is Yeti, a company with a long history of fatal crashes. But Yeti is operated by a very powerful family with close connections to politicians, especially former prime minister and UML chair KP Sharma Oli. A sole focus on the technical aspects doesn’t tell the whole story.
Two dead in protests
On Friday, spontaneous protests broke out in Kathmandu’s Balkumari as dozens of young men who were denied the opportunity to go to South Korea for work took to the streets. The protestors burned tires and even set fire to a vehicle belonging to Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala. The minister was not injured but two protestors died in clashes with the police. One young man, 23-year-old Sujan Raut, reportedly died after being struck in the chest by a police baton. Another young man, Birendra Shah, also died but the reasons are still unclear. Police have claimed that they only fired into the air and deployed teargas.
Desperation is growing among the young and unemployed. Nepalis of working age are seeking any means to leave the country and find some work abroad. Sometimes that means joining the Russians to fight Ukraine. Unemployment has not abated and frustration is rising. This is a powder keg just waiting to blow. The longer politicians spend playing their games of musical chairs to get yet another shot at the prime minister’s chair, the bigger the explosion will be when it comes. And believe me, it will come.
Happy New Year
Apologies for ending on a depressing note but that is how things stand. That’s about it for this week’s round-up. I know I didn’t get to everything but this newsletter is going to be long enough as it is, so here is where I stop.
Happy New Year! I leave you with a poem by Victoria Chang.
The deep dive: Kantipur vs Rabi Lamichhane
Dramatis personae:
Rabi Lamichhane, television presenter turned politician, chief of the newly minted Rastriya Swatantra Party
Kantipur Publications, the most widely read newspaper in the country, also the most powerful in terms of influence
Scene: A political rally in Pokhara
It all started with a corn cob. It was Saturday, December 23, and Rabi Lamichhane, chair of the Rastriya Swatantra Party, was giving a speech at Pokhara’s Amar Singh Chowk. He was partway through the speech when a corn cob came flying out of the crowd, launched at Lamichhane by one Santosh Ranabhat. The corn cob didn’t hit Lamichhane but he picked it up and turned it into a prop. To his credit, asked his supporters in the crowd to refrain from retaliating against Ranabhat and pledged to take the cob as a sign of the public’s dissatisfaction with poor governance.
That would’ve been that if not for a news article that appeared in Kantipur just a few minutes later. In the article, Kantipur reported that Ranabhat had attacked Lamichhane right after the latter began speaking about cooperatives. Kantipur further said that Ranabhat was a member of the Suryadarshani Cooperative, a financial institution, whose owner had embezzled funds, leaving hundreds of cooperative members in the lurch. The report said that the owner, GB Rai, had illegally transferred money from the cooperative to found the Galaxy 4K television network, of which Lamichhane was once the managing director. The report stated that Lamichhane himself had also taken loans from the cooperative to invest in in Galaxy 4K. This report was barely 150 words long and had no byline. Yet, it leveled serious accusations of illegal activities against Lamichhane, implicating him alongside GB Rai.
Naturally, Lamichhane took umbrage at this report. In a long post on social media, Lamichhane called out Kantipur for making large claims without adequate evidence. He posted a video of him on the phone with the police in Pokhara who reported that they were still looking into the attacker’s background and that his affiliation with the Suryadarshani Cooperative was “fake news”. The police also said that no media house or journalist had reached out to them yet. Lamichhane took this as clear evidence that Kantipur had concocted its news report to tie him to GB Rai’s embezzlement and defame him.
It turns out that Lamichhane was right to call out Kantipur as that original news report surreptitiously had a clarification appended to it. The clarification says that Ranabhat attacked Lamichhane well before the latter began talking about cooperatives and that there is no evidence that Ranabhat was affiliated with any cooperative. Prevalent journalistic practice is to edit the text itself and add a clarification to state clearly what the original text was and what it was changed to. But Kantipur has left the original text as it is, with just bold highlights and an asterisk. The clarification is at the very end.
However, it turned out that that short report was only a teaser of things to come. On Monday, Kantipur published a front page report under the headline, ‘ग्यालेक्सी टीभीका सञ्चालकले हिनामिना गरे १९ हजार पोखरेलीको डेढ अर्ब बचत’ (Owner of Galaxy tv embezzled the savings of 19,000 Pokhara residents). This much longer article goes into great detail about how GB Rai, the founder and owner of Galaxy 4K television and also the founder of Suryadarshani Cooperative, embezzled millions of rupees from the cooperative to invest in his television network. Thousands of creditors had complained to Pokhara Metropolitan City that the cooperative was no longer functional and they were afraid that the operators had escaped with their savings. The city then formed an investigative committee that presented an investigative report to the city. According to the report, Rai and his associates embezzled Rs 1,355,300,000 by taking ‘advances’ from the cooperative and settling these advances by setting up fake accounts. Although Rai had concocted papers showing that the advance amounts had been deposited back into the cooperative, no funds were actually deposited, according to Kantipur. The report also states that an internal loan of Rs 10 million was given out to Rabi Lamichhane and settled similarly by setting up a fake account.
According to Nepali law, it is illegal for cooperatives to give out loans to any for-profit companies and to individuals who are not members of the cooperative. When Kantipur spoke to Lamichhane, he stated that he had no dealings at all with Suryadarshani Cooperative. So if he had taken out a loan from the cooperative, it would’ve been illegal. Lamichhane further said that if a loan had been issued in his name, he had no knowledge of it and that his citizenship document could have been misused by someone else.
Let’s recap a bit here so no one is lost. GB Rai was the founder of Galaxy 4K Television and also the founder of Suryadarshani Cooperative, a financial institution that collects savings from its members and lends money out to those very members. Rabi Lamichhane was once the managing director of Galaxy 4K and a close associate of Rai. He quit Galaxy 4K to pursue politics and founded the Rastriya Swatantra Party. Rai and Lamichhane have both been implicated in the embezzlement of funds from Suryadarshani Cooperative to invest in Galaxy 4K. Or so Kantipur says.
This report prompted a lot of criticism, not just of Lamichhane but also of Kantipur. The blog mysansar outlines several shortcomings in the Kantipur report. The primary issue is that even though the majority of allegations concern GB Rai, the report has turned Lamichhane into something of a co-conspirator without adequate evidence. The sole document reproduced in the report is a ledger of sorts that simply mentions that an internal loan taken in the name of Rabi Lamichhane has been settled. There is no other evidence that Lamichhane himself was involved in taking the loan, investing the funds into Galaxy 4K, or fraudulently settling the account. All allegations against Lamichhane have been reproduced without any supporting evidence. When making serious allegations of embezzlement, isn’t it incumbent upon the newspaper to produce proof?
If only that was where things stood. On Tuesday, Kantipur released yet another front-page report implicating Lamichhane in the embezzlement of funds from another cooperated owned by GB Rai, Sahara Cooperative. The report alleges that Rs 117,100,000 was embezzled from Sahara Cooperative and used to purchase shares in Gorkha Media Pvt. Ltd, the parent company owned by Rai that operates Galaxy 4K Television. At that time, Rai was chairman and Lamichhane was managing director of Galaxy 4K. According to documents presented by Kantipur, Rai owned 85% of the company while Lamichhane owned 15%.
Once again, the primary accused in the report is GB Rai with Lamichhane’s name only being mentioned as a shareholder. No evidence is presented that Lamichhane was involved in the embezzlement of funds from Sahara Cooperative or even was aware of what was happening at the time. The bulk of the report implicates Rai but Lamichhane is mentioned in the sub-head and his photo is displayed prominently on the front page.
Lamichhane duly issued his clarification via social media. He states that Kantipur attempted to insinuate that he remains a shareholder of Galaxy 4K by posting an old shareholder certificate. Lamichhane says that his 15% shares were given to him for no investment as a reward for his work and that when he left Galaxy 4K, he transferred those shares legally. Lamichhane provided a photo of the new share certificate that shows that he does not hold any more shares in Galaxy 4K. However, Lamichhane pleads ignorance and says that he was not aware of what was happening at the company while he was there. If Rai was embezzling money then Lamichhane was in the dark, he says. He also claims that it is not right to keep pulling him into issues regarding a company that he has already left.
That might be Lamichhane’s defense but it does not excuse him from responsibility. Even if he has left the company, he will still be partly responsible for any illegal activities that might have taken place at the company while he was there. Lamichhane cannot plead ignorance of the law and if it turns out that Galaxy 4K was involved in illegal activities then Lamichhane, as managing director at the time, will also be held responsible.
On Wednesday, another front-page report on GB Rai but this time, no mention of Lamichhane. But if you thought that Kantipur was letting go of Lamichhane, you’d be mistaken. Thursday brought yet another front-page report and once again, Lamichhane was back in the crosshairs. The report was titled ‘सहकारी घोटालामा रवि लामिछानेको प्रत्यक्ष संलग्नता, बुटवलको सहकारीबाट करोड उठाएर ग्यालेक्सी टीभीमा सेयर’ (Ravi Lamichhane directly involved in the cooperative scam, shares in Galaxy TV by raising crores from Butwal cooperative). The report presents a blurry screenshot of a deposit voucher from Global IME Bank which states that Rs 1 crore (10 million) was transferred from Supreme Savings and Cooperative Ltd, also owned by GB Rai, into the account of Gorkha Media Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Galaxy 4K. The voucher lists Rabi Lamichhane and Roshani Gurung as the depositors. This is the only evidence provided. The rest of the report simply tries to substantiate why Lamichhane can be implicated in the dealings, based solely on the few documents that Kantipur has provided.
In response, Lamichhane has said that for him to have transferred funds from Supreme Savings and Cooperative to a Gorkha Media account, he would’ve had to have an account at the said cooperative. He states that he has never held any account at Supreme Savings. Furthermore, he states that Kantipur continues to smear him based on insufficient evidence. The deposit slip only has his name on it. Anyone could’ve written his name, is Lamichhane’s argument. There’s no signature or any other supporting evidence that Lamichhane himself was responsible for the transfer. Banks ask for identification documents, generally a citizenship card, which they keep on file for any deposits over Rs 1 million. So if Lamichhane conducted the deposit, as implicated by his name on the deposit voucher, shouldn’t the bank have his documents on file?
This is where we are at the moment. Kantipur and Lamichhane have traded barbs but both sides do not appear to have enough evidence. Kantipur’s numerous reports have not established that Lamichhane has done anything illegal. They’ve merely insinuated his involvement or collaboration in illegal activities conducted by his one-time partner GB Rai. For a paper of record to print such allegations, that too numerous times on the front page, without solid irrefutable evidence is bad journalism. It opens them up to legal action and also actively harms Lamichhane’s reputation. For Lamichhane’s part, he too hasn’t been able to provide evidence that he is completely in the clear. But in cases like these, the burden of proof is on the accuser. Kantipur cannot sling mud hoping some of it will stick. The report and its associated evidence must be incontrovertible enough to stand in a court of law.
Kantipur and Lamichhane have long been at loggerheads. From carefully reading the reports, it does appear that Kantipur has an agenda and is attempting to set a narrative. The goal does not seem to be to haul Lamichhane to court and prosecute him for wrongdoing as there just isn’t enough substance there. The aim, it seems, is to destroy his credibility, perhaps out of vindictiveness given just how much Lamichhane has publicly challenged Kantipur. The very powerful people at Kantipur, including the publisher, the directors, and the chief editor, are clearly not happy with Lamichhane for airing their dirty laundry back in February.
This is not to say that Lamichhane is clean. There are certainly skeletons in his closet. His rise through the media and his transformation into a politician have not been without controversy. But how Kantipur has been hounding him is not the way to expose his wrongdoings. It only hurts real journalism when owners and editors attempt to use journalists for their own vendetta. The public at large might not read Kantipur as critically as we in the media fraternity do. They will believe the accusations because it’s printed in Kantipur. But if this is the way things are going to go, we will be worse off for it.
That’s all for this week. I will be back next Friday, in your emails, for the next edition of Off the Record.
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