India and Pakistan are twins separated at birth. Tensions between them have been at a hair trigger ever since independence and has erupted into full scale conflict at least four times in the past 80 years.
The 22 April terrorist attack in Kashmir that killed 25 Indian tourists and a Nepali citizen, threatens to escalate tension between the two nuclear-armed nations. India has squarely blamed Pakistan for the attacks, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given his military “operational freedom” to respond. Pakistan has said it has credible intelligence of an Indian military strike and its officials have promised a “full spectrum” response — a code for a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/thinking-the-thinkable">nuclear retaliation</a>.
For Nepal, the killing of its national in the Pahalgam attack comes as another stark reminder that in conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq, from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/how-to-agree-an-armistice-in-ukraine">Ukraine</a> to Israel, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/10-nepalis-from-one-town-fighting-in-ukraine">Nepalis are getting caught in the crossfire</a>. The last time full-scale fighting broke out between <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/peacemongers-at-india-pakistan-border">India and Pakistan</a> on Kargil in 1999, at least 22<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/india-s-trial-by-fire-for-soldiers-from-nepal?%27%5C%22="> Nepalis fighting for the Indian Army</a> were killed in action.
Three of Nepal’s immediate neighbours (China, India, Pakistan) have nuclear weapons, and they do not have good relations. With China supplying weapons, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/war-and-warming">missile technology</a> and other support to Pakistan, this triangular friction could set off a regional conflagration.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00573-0" target="_blank">Research at Rutgers University</a> has calculated that even a week-long tactical nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would throw up so much smoke and debris into the atmosphere that it would block out the sun for years, and lead to a collapse of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/grow-nourish-sustain-together-world-food-day">global food system</a>. This does not take into account the radioactive fallout that prevailing winds would blow up to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lives-on-the-line-in-the-himalaya">the Himalaya</a>, contaminating glaciers that are the sources of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/saving-what-is-left-of-himalayan-rivers">Asia’s main rivers</a>.
The impact of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">climate breakdown </a>on High Asia was already ringing alarm bells about its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/himalayan-icecap-melting-faster-than-thought">shrinking ice cap</a> reducing the dry season flow of water downstream. Water was going to be the next strategic commodity, geopolitical experts warned, and the next wars in Asia would be over water.
That water war is already happening. India retaliated to the Kashmir attack by suspending the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/world/asia/india-pakistan-indus-waters-treaty.html" target="_blank">Indus Waters Treaty</a> of 1960 mediated by the World Bank that has withstood at least three wars between India and Pakistan. The treaty gives India control over the three eastern tributaries of the Indus (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beas_River" target="_blank">Beas</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_River" target="_blank">Ravi</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutlej" target="_blank">Sutlej</a>), while Pakistan got water from the Indus and two of its western tributaries (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_River" target="_blank">Indus</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenab_River" target="_blank">Chenab</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jhelum_River" target="_blank">Jhelum</a>.
Pakistan was assured of 70% of the annual flow, and India could use a reasonable amount of water for<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15231"> irrigation and hydropower</a>. &nbsp;Within days of its threat, India stopped water flowing down to Pakistan from the Chenab river and is reportedly preparing to do the same on the Jhelum.
The sabre-rattling has reached a crescendo. Besides threats and counter-threats there are also symbolic drills, with the Indian Air Force practicing landing on an expressway in Uttar Pradesh by its Rafale, Su-30 and Jaguar fighter jets to demonstrate ‘operational readiness’. In response Pakistan test-fired its Abdali ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead and has a range of 450km.&nbsp;
The danger is that with ultra-nationalist rhetoric and the beating the war drums by both sides, India’s government and Pakistan’s military may have to ‘do something’ to appease domestic public opinion. But any tactical strike, an artillery exchange, or territorial incursion could quickly escalate out of control.
Expecting an Indian retaliation for the Pahalgam killings, Pakistan is using<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/interfaith-collaboration-for-nuclear-disarmament"> nuclear deterrence </a>and warning of “catastrophic consequences”. The two neighbours came close to a nuclear exchange in 2019 after an attack on the Indian military in Kashmir, and prompt international intervention led by the United States cooled tensions.&nbsp;
This time, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trump-shock-wave-hits-nepal">Trump administration</a> is too distracted and not as engaged. Pakistan has denied it was responsible for the terrorist attack and called on Washington to stop a possible Indian retaliation. India and Pakistan have stopped overflights by each other’s airlines, and some international carriers have even stopped flying over Pakistan fearing an air war.
Washington, Beijing, the UN and the EU have all urged restraint. Iran, which has good relations with both India and Pakistan has sent its foreign minister to urge both countries not to go into a tit-for-tat war. Iran has its own nuclear flashpoint to worry about with tensions in Israel, &nbsp;Yemen and Syria.
India and Pakistan both share similar problems of joblessness, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/why-nepal-s-poverty-rate-is-stuck">poverty </a>and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/climate-change-new-threat-to-nepal-s-rhinos">environmental threats</a>. Neither side needs the threat of a senseless war, and we in the neighbourhood do not need it either.&nbsp;
Kunda Dixit
This Editorial is brought to you by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/" target="_blank">Nepali Times</a>, in collaboration with <a href="https://inpsjapan.com/en/" target="_blank">INPS Japan</a> and <a href="https://sgi-peace.org/" target="_blank">Soka Gakkai International</a>, in consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

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Editorial

Nukes in the neighbourhood

The Canadian media philosopher <a href="https://www.marshallmcluhan.com/biography/">Marshall McLuhan</a> was way ahead of his time in foreseeing how <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/addressing-nepals-digital-divide">the digital age </a>would transform the public sphere. The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-message-is-the-medium-z5w3ekk2">medium was indeed the message</a>, and today the messaging app is the message.
On <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/days/press-freedom">World Press Freedom Day</a> on Saturday 3 May, journalists must remind ourselves that it is not only our freedom that needs to be protected. Freedom of press guarantees the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/20-years-ago-this-week/media-in-crisis">public’s right to know</a>, journalists are just defending the freedom of their fellow-citizens.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/no-freedom-after-expression">Democracy and freedom of expression</a>, by definition, go hand-in-hand. There can be no democracy without participation, and there is no participation without open communication.&nbsp;
But today, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/populism-vs-pluralism">democracy is in retreat across the world</a>, a trend that has gone hand-in-hand and has been abetted by the uncontrolled spread of social media platforms.&nbsp;
The world’s two most populous countries to Nepal’s north and south now have converging political systems and media landscapes. China’s phenomenal economic progress seems to have convinced its admirers that democracy and development are antithetical. &nbsp;
Over the past century, the United States demonstrated that a free press and the free market were two sides of the same coin — open society needed to be defended to ensure accountability and economic growth. The First Amendment to the US Constitution laid down that the legislature should make no laws that infringed on complete <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/jail-the-messenger">freedom of expression</a>.
Yet, the United States is proof now of how too much freedom can kill freedom. We now know that the liberty to say anything can mean we end up saying nothing. There can be so much freedom that the truth can be buried in an avalanche of lies. The free-for-all on the internet is merely an illusion of freedom.
Democracy allows citizens even the freedom to destroy democracy itself. With democracies in decay worldwide, media as the fourth pillar of democracy is turning into a pillar of authoritarianism.
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/democracy-s-discontents">Hyper-local digital media content is so polarised</a> that it paralyses democracy and pierces the armour protecting the free press. Algorithms reinforce and further radicalise entrenched beliefs, muffle public debate, and muzzle journalists.
The truth is then drowned in a cacophony of toxic trolling, hate speech and disinformation. AI has made it possible for deep <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balancing-free-expression-with-fake-news-on-social-media">fake content</a> to be even more potent and pervasive.
Democracy and social networking sites, alas, are not compatible. We have been reluctant to put it so bluntly before because agreeing to social media bans in Nepal (<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rattled-by-criticism-nepal-bans-tiktok">like the government did with TikTok</a>) would mean infringing on constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression. Such control could lead to creeping censorship of digital content by a thin-skinned government.
The age of AI-driven algorithms coincides with democratic reversal globally, and an existential crisis in the mainstream press. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/south-asia-2040-qxr16oup">Journalists are no longer sole gatekeepers</a>, ‘content creators’ and ‘influencers’ now give ‘users’ what they want, not what they need to make informed choices — for example about mitigating climate breakdown.
As a press freedom activist said at a recent gathering: “We do not go to a citizen doctor when we are sick, so why do we need citizen journalists to tell us what is happening?”
Yet publishers and editors are stuck in their old ways, unable or unwilling to adapt to new storytelling styles and multimedia packaging formats. With falling revenue, there is less money for investigative reporting which was already jeopardised by corporate conflict of interest.
The free press must survive so that democracy is made more accountable, and pluralism can <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-populist-party-balenist">prevail over populism</a>. For this, journalism must fight back. Smaller, isolated pockets of independence and professionalism need support to resist. Even practicing independent journalism in this day and age is a form of resistance.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/media-melee-in-the-age-of-ai">AI will embolden techno-fascists</a>, replacing physical death squads with cyber lynch mobs. Governments do not need to censor the media, journalists can be silenced by corporate takeovers and mass trolling. They do not need to kill journalists anymore, they can just let journalism die.
Free speech is no longer about journalism, ‘free speech’ is what is on YouTube or TikTok. Journalism used to be governed by rules about verification, double-checking, about credibility and trust. Posts on X do not have to abide by any of those rules, and the tyranny of the algorithm remakes McLuhan’s global village with tribalism.&nbsp;
Media freedom has ended up killing freedom, as another philosopher of resistance, <a href="https://janisjoplin.com/">Janis Joplin</a>, once sang 60 years ago: “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.”
Kunda Dixit

Messaging is the Message

It is perhaps only when they become a part of the story they are reporting that journalists realise just what a narrow segment of reality they depict in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/journalists-reflect-on-a-year-of-crisis-coverage">coverage of a crisis</a>. This is especially true when foreign correspondents report on a disaster like <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/11-56-25-april-2015-wkc9q2an">the earthquake that hit Nepal on 25 April 2015</a>.&nbsp; For the first seven days, as <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/photos-nepal-earthquake-2015,2207">videos and photographs of a devastated city</a> were broadcast around the world on TV and the internet, my family got frantic calls from friends and relatives. They seemed surprised that we were still alive, that our house was intact, we had food and water, or that they could even make that phone call. &nbsp; Like everyone else, they had seen images of Kathmandu Valley’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-with-the-old-in-nepal">historic monuments</a> reduced to rubble, piles of bricks where people’s homes used to be, and photographs taken from <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Insurance,361">rescue helicopters </a>of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/earthquake-vacates-villages-in-nepal">destroyed villages</a> clinging precariously to steep mountainsides. These apocalyptic scenes had convinced them that nothing was left. Yet 80% of the houses in Kathmandu Valley were intact. Even in the historic heart of the city, the main temples and palaces were still there. The only thing different in most neighbourhoods after the earthquake was that there weren’t the usual traffic jams. In fact the first foreign correspondents to parachute in the next morning were surprised on the drive into the city that they didn’t spot a single ruined building. Had they flown into the wrong hotspot by mistake? Many of us in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/media-matters">the media</a> are accused of distortion by being selective in what we choose to report. Some foreign correspondents are careful not to fall into that trap -- trying instead to break away from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/how-does-the-nepali-media-cover-rape?fb_comment_id=2170690649622056_2288366001187853">stereotypical coverage</a> and catch a deeper understanding of what is really happening beneath the surface, or away from the spotlight. Still, there is a formula for news and it’s hard to file a story that doesn’t fit it. Which is why after every disaster it is, quite literally, t<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/deadly-Jure-landslide-presaged-earthquake-delayed-rehabilitation,2486">he same old story</a>. The international media arrives in herds and hunts in packs. Everything has to conform to a preordained script: you parachute in and immediately find good visuals of ‘utter devastation’; recruit an English-speaking local who does not need subtitling; trail <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/it-better-be-better-next-time">the rescue teams </a>with sniffer dogs you flew in with. Then it’s back to the hotel bar to swap stories of derring-do, before calling the desk to plan tomorrow’s story of slow government response, and the day after tomorrow’s account of yet another survivor pulled out alive. After that, get a ride in a rescue helicopter for the out-of-town visual of utter devastation in a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/from-nowhere-to-nowhere">remote mountain village</a>. To my knowledge no foreign correspondent went around shooting streets in which all the buildings were still standing. They did not have time to look at farmers <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10241">harvesting potatoes</a> by the roadside as they rushed to pan across more historic ruins. Few ever reported that only 14 of Nepal’s 75 districts were affected.&nbsp; No-one found it extraordinary or newsworthy that the phones were working, that they could tweet even from the hinterland, or that Kathmandu got back electricity in three days. Such bits of information didn’t fit the script.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250425040416_33825cb2cbfd900de54a5df2188747755745c613c67c29968ca8f4093bfc6a33.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250425040416_33825cb2cbfd900de54a5df2188747755745c613c67c29968ca8f4093bfc6a33" data-rendition-name="original" width="1058" height="528" loading="lazy" alt="Disaster journalism"> </figure>  TV crews from the BBC, Al-Jazeera and others had pitched their tents (with their own Honda generators) next to each other in Kathmandu’s Darbar Square, to frame the ruins of the Hanuman Dhoka palace as the backdrop to invited talking heads. No wonder TV news programs are called ‘shows’. One interviewee was asked if he could dim the lights for a Skype interview to make it look like things were really dark in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/rebuilding-better-than-before">post-earthquake Kathmandu</a>. A scheduled live stand-up with a local journalist by CNN’s Anderson Cooper was cancelled at 4am local time because they were rioting in Baltimore. Such <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/Between-the-lines/nepali-journalists-reported-on-disaster-with-compassion,500">disaster reporting</a> distorts the scale of destruction, either exaggerating the damage or not highlighting the areas where things are much worse. Because competing TV channels are in the same helicopter, there is a temptation to over-dramatise, embellish and overstate. And countries like Nepal better have their disasters on a slow news day in North America. Soon, it was time to leave and travel to another <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/past-disasters-foretold">disaster zone</a>. Many international reporters had left by the time the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/after-the-aftershocks-the-survivors,3006">aftershock hit on 12 May</a>, destroying homes already weakened by the main quake. The media distorts reality by disproportionate coverage. Facts do not add up to the truth when we are selective in choosing what to report. Facts, in fact, can lie. Similarly, when the scale of the disaster is too big to comprehend the screen is just not wide enough to show the immensity of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/five-years-after-avalanche-langtang-is-locked-down">an avalanche</a> that obliterates a village of 500 inhabitants, like it did in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/langtang-after-10-years">Langtang</a>.&nbsp; The challenge now is to keep the international spotlight on Nepal as the country rebuilds. But the media pack has left, and with it the headlines that keep the crisis alive. Already, donations for relief and rehabilitation have started tapering off. Kunda Dixit Reprinted from BBC Academy on 26 May 2015. For a longer version of this piece, go to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fcollegeofjournalism%2Fentries%2Fae5fd09c-c333-48b5-9b35-06238d7f9e71">BBC Academy Blogs</a>.

Disaster Journalism

A high-level meeting between the energy secretaries of Nepal and India last month agreed to build six high-voltage cross-border transmission lines to facilitate the export of up to 18,000MW of electricity by 2035. The government’s recently-approved Energy Development Roadmap and Action Plan envisages exporting 15,000MW to India and Bangladesh within the decade, and generating 28,500MW by 2035. At present Nepal has agreements to export 941MW to India and 40MW to Bangladesh. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/blueprint-for-nepal-india-electricity-trade">Exports to India </a>happen only during <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/monsoon-deluge-in-nepal">the monsoon </a>when there is <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/an-energy-windfall-for-nepal">surplus energy</a>, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/more-than-half-of-nepal-s-electricity-imported-from-india">Nepal imports power</a> during the dry season. This month, Nepal is generating only one-third of its installed capacity of 3,400MW because of low river flows.&nbsp; Generation will exceed 4,000MW by year-end, and another 3,906MW of projects are under construction with more projects worth 3,899MW in the pipeline after <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10871">power purchase agreements</a>.&nbsp; That Nepal is now capable of generating and exporting <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-precious-electricity-going-waste">surplus electricity</a> has been seen as a significant development for a country that was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-they-kept-nepal-in-the-dark-ages">plagued by power cuts</a> for up to 18 hours daily until just eight years ago.&nbsp; In the past 20 years, many energy strategies were formed to power growth through exports. As regional countries look for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/right-climate-for-nepal-s-energy-transition">clean energy to meet climate targets</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-first-hydropower-from-a-glacial-lake">Nepal’s hydropower</a> could be in high demand. Electricity exports can also help offset the country’s huge <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">trade deficit</a> with India. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/balance-of-power">Investment</a>, or the lack of it, stands as the biggest hurdle in achieving Nepal’s ambitious energy export targets. Generating 28,500MW of electricity would cost Nepal $46.5 billion — four times the annual budget. Capital investment could come from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/home-is-where-the-heart-is-yqkvf5vx">overseas Nepalis</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/sacking-of-nea-chief-exposes-cronyism">the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)</a>, the private sector or from<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/green-bond-option-for-climate-finance"> ‘green bonds’</a>. But even if investment is forthcoming, there is no guarantee that the energy will find a market at an acceptable price. India has increased its quota every year to allow the NEA to sell 941MW of electricity produced by 28 projects under the competitive market and medium-term power sales agreements. It does not buy power from projects with Chinese involvement, and has a strategic monopsony status.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025032710034_ac849c5d570b132afcdb2e4ba432a423dc40bb80ad9f900e0d1a26eed1a5dbec.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="2025032710034_ac849c5d570b132afcdb2e4ba432a423dc40bb80ad9f900e0d1a26eed1a5dbec" data-rendition-name="original" width="997" height="784" loading="lazy" alt="Hydrocarbon to hydropower NT"> </figure>  The country exported more electricity than it imported for the first time in 2023/24 fiscal year, selling electricity worth Rs17.06 billion to India. But this is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the country’s total trade deficit. Nepal imported goods worth Rs1.59 trillion, while exports were only Rs152 billion in the same fiscal year. The amount earned from exporting electricity was just 1.2% of Nepal’s trade deficit. While this could increase in future, it will not go up by much. As it stands, Nepal buys electricity from India at almost the same rate as it sells. Indian state-owned companies are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/decentralising-hydro-power">developing hydropower projects</a> with a combined capacity of 8,000MW, mostly on the Arun basin. The agreements give 21.9% of the electricity from these plants for free for 25 years before they revert to Nepal. Hydropower experts have long argued that Nepal should increase domestic consumption for value added manufacturing rather than exporting raw power. This means <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/securing-nepal-s-electric-future?%3D">making electricity affordable and accessible</a> for household appliances, transport and industries. To be sure, proactive government policies on tax rebates for electric vehicles have seen remarkable results. Until January of this fiscal year, Nepal imported 6,256 electric four-wheeled vehicles in comparison to 2,662 petroleum ones. Nearly 70% of all EVs sold were from China. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/blueprint-for-a-net-zero-nepal">Blueprint for a net-zero Nepal</a>, Sonia Awale&nbsp; Continuous <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ev-year">increase of EV imports </a>will eventually reduce Nepal’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-energy-policy-in-2023-and-beyond">dependence on India for fossil fuel</a>, which currently makes up 18% of all imports and the largest item. Promoting <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/charging-nepal">electrical appliances </a>and manufacturing them in the country would reduce the increasing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-s-cooking-in-nepal-besides-politics">dependency</a> on LPG, which is heavily subsidised. Only 0.5% of Nepali households use<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/people-power/nepal-turns-on-the-electric-switch"> electric stoves</a>, if 5.6 million households were to use induction stoves for three hours every day, the country would use 825MW of electricity, displacing LPG consumption entirely, also reducing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-doubles-its-carbon-footprint">Nepal’s carbon footprint</a>. But all this requires a better transmission and distribution system in the grid so that they reach the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/life-and-livelihood-in-remote-nepal">remotest areas</a> to double <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/power-to-the-people">electricity consumption</a>. Scaling up fast charging stations for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-journey-to-electric-public-transport">battery-powered transportation</a> would meet the growing demand for EVs. Extending tax rebates to also include large electric buses would reduce <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17315">diesel demand</a>, which has also been growing. Nepal also has to look beyond conventional hydropower to solar-powered <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/pump-water-store-energy">pump storage to generate electricity</a>, which would be cheaper and faster to build. Such schemes would also be less destructive to the ecology of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/geopolitics-of-nepal-s-rivers">the country’s rivers</a>. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-climate-crisis-is-a-water-crisis-in-the-himalaya">The climate crisis is a water crisis</a>, and Nepal must plan for a future in which the Himalayan icecap will be further depleted. Rivers are not just a source of energy but ensure equitable <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-needs-to-plan-for-plenty-and-scarcity-of-water">water supply for irrigation</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/aid-rarely-aids-agriculture-in-nepal">agriculture</a>, and household use. &nbsp; Ramesh Kumar

Hydrocarbon to hydropower

777,593,567. That is the number of confirmed <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-has-no-health-minister-as-covid-19-cases-rise-again">Covid-19 cases</a> worldwide before they stopped being reported last year. The total fatalities were 7,089,976 before WHO declared that it was no longer a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/declare-a-health-emergency">public health emergency</a> of international concern. Covid-19 has tapered off, but it could be a sign of even bigger health crises to come. Alas, governments and people suffer from short-term memory loss.&nbsp; Remember? The world came to a grinding halt: businesses, banks, schools, travel and tourism, sports, restaurants shut down overnight. Millions of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/helping-hands-for-nepali-migrants-in-distress">migrant workers </a>were displaced. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-designates-more-hospitals-for-covid-19-treatment">Hospitals were overwhelmed</a> and there were mass burials. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/kathmandu-locks-down-again">Lockdowns</a> to contain the virus inflicted more suffering.&nbsp; Read also:<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/lockdown-5-utlzqtvs"> Lockdown+5</a>, Sonia Awale What worked was the world coming together to develop and distribute <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-begins-covid-19-vaccination-drive">vaccines</a>. It significantly reduced the number of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/three-years-of-living-dangerously">deaths worldwide</a>, especially among the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/protecting-nepal-s-elderly-from-covid-19-c6e60vp6">elderly</a>, children and people with comorbidities.&nbsp; Not only have some governments <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/lessons-not-learnt-homework-not-done">not learnt their lessons</a>, but they <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/why-is-there-vaccine-hesitancy-in-nepal">actively refuse to admit that vaccines were our last line of defence</a>. In his <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/trump-s-second-coming">second term in office</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trump-shock-wave-hits-nepal">Donald Trump </a>picked Robert Kennedy Jr, an avid anti-vaxxer, as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The United States has recorded the first measles deaths in 10 years. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/trump-s-first-month">Trump caused enough harm in his first term</a> when he repeatedly downplayed the severity of the pandemic, infamously claiming that hydroxychloroquine (and even bleach) cured Covid-19, and blatantly refused to mask up. The United States recorded 103,436,829 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 1,219,038 deaths, one-sixth of all fatalities worldwide. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/life-time/to-vax-or-not-to-vax">Vaccine deniers</a> are in the same cult as climate deniers, and scientific evidence will not sway them. Trump has pulled the US out of WHO and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/how-usaid-cut-affects-nepal">funding cuts at USAID</a> threaten to undermine decades of progress in preventing vaccine-preventable infections, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/newborn-deaths-and-a-vision-for-a-post-pandemic-nepal">maternal and child health</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/disastrous-preparedness">emergency preparedness</a>, and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/support-for-reproductive-health-of-nepali-women">reproductive health</a> in countries like Nepal.&nbsp; Many of these grants were also going into research and surveillance which played a big part in combatting the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-real-cost-of-nepal-s-second-wave"> Covid-19 pandemic</a>, and will be crucial as we monitor and control new emerging threats like the H5N1 bird flu, which has now spread in neighbouring India.&nbsp; The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned on Tuesday that the continued spread of avian influenza across the world was not just a serious <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/poor-health-makes-nepalis-poorer">threat to public health</a> but also ‘an unprecedented <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/food-security-is-national-security">food security </a>risk’ as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/are-you-sick-of-chicken">poultry farms </a>are forced to cull millions of chicken. The Covid pandemic improved <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/is-free-health-care-possible-in-nepal">Nepal’s healthcare</a> capacity with diagnostics, laboratory infrastructure, sequencing and pathogen genomics, and emergency care.&nbsp; But, wait, what happened to all those <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/donated-ventilators-gather-dust-in-nepal">ventilators and oxygenators</a>? Where are the HCUs and Hi-ICUs? Plans to decentralise the infectious diseases hospital away from Teku? Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lessons-not-learned-from-the-pandemic">Lessons not learned from the pandemic</a>, Dhurba Basnet While the priority is human health, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/life-lesson-from-the-pandemic">lesson from Covid-19</a> is that we have to also be mindful of animal health. Infections spread from wildlife to livestock factory farms and cross the species divide because of anthropogenic activities. We must therefore apply a ‘one health approach’ which addresses the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/documenting-the-anthropocene">interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health</a>. At the same time, Nepal must also buttress its drive towards ensuring universal health care. With greater and faster connectivity, the world is a global village more than ever before. No country is an island. No country, even those with vast resources, can build barriers to stop infections that emerge from the other side of the planet. That is the lesson from the Covid-19 pandemic that we ignore at our own peril.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250323030332_bcfd3df1e6e6053fc3bb3983cd3ac47442dad11eed7aa5a52d7df623617f0a49.jpg" data-media-id="editor_28" data-image-id="20250323030332_bcfd3df1e6e6053fc3bb3983cd3ac47442dad11eed7aa5a52d7df623617f0a49" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="568" loading="lazy" alt="When denial goes viral"> </figure>  Another lesson is that the world has to come together to defeat global crises: whether it is another pandemic, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">climate breakdown</a> or <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/pandemic-of-poverty">poverty</a>. The resources that industrialised countries, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/india-china-rail-race">China and India</a> invested to rapidly develop vaccines against Covid-19, and multilateral mechanisms like GAVI that ensured their just distribution to the poorest and remotest regions worked well.&nbsp; At a time when such <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/global-crisis-local-solutions">global action</a> is needed more than ever before, we see unilateralism and isolationist ultra-nationalism taking root in the world’s most powerful nation.&nbsp; Here in Nepal, we are now better prepared. We can even regard Covid-19 as a rehearsal for future transboundary <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/emergency-in-nepals-emergency-rooms">health emergencies</a>. It built the capacity of our <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/3rd-covid-wave-infects-nepal-s-frontliners">doctors, nurses and paramedics</a>, and helped upgrade infrastructure outside<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/cost-of-living-in-a-big-city"> urban centres</a>.&nbsp; The pandemic and lockdowns increased awareness of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/covid-19-nepal-and-the-hygiene-hypothesis">personal hygiene</a>. Most people are now habituated to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/after-lockdown-we-will-need-masks-more-than-ever">wearing masks</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/covid-19-revives-nepal-s-wash-drive">hand washing</a>, which in turn has reduced the incidence of other <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/dhanvantari/silver-linings-in-the-covid-cloud">pre-existing infections</a> including those caused by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/air-pollution-is-more-dangerous-than-smoking">air pollution</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/too-little-too-much-or-too-polluted">contaminated water</a>.&nbsp; As we keep track of emerging diseases, we must not lose sight of common infections and risk factors that kill many more across the country every year than Covid-19 ever did. Only then, would we have achieved health for all. Sonia Awale

When denial goes viral

A cabinet meeting last week appointed former journalist Sharad Ojha as the chair of the Nepal Insurance Authority, the regulator of the sector. Ojha has no qualifications for the post as required by Nepal’s Insurance Act.&nbsp;
His family ties to Nepali Congress president <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/deuba-5-qh371fm4">Sher Bahadur Deuba</a> has been cited as the reason he got to bypass appointment criteria.
This is just the latest example. Bending the law to appoint <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-crony-communism-exposed">cronies</a> and special interest groups to leadership positions in regulatory bodies has <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/crony-communism">become the norm in Nepal</a>.
Ojha’s predecessor was former Home Secretary Surya Prasad Silwal, who was suspended two months before the end of his term in December after the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ciaa-traps-small-fish-lets-big-ones-go">Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA)</a> filed a corruption case against him in the Special Court. Days after Ojha’s appointment, the court cleared Silwal of corruption charges.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/search?q=corruption+case">Nepal’s corruption carousel</a>
Before Silwal, the Nepal Insurance Authority was led by Chiranjivi Chapagain, a relative of Chandra Dhakal of the IME Group. Chapagain is accused of granting approval to 10 insurance companies under dubious circumstances and favouring <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/ime-insurance">IME Life Insurance’</a>s approval.
Meanwhile, intense lobbying by interest groups with ties to both <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">Prime Minister Oli</a> and PM-in-waiting Deuba allowed Santosh Narayan Shrestha’s appointment as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Board of Nepal (SEBON) in December. Shrestha promptly paid his dues to the groups that put him in office by making preparations to grant them permission to operate stock exchange.
Shrestha was preceded by hotelier Ramesh Kumar Hamal, the recommendation procedure and committee for whom were changed to ensure his appointment.
During his tenure, Hamal hastily amended a law that allowed specific companies to sell premium stocks amid ongoing debates, &nbsp;and another one allowing the operation of stock exchanges with private sector investment instead of public companies. None of this raised eyebrows.
Hamal’s predecessor Bhishma Raj Dhungana, a former Nepal Rastra Bank official, was dismissed as SEBON chair following allegations of irregularities.&nbsp;
Most of these recent individuals were appointed heads of regulatory bodies under PM Oli and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel and probably at their behest.
The appointments at the Nepal Insurance Authority and SEBON reflect a blatant disregard for the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/federalism-rule-of-law-and-the-judiciary">rule of law</a>. Such practice is also rampant in the cooperatives and real estate sectors, where <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-risks-being-blacklisted-on-money-laundering">illegal financial dealings</a> and bad faith business is modus operandi.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Deepak Khadka, also a hydropower entrepreneur, is set on ousting <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/from-the-nepali-press/more-than-half-of-nepal-s-electricity-imported-from-india">Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)</a> managing director <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/kulman-ghising-to-stay-on">Kulman Ghising</a>. He previously ordered the removal of Dudhkoshi Hydropower Project CEO Bimal Gurung for criticising him on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/no-comment">social media</a>.&nbsp;
The minister has a major conflict of interest because of his involvement in private energy sector, and is pressuring parliamentary committees and regulatory bodies to amend the law to allow the sale of 50% of the shares of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/missing-pieces-of-the-hydropower-jigsaw">hydropower projects </a>during the so-called 'lock-in period', which prevents the sale of promoter shares.
Now, lobbyists have set their sights on the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). Maha Prasad Adhikari’s tenure ends in April, and the same groups behind the appointment of the chiefs of regulatory bodies like SEBON and Nepal Insurance Authority are going door to door of governing coalition leaders to have their candidate appointed.&nbsp;
The book Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson—co-winners of last year’s Nobel Prize for Economics with economist Simon Johnson—describes how public institutions are misused, weakened, and pushed toward failure by those with access to power.
Regulatory bodies are crucial to maintaining fair competition and ethical market practices. They exist to serve Nepal’s public. However, they are being deliberately undermined by special interest groups paying off authorities for plum positions that will enrich them and their political patrons. &nbsp;
The government ordered the Department of Money Laundering to ‘wait’ as the body sought permission to take action against Ajeya Sumargi for illicit dealing.
It was thus unsurprising that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Nepal on its grey list in February for failing to take effective and result-oriented action to prevent money laundering.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/black-white-and-grey">Black, white and grey</a>, Ramesh Kumar
The international community has raised a red flag against malgovernance, political interference, conflicts of interest, and impunity. The world is watching, but Nepal’s politico-corporate interests are too deep in greed to care.
Ramesh Kumar

Public-Private Collusion

Negotiations to end the controversy over a project to build a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/business/ropeways-connecting-nepal,1749">cable car</a> to the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-power-and-pull-of-pathibhara">mountaintop shrine of Mukkumlung/Pathibhara</a> in Taplejung have stalled.
The 2.7km project is set to go from Phungling up to a peak sacred to the Yakthung (Limbu) faith and its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/eastern-nepal-s-mundum-landscape">Mundum culture</a>, as well as to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-party-reincarnating-hindu-monarchy">Hindus</a>.
The $22 million investment is from entrepreneur Chandra Dhakal’s IME Group, which says the cable car will <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential">promote tourism</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/staying-in-nepal-to-create-jobs">create jobs</a> and boost the local economy by enabling more pilgrims to visit.&nbsp;
A section of the Limbu community is intensely opposed to the project for its impact on the fragile ecology of the 3,800m mountain as well as defiling the cultural and spiritual significance of Mukkumlung.&nbsp;
The cable car project has polarised opinion not just in Taplejung, where there have been violent scuffles between protesters and police, but the global Nepali public sphere. It has also shown the ineptitude of Nepal’s leaders in failing to balance development with environmental and socio-cultural sensitivities.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/letter-from-sikles">Letter from Sikles</a>, Kunda Dixit&nbsp;
The row is just the latest example of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/wildfire-season-starts-early-in-nepal">desecration of nature </a>and culture in the name of ‘development’ such as unnecessary airports and roads, ill-conceived viewtowers, expressway alignments, or crushers mining river beds.&nbsp;
Mukkumlung/Pathibhara also has an ethnic identity dimension that has historically been ignored or suppressed.
Thousands of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/suburban-tales/trees-trees">ancient trees</a> had already been cut along the cable car route before the protests even began. The<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/a-nation-built-on-sand"> Initial Environmental Examination (IEE)</a> is shoddy work, similar to the cut-paste job justifying <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/15-points-for-and-against-nijgad-airport">Nijgad airport</a>.
Protests have spread to other parts of eastern Nepal, amidst simmering anger about the failed promise of autonomy through <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/feudal-federalism">federalism</a>. The cable car protests have flared up from the still-smouldering agitation to rename Kosi Province as Kirat Province.
There is a political dimension, with the government backing the cable car and other hydropower projects on indigenous land.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/pathibhara-protests">Pathibhara protests</a>
Opposition figures and local politicians have found it expedient to latch on to the agitation. Clashes have erupted frequently between security forces and the ‘No Cable Car’ protesters. In January police fired at activists in Kafle Pati, the site of the base station, critically injuring two. Kosi Province was shut down for days in protest.
Opponents of the project have argued that the benefit of the cable car will mostly go to the investors and their government backers, while local porters, hotels and small businesses along the trail will lose their jobs.
But the Limbu community is itself divided over the cable car project. Phungling Municipality mayor Amir Maden supports it, arguing that it will lift the local economy. Padam Chenji Mabo, the newly-elected vice chair of Kirat Yakthung Chumlung who supports the project, had black soot smeared on him by activists from the Mukkumlung Conservation Joint Struggle Committee.
The controversy must be familiar to Chandra Dhakal, whose company used political clout to go ahead with the &nbsp;Chandragiri Cable Car in 2016 despite concerns about hasty permits, and turning a government forest into private property.
The IME Group has three other cable car projects across Nepal, and another one is proposed to Kori Peak inside the<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/municipalities-want-to-manage-annapurna"> Annapurna Conservation Area</a>. The National Planning Commission this month gave ‘national priority project’ status to the project despite a Supreme Court interim order to halt it.&nbsp;
The government has pushed through legislation to blunt strict laws about infrastructure and private sector projects inside protected areas. This threatens to undo decades of progress in conservation that has doubled Nepal’s forest cover to 46% of area in 30 years.
Despite speeches at international climate summits, politicians are allowing cronies to unleash ‘development’. Those like us who raise questions about this trend are labelled ‘anti-development’ or ‘dollar-chasers’.&nbsp;
Our understanding of development must go beyond cable cars on sacred sites or hotels and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/missing-pieces-of-the-hydropower-jigsaw">hydropower projects</a> in protected areas. Progress does not have to come at the cost of environmental and cultural harm. Is another cable car the priority for Taplejung, or the development of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/what-sustainable-tourism-means-in-practice">sustainable tourism</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-organic-uncle-of-chitwan">organic agriculture</a> and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17290">education</a>? Which will do most good?
One model could be the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/going-global-to-retain-local-talent">IT Academy</a> in Taplejung that this newspaper wrote about last year which is training and retaining local software engineers to slow <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/brain-gain-into-brain-drain">brain drain</a> by providing online jobs. Rural Nepal needs more investments in projects like these that offer solutions, not create more problems.&nbsp;
The government has halted construction of the Pathibhara cable car project for now, and invited activists to resume negotiations.&nbsp;
That is a positive step, but should have been done even before the project got underway.
Shristi Karki&nbsp;

Progress and/or Preservation

For South Asia, 2024 was an eventful year. A <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/returning-to-the-cradle-of-democracy">pro-democracy</a> student uprising in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/people-power-removes-bangladesh-leader">Bangladesh ousted Sheikh Hasina </a>who took refuge in India. Sri Lankans voted in President Anura Dissanayake from a party that once waged a Marxist insurgency. &nbsp; In India, voters withheld whole-hearted support for the BJP’s divisive <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/religiously-following-politics">religious extremism</a>. But the defeat of the AAP in Delhi this month showed that the ruling party will go to length to influence <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/what-goes-on-in-nepal-s-elections">elections</a>. Pakistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives also had elections last year. And in Nepal, the two biggest parties, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-government-changes-again">Nepali Congress (NC) and the UML</a> ousted the Maoists and formed their own coalition government, appointing K P Oli as the country’s 14th Prime Minister in 15 years. All this is happening against the backdrop of a breakdown in the post-World War II global order, with the rise of populist <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-truth-about-migration">anti-migration climate</a> deniers undermining democracies. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/thinking-the-thinkable">Thinking the thinkable&nbsp;</a> Smaller South Asian nations now risk becoming geo-strategic battlegrounds for regional rivals India and China as they compete to fill the vacuum left by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trumpet-call">America’s retreat</a>. &nbsp; In the Maldives, relations with New Delhi soured after the election in 2024 of Mohamed Muizzu, seen to be pro-China. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/china-s-bri-will-ride-out-the-pandemic">Chinese ‘debt trap diplomacy’</a> is said to have contributed to Sri Lanka’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepals-political-economy">economic collapse</a>. In Nepal, China has openly supported unity among Communist parties, while India and the West tried to split them. The suspension of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/trump-shock-wave-hits-nepal">USAID</a> and MCC may lead to greater Chinese and Indian engagement (read: interference) in Kathmandu’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/civic-appeal-for-stability-and-governance">unstable politics</a>. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-great-game-2nd-half">The Great Game, 2nd Half</a>, Sonia Awale&nbsp; In November the Stockholm-based International IDEA and the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) convened the ‘Democracy in South Asia Outlook Forum’ in Colombo to ponder the direction South Asian democracy might be heading in the next 15 years. Civil society, media, activists and academics brainstormed about four scenarios for 2040: Decline, Continuation, Disciplined Improvement and Transformation. The conclusions have been published in <a href="https://www.idea.int/sites/default/files/2025-02/imagining-democratic-futures-south-asia-foresight-report-2025.pdf">IDEA’s South Asia Democratic Futures report</a>, summarised here: Decline is a scenario in which democratic decay will mean governments and media will be completely under crony-capitalist control by 2040, and censorship will be the norm. AI will determine media content, elections will only reflect the politics of patronage. Irreversible ecological breakdown will exceed the capacity of governments to set right on their own. India-China tensions will spill over into conflict in South Asia.&nbsp; Continuation is business as usual in South Asia. Politics will be increasingly dominated by authoritarians and populists, governments will continue to rely on foreign financing, outmigration will accelerate, pollution will have rendered the region’s urban centres unliveable by 2040.&nbsp; Disciplined Improvement is a slightly better situation in which regional alliances, collaboration, civic engagement, and a new generation of leadership will respond more effectively to catastrophic weather events, mass migration and conflict. The polycrisis will prompt governments to work together by reviving regional cooperation through SAARC. Air quality will be so bad that India and Pakistan will be forced to cooperate and clean up. &nbsp;&nbsp; Transformation envisions South Asia as a centre of democratic progress and innovation by 2040, a ‘solarpunk’ society, where nature, technology, and social harmony coexist. The West’s anti-migration wave will reverse the brain drain, with youth-led action against the climate crisis. Regional cooperation, even rapprochement between India and China will fill the gap left by the declining influence of the West.&nbsp; Which way South Asia will go will depend on the leaders we elect or throw out in the coming decade. Policy reforms and action today will determine where we will be as a region in 2040. South Asia must not allow democracy to be dismantled, and trends in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal offer hope. But India’s gravitational pull, and how it deals with China that will determine the region’s fate.&nbsp; Recent aid cuts and the West’s apathy towards cleansing and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/war-and-warming">conflict in Gaza and Ukraine</a> exposes the erosion of the moral values it says it espouses. Smaller South Asian countries like Nepal are on our own to deal with the crises in democracy, development and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/those-who-stay">climate</a>.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-great-game-2nd-half">The USAID and MCC cuts</a> are a sobering reminder that while India and China may step in, their support will also have strings attached. We have to put our own economic and political house in order, keep neighbours happy, and at arm’s length.&nbsp; Fifteen years is not too far away to determine our collective democratic destiny. Shristi Karki  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025022009024_5b1dea0bd0c07fe7050238b898e5f740bed7f1ab34a62333a47e8d9e775a9c81.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="2025022009024_5b1dea0bd0c07fe7050238b898e5f740bed7f1ab34a62333a47e8d9e775a9c81" data-rendition-name="original" width="1136" height="702" loading="lazy" alt="South Asia democratic report NT"> </figure>

South Asia 2040

There is a lot of moaning and groaning in Nepal about the freezing of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/how-usaid-cut-affects-nepal">USAID programs</a>. While many of the projects are in social services which reach the most <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-marginalised-on-the-margins">marginalised</a>, much of it is also tied aid or money that is ultimately spent in Kathmandu or goes to pay DC-based contracting firms.
Nepal received just about $350 million in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/e75-million-eu-aid-to-nepal-for-covid-19-ckmyfbkq">foreign aid loans</a> and grants in 2024, but inflows from Nepalis abroad was approximately $11 billion in the same year. And that was just through official channels.
In the first six months of this fiscal year, Nepalis sent home Rs763 billion. This was 4.1% higher than the figure for the same period last year, as the number of Nepalis going abroad to work grew much more.
Remittance made up 26.31% of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/soaring-debt">Nepal’s GDP</a> equivalent, from just 1.5% in 1993. The share of remittances to GDP in Nepal is one of the highest in the world — only behind Tajikistan at 38.42%, according to figures complied by One World In data. Nepal ranks 19th in the list of top remittance-receiving countries.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/more-remittance-more-than-remittance-jtf6ohpi">More remittance, more than remittance</a>
One billion people worldwide depend on remittances, and this grew five-fold in the last 20 years regardless of the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-covid-19-impact-worse-than-official-figures">Covid-19 pandemic</a>, conflicts and other impacts.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), remittances sent home by migrant workers totalled $831 billion in 2022, nearly four times the amount disbursed as global foreign aid, which was $211 billion.&nbsp;
In over 30 countries, remittances now account for more than 10% of the value of their entire economy, becoming a much more effective tool in lifting people out of poverty.
Migration is therefore the great new equaliser of the 21st century, a significant redistributor of wealth. Much of the remittance flows to poorer countries from richer nations, but it is also true that Nepal is the seventh largest source of remittances for India. Indians are filling in the semi-skilled jobs left vacant by Nepalis who have left for the Gulf, Malaysia.
While people in destination countries worldwide send only about 15% of their income back home, that money has much higher value in poorer nations like Nepal.&nbsp;
In Nepal, money sent home by migrants has allowed families in the remotest corners to afford quality healthcare, nutrition and education for their children. Villages now have concrete houses.&nbsp;
In fact, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/climate-crisis-drought-food-deficit-migration">migration</a> is the single biggest reason for Nepal’s possible graduation to a middle-income country by 2030. It is also perhaps one of the reasons why when asked, more than half the respondents told a public opinion survey recently that they were better off than five years ago — despite being disappointed with the government.
However, money from migration has not translated into investment in productive sectors. Most of it pays for day-to-day living costs of families. The government has failed to engage <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/migrants-returning-from-the-gulf-with-infertility">migrant returnees</a> at home, whose skills and investments are being wasted without meaningful reintegration into society, forcing them no alternative but to migrate again.
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/why-invest-in-nepal">Why invest in Nepal?</a> Shristi Karki
Meanwhile, those leaving on student visas to the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Europe do not send as much money home. They are also much less likely to ever return.
Overseas employment is an outlet for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-politics">Nepalis frustrated by party politics</a>, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/the-geopolitics-of-nepal-s-politics">corruption</a>, unaccountability and lack of service delivery. It has also allowed the government to get away without having to find an additional 500,000 new jobs every year for the young people entering the job market.
But in the process, Nepal is wasting its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-demographic-dividend">demographic dividend</a>, which is the narrow window of opportunity for rapid economic advancement before a country or a society ages. We only have 25 more years or so to correct courses, by investing in people and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/staying-home-to-create-jobs">generating jobs at home</a> to reintegrate returnees, foster innovation and entrepreneurship. So, in general, to clean up our act.
Remittance is highly sensitive to external factors, and is an unsustainable and unhealthy long-term option. More than 2 million Nepali migrants are employed in West Asia, which is prone to conflict.&nbsp;
For a country that relies so heavily on remittances, it is in Nepal’s national interest to treat its migrant workers well instead of trying to fleece them every step of the way. Instead of a blanket ban on women migrants, the government should ensure their safety.&nbsp;
Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/ban-on-female-migrant-workers-to-be-lifted">Ban on female migrant workers to be lifted</a>, Ayushman Bhagat and Sunita Mainali
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-truth-about-migration">Growing anti-immigrant sentiments</a> around the world, particularly in America and Europe, ignore the fact that their economies are built on the blood, sweat and tears of migrants. It is they who do the dangerous and difficult jobs, at minimal pay.&nbsp;
The truth is that people will continue to migrate for one reason or another as they have throughout history. For Nepal’s economy it is indispensable. But moving ahead, we must find the right balance between remittances and domestic investment.
Sonia Awale

The new equaliser

The winter session of Parliament is set to begin amidst a warmer-than-usual winter season. But things do not look too cosy between the governing coalition and the opposition parties.&nbsp;
Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s Maoist Centre is currently benched, and is trying to ride a rising wave of public discontent. It has in its crosshairs the coalition’s plan to fast-track five ordinances related to governance, business, investment and real estate. Expect sloganeering and rostrum gheraos when the august House convenes.
Opposition leaders say the issue is not with the content of the draft amendments themselves, but the manner in which they are being passed.&nbsp;
This is not new. Nepal’s leaders love to amend laws through ordinances rather than votes in Parliament. What is puzzling is why a government made up of an alliance of two of the biggest parties with the near two-thirds majority required to pass laws through the Lower House, resorted to executive decisions to introduce new laws?
What, then, is the role of the legislators when the job they were elected by the Nepali people to do is largely carried out through executive orders?&nbsp;
The political leadership justifies taking the ordinance route because of delays in the legislative process. This is emblematic of a wider problem in Nepal’s politics, where leaders employ ad hoc solutions to problems instead of taking a long hard look into the flaws within the legislative process, governance and the state mechanism as a whole.
Understandably, this is such a can of worms that the leadership is unwilling to confront it head on. But confront it they must. If the long-serving prime ministers of the three parties carefully read the outcome of the recent Sharecast Initiative public opinion survey, they will learn that more than half of the Nepali public is unhappy with the direction politics is headed.&nbsp;
The survey should be an eye-opener and a dire warning to politicians to shape up or ship out in the limited time ahead of the general elections in 2027. Poll respondents have listed weak governance and corruption holding back job creation. Most respondents cited migration as the most attractive option. Nepalis are therefore voting with their feet.
The survey shows that Nepalis reject pre-electoral alliances and the tottering coalitions they produce, blaming this for the country having to suffer five revolving door governments in the last five years.&nbsp;
Prime Minister Oli has made it a point to reassert that he will hand over power to Deuba as agreed. Deuba certainly needed reassurance, since his chance at a sixth premiership in these turn-by-turn deals had been scuttled more than once before.&nbsp;
Deuba and Oli don’t get it. The 2022 election with the rise of independent alternatives was an early warning. The Sharecast Initiative survey confirms this disillusionment with serial prime ministers and their cadre and cronies. &nbsp;
Instead, political leaders are too busy putting out (or lighting) fires within their own parties and alliances. The establishment is focused on partnerships, not policy, and this has hurt good governance.
But not everything is doom and gloom. Respondents in the survey have a seemingly contradictory view that despite disappointment with the state of the state, a majority feel the quality of their lives have improved. They are also quite satisfied with the performance of local governments. &nbsp;
And even as elected leaders try increasingly to undermine the legitimacy of the press, and amid a rapidly evolving digital landscape, Nepalis by and large have maintained trust in the mainstream media.&nbsp;
Journalists would do well not take that trust for granted, however. The media is partly responsible for spreading public cynicism and despair. Daily headlines are obsessed with quarrelsome politicians, and its blow-by-blow coverage in turn keeps them quarrelling perpetually.
Positive news does not sell media subscriptions, and social media algorithms feed on fear-mongering, anger and hatred. Politics is not just about who stabbed whom on the back yesterday. Infighting has become so endless that it is to be expected and not breaking news.&nbsp;
Coverage of the Sharecast Initiative survey results by the media last week was followed by vigorous debate on its results. Many on social media were incensed that it dared to show that Nepalis were half-hopeful about the future. Those who agreed that it was not all hopeless were mercilessly trolled. It behooves some to be doomscrollers.
In all this, there was a deafening silence from the &nbsp;political class. Are they even listening to the voice of the people? &nbsp;
They should get hold of a copy of the survey, and chart out a strategy for their future political survival based on that. But we can already tell them the main message: Clean up your act and start delivering.
Shristi Karki

Politics as usual

The streets of Patan are alive this month with lavender jacaranda trees under rain-washed skies as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-red-god-rises-again-in-patan">the chariot of Rato Matsyendranath</a> is pulled across town. This is the festival of the rain god, and inevitably the heavens opened up and pre-monsoon showers pelted the chariot as it started being pulled in Pulchok last week. Thousands of devotees, onlookers and the chariot procession organisers thronged the streets on the first day last week. The rhythmic cymbals and drums exuded a vibrant energy as the enormous four wheels turned and the chariot lurched.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025051007050_81df97744db16f732a419dc1f1579d235ce3df37642b078f50b83bd4bd026688.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2025051007050_81df97744db16f732a419dc1f1579d235ce3df37642b078f50b83bd4bd026688" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1503" loading="lazy" alt="Divine chariot"> </figure>  The<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Red-rain-god,3141"> red rain god</a> has Hindu and Buddhist antecedents, alternatively called Bungadya and<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-gravity-defying-chariot-festival"> Karunamaya</a> — reflecting Kathmandu Valley’s syncretic mixture of the two religions.&nbsp; “Bungadya is a profoundly <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/12-full-opinion/marketing-the-intangible">intangible form of heritage</a>,” explains heritage expert Monalisa Maharjan. “It embodies traditional knowledge,<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/reviving-nepal-s-craft"> artisanal skills passed down through generations</a>. Local communities and specific families have specified roles in being custodians of the heritage, ensuring their survival over the centuries.” There are many legends and stories about this annual tradition. Lichhavi king Narendra Dev is supposed to have brought Rato Matsyendranath from Assam to Kathmandu Valley to convince Guru Gorakhnath to lift a spell that created a two-year drought in Kathmandu.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250510050520_347a9a398f8a9abc4a7fb4e2774fde8264cccbdce8bdab23851ab3f0e73c3e8a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250510050520_347a9a398f8a9abc4a7fb4e2774fde8264cccbdce8bdab23851ab3f0e73c3e8a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1503" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Divine chariot"> </figure>  Matsyendranath was Gorakhnath’s mentor, and upon seeing him, the serpents were released, unleashing the rains. The chariot festival honours the return of this life-giving rain. The deity is seen as an icon for thriving agriculture, t<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/before-the-next-monsoon">he arrival of monsoon</a> showers, and the welfare of the community. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-reign-of-the-god-of-rain">The reign of the god of rain</a>, Vidhu Prakash Kayastha Till this day, the Rato Matsyendranath festival is no ordinary celebration. Patan does not sleep for a month as the chariot is pulled through various neighbourhoods. It unfolds at a state level with the president (formerly the king) attending the climax of the Bhoto Jatra in Jawalakhel later this month.&nbsp; The intergenerational transmission of tradition is unique in the world, and the reason the festival is one of the most vibrant cultural expressions that thrives despite inroads of modernity. The other unique aspect is that it is a transnational festival, binding Patan with Guwahati in the Indian state of Assam.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025051005058_8bc685ada13045d863b28e3eed91c931da2b510714586af6fd7eb5d1e298a24a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="2025051005058_8bc685ada13045d863b28e3eed91c931da2b510714586af6fd7eb5d1e298a24a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1503" loading="lazy" alt="Divine chariot"> </figure>  “Unlike Nepal, where the deity commands grandeur and devotion, many in Assam are unaware of Rato Matsyendranath,” says Khagen Sharma of Gauhati University, which convened <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-assam-connection-revived">a symposium in February in Guwahati on the rain god</a>. Attending was a delegation led by Lalitpur Mayor Chiribabu Maharjan, organisers of the festival, and builders of the chariot. After the symposium, a committee was formed to explore and revive the tradition in Assam as well. Although the team had planned to visit Nepal this month, logistical challenges delayed the trip. Still, there are plans to build a Guru Matsyendranath statue in Assam to reestablish regular worship practices in the Guwahati shrine.&nbsp; The vines used to build the chariot in Patan are sourced from the jungles of Assam. But Sharma notes that in recent years unclear regulations have blocked the official import of the vines, although they are still brought to Nepal informally. The <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/makers-of-machhindranath,2204">chariot making</a> has also had a taste of modernisation in recent times. In the past, even a single nail or piece of steel was avoided. But over time, the wooden structure, particularly the shaft between the wheels, has been replaced with bronze. When that too proved unstable, metal clamps were introduced, which have become a pragmatic compromise.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250510050524_b2a819a5791612f14c81d30fc393dbd3f99f0c64b90a9110e8b0855d944bfa93.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250510050524_b2a819a5791612f14c81d30fc393dbd3f99f0c64b90a9110e8b0855d944bfa93" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="998" loading="lazy" alt="Divine chariot"> </figure>  Another welcome change is the focus on safety. Builders climbing the chariot’s tower now wear harnesses and there are efforts in crowd control. The most visible change in recent years has been the involvement of Patan’s enthusiastic youth in the festival — the tradition is now passing to a new generation. Says Matsyendranath expert Vidhu Kayastha: “There is more energy, the young people in red t-shirts this year were very organised, these modern touches aren’t diluting our culture, they’re keeping it alive in new forms.” He adds, “We are <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/searching-for-a-homeland-away-from-home">reconnecting with our roots</a>, we have more resources, more awareness than ever before. We must not be swept away by western values that may not serve us, and in some ways, cause more harm than good. We must revive our own culture.”&nbsp;

Divine chariot

Most Nepalis thought they had seen the last of it after <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/11-56-25-april-2015-wkc9q2an">the 25 April 7.8 magnitude </a>earthquake ten years ago. But the Himalaya had more surprises in store. On 12 May, another 7.3 magnitude tremor that some said was an aftershock, but was strong enough to itself be a major earthquake, struck Dolakha.&nbsp; Not many people had heard of Singati till then — a cluster of houses by the Tama Kosi River along a narrow gorge that is the roadhead to Rolwaling Valley.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_57b6e316656851f71eca56ca6f98d9bbcc820c1a00d62af3c990725b4361244d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20250508110520_57b6e316656851f71eca56ca6f98d9bbcc820c1a00d62af3c990725b4361244d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1000" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_016534fb2b6a79957402281cda768efb83a146786377e39e11df3e251d37159e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250508110520_016534fb2b6a79957402281cda768efb83a146786377e39e11df3e251d37159e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> </figure>  It was here that dozens were killed on 25 April in the first earthquake. Hundreds of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Singati-rising-from-rubble-rebuilding,3703">Singati survivors</a> had lined up for food and relief supplies in the morning of 12 May when the second earthquake triggered a rock slide that buried a nearby camp. At least 50 people were killed. &nbsp; Three hours later, a US Marine Corps UH-1Y Venom helicopter landed in a nearby cornfield to pick up the wounded, and flew off. The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control in Kathmandu and its wreckage was located high on Kalinchok four days later. Six American servicemen, two Nepal Army soldiers, and five wounded civilians from Singati were killed. Today, Singati bears little physical scar of the multiple tragedies that struck the town ten years ago. Most <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/bungamati-builds-back">houses have been rebuilt</a> as urban-style concrete structures, and Singati has become an economic hub on the road leading up to several hydropower plants and a<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/off-the-beaten-trek-in-nepal"> popular trekking destination</a>.&nbsp; The town looks less like a village and more like a suburb of the Dolakha district headquarter of Charikot, 47km away.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_196f341d1df1403ba133e5dfeb837eec20d7cbcb4c8c56b17cc5598810de5df2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250508110520_196f341d1df1403ba133e5dfeb837eec20d7cbcb4c8c56b17cc5598810de5df2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110524_ae66c4a92430f67db51b5e11e017059eedfbac4cb18c8e073f2a50cca1fe904e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20250508110524_ae66c4a92430f67db51b5e11e017059eedfbac4cb18c8e073f2a50cca1fe904e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> </figure>  “The demand for construction material, cement, iron rods and bricks peaked after the earthquakes,” says Suresh Khadka, who owns a hardware business here and now supplies material to the 456MW Upper Tama Kosi hydropower project that is undergoing repairs after it was damaged by a landslide last year. The demand for cement boomed since most residents believe, not necessarily correctly, that <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/in-a-disastrous-state">cement houses are safer</a>. Although Khadka did well selling construction material after the earthquake, he worries that most new structures do not follow seismic-resistant building codes.&nbsp; The construction boom financed by bank loans has in turn forced many from Singati to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/making-overseas-migration-better">migrate overseas for work</a> so they can service their debt.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110524_50caa4530bd5ff9120cf7ab70a62173846d337ef448ff8bac339f3faa375a9e2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250508110524_50caa4530bd5ff9120cf7ab70a62173846d337ef448ff8bac339f3faa375a9e2" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> <figcaption>Suresh Khadka</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_ef8b7d3993fc3b5df852bbf952feb3fbabc96d6883b0d5eb74ee5c60f4123b83.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250508110520_ef8b7d3993fc3b5df852bbf952feb3fbabc96d6883b0d5eb74ee5c60f4123b83" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> <figcaption>Phu Doma Sherpa (right)</figcaption> </figure>  “My family had no choice but to borrow money to rebuild our home since the government compensation was not enough, and ten years later we are still paying off the loan,” says Phu Doma Sherpa, 60. Because of the shortage of qualified masons and proper seismic engineering, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/structural-problems">many of the buildings are of questionable building standards </a>and the traditional architecture has been abandoned, admits Kul Bahadur Budathoki, deputy chair of the municipality. “But these buildings were more expensive than what the government grants could cover, many people here are heavily in debt and the men have <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/every-day-is-closer-to-pay-day">migrated to the Gulf to pay their loans</a>,” Budathoki says.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250508110520_32f89e97b7e757fc9286c0bbb671f48ea8d4468e9634fa646d7247c650ad8480.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20250508110520_32f89e97b7e757fc9286c0bbb671f48ea8d4468e9634fa646d7247c650ad8480" data-rendition-name="original" width="1501" height="1079" loading="lazy" alt="Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village NT"> <figcaption>Kul Bahadur Budathoki</figcaption> </figure>  Singati is in a multi-hazard zone. The <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Singati,3091">12 May 2015 earthquake </a>could have led to the collapse of Nepal’s largest glacial lake, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/stairway-to-heaven">Tso Rolpa</a>, upstream. Due to global warming, the glacier has turned into an expanding lake 3.5km long, and its collapse would have unleashed a catastrophic Himalayan tsunami down the Tama Kosi Valley, with Singati directly in its path. Singati has literally risen from the ashes of 2015, with its residents beginning to recover from the trauma and financial toll. But it is not out of danger as <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/climate-breakdown-linked-to-thame-flood">climate breakdown </a>magnifies the risk from future earthquakes.

Climate magnifies earthquake risk in Nepal village

This is the 67th episode of Diaspora Diaries, a Nepali Times series in collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working, and studying abroad. <h2>Alpana Adhikari, UK</h2> Back in Nepal, I had worked as a nurse for a decade, but I had my heart set to go overseas. My reason for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/migration-not-a-wish-but-necessity-for-nepalis">wanting to migrate</a>, however, was a bit different as it was for my son. He has a disability, and considering his situation from multiple perspectives—including <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/it-s-all-in-the-mind">societal attitudes</a>, the preparedness of schools, and the availability of facilities for individuals with his condition—Nepal did not feel safe for my baby.&nbsp; I had to migrate, no matter what, for his sake. The facilities here in the UK for children with his condition are significantly better, and I am glad he and my husband will join me in a few months.&nbsp; I was applying via private routes like everyone else when the Government to Government pilot program between Britain and Nepal was announced. Even though the initial program targeted 100 nurses, only 40 of us were able to meet the criteria.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160536_46f6a3c05fd2d9bdac06a9a478f49079c2c69c783fcf0cc58b75da6128319745.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20250511160536_46f6a3c05fd2d9bdac06a9a478f49079c2c69c783fcf0cc58b75da6128319745" data-rendition-name="original" width="720" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="DD 67"> <figcaption>Alpana Adhikari started working as a nurse in a hospital in the UK in March.</figcaption> </figure>  I made it to the UK &nbsp;in February 2024 without paying a single paisa to any broker. The G2G scheme was unique as we were treated with dignity and valued for our skills: they covered costs for the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/free-visa-free-ticket-policy-in-limbo">ticket and visa</a>, reimbursed us for exams we had taken and costs involved in the preparation and testing of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination were also covered.&nbsp; I started work in March last year, and currently am based in the respiratory ward of a hospital. I am enjoying my work a lot. In one year, I have received 26 WOW nominations which are notes of<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-healer-of-far-western-nepal"> appreciation from patients </a>we have served. ‘Alpana is one of the kindest nurses I have seen. Awesome and talented … always smiling, never appears tired and helps everyone,’ one patient testimonial said. Another: ‘You can see clearly that she cares about her patients…She was cool amidst great stress and ALWAYS with a smile which gave me confidence.’ I am also the International Educated Nurses Advocate which means I can raise issues with management about issues facing <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepali-nurses-now-britain-bound">international nurses</a> here.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160536_87b959c7550bbd1272ebf840d9f24735db008307ad825e4aa15e66c1662a7fd4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20250511160536_87b959c7550bbd1272ebf840d9f24735db008307ad825e4aa15e66c1662a7fd4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1590" height="1600" loading="lazy" alt="DD 67"> <figcaption>One reason Alpana Adhikari migrated to the UK was so there would be better facilities for her son, who has a disability. </figcaption> </figure>  Recruitment from NHS linked hospitals is free but when we <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/safer-migration-for-women">migrate through private routes</a>, agencies either charge upfront costs or in some cases, there is wage deduction once the nurses start earning.&nbsp; I have met Nepalis who have paid up to Rs 1 million for the same job. These costs can go even as high as Rs3 million for work in caregiving or nursing homes. I am lucky not to have to pay anyone for my posting.&nbsp; But beyond costs, I think there is also a reputational advantage of coming through the government selection process at the hospital. Such programs need to be expanded more because <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-s-nurse-flight">nurses are migrating </a>anyway and it would save people a lot of unnecessary costs and hassles. I will always be protective about Nepal and am grateful for the experience I gained, but it is true that nurses lack dignity in the workplace back home. Nursing is laborious work and completing the education takes a fortune but the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nursing-grievances-against-the-state">pay for nurses in Nepal</a>, other than at a handful of hospitals, is unfairly low.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160540_2a483361070e6e65413cf3bcf3be7af0581044f85c3e6da25a66dc87042af9d9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20250511160540_2a483361070e6e65413cf3bcf3be7af0581044f85c3e6da25a66dc87042af9d9" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1536" loading="lazy" alt="DD 67"> <figcaption>Alpana Adhikari while working as a nurse in Nepal.</figcaption> </figure>  It naturally makes nurses want to migrate. People often ask me what the difference in the UK and Nepal is. Work is similar but in terms of technology, there is less paperwork here as everything is digitised. Treatment is also more nurse-led and we have more say while making recommendations about medicine and discharging decisions which can be empowering. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepali-nurses-gone-and-going-to-the-uk">Nepali nurses gone and going to the UK</a> I am not sure what it is about nursing but I am always in high spirits and energetic about showing up to work every day. To be a good nurse, you have to have the passion for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/step-by-step-for-rural-health-care-in-nepal">patient care</a>.&nbsp; Sometimes people tell me it is because my family has not yet joined me which has freed up my time to singularly focus on work, but I do not believe that is true. Back home, too, I used to be as passionate about my job.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160540_47851c2c850c936b7bfb23da0f0e8a07620ea213ad929c229b6cca8711adc5d4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20250511160540_47851c2c850c936b7bfb23da0f0e8a07620ea213ad929c229b6cca8711adc5d4" data-rendition-name="original" width="1024" height="768" loading="lazy" alt="DD 67"> <figcaption>Alpana Adhikari (left) during an International Nurses Day rally in Kathmandu.</figcaption> </figure>  What fuels my passion here is the appreciation we get. It is not just about the income. Sometimes after <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/you-must-be-having-so-much-fun-there?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0OsTusz4rvYDQLvB0bnwhlDvkS3zCQ-UvuoO5manWHC0LGI2c3XY7e6ZY_aem_hR-tZOp4xg1mINPJvwD7Nw">long hours at work</a> when it has been a particularly busy day, a phone message from my manager and colleagues appreciating me for a job well done can go a long way.&nbsp; Likewise, the WOW recommendations from my patients have boosted my confidence. One of my elderly patients who had a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/stigma-and-silence-mental-health-nepal,3486">mental illness </a>and I bonded, and she felt comfortable enough to open up with me. She would then refer to me as her friend with everyone.&nbsp; It is little things like this that can make a big difference. Perhaps that is why my flat mate and colleagues often question why I don’t look tired even after a long shift. <h2>Binu Gurung, Japan</h2> It has been five-and-half years since I came to Japan under the Specified Skilled Workers (SSW) visa in the nursing category. I had previously come to Japan as a language student as well.&nbsp; I grew up in Ghandruk and had just started my Bachelor’s course when a friend suggested we try<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/business/nepalis-in-japan"> to go to Japan </a>so I just followed the trend and stayed here for three years as a student.&nbsp; Two years after returning to Nepal, I re-migrated to Japan under the SSW scheme which was at its early stages and only open to nursing initially.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160536_305bb5cb5095da6148911dae8b07356ece5b292148e6c8e57a39fd31d811624b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_17" data-image-id="20250511160536_305bb5cb5095da6148911dae8b07356ece5b292148e6c8e57a39fd31d811624b" data-rendition-name="original" width="720" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="DD 67"> <figcaption>Binu Gurung on arrival in Japan to work as a nurse three years ago.</figcaption> </figure>  I take care of the elderly Japanese who are mostly above 80 years of age, a few even above 100. I try not to get too attached to patients but it is of course not always easy because of the nature of the job and patients we serve.&nbsp; Patients dying of age is common as it is not a care facility where patients recover to return to their homes. Just recently, an elderly lady who had been here from the day I joined 5.5 years ago passed.&nbsp; These leave you a bit खिन्न and emotionally drained. Most are <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/dementia-brings-new-problem-that-families-have-little%20knowledge-of,2151">dementia patients</a> who do not &nbsp;even recognise their family members. Some elderly patients are reserved and do not feel comfortable as the work entails helping with personal care tasks like using the toilet or bathing and they can be irritable.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160536_c840a0b12c20c3d52d9eceec06a0bc8c90208f13e402c50f319583b1c1a93b87.jpg" data-media-id="editor_19" data-image-id="20250511160536_c840a0b12c20c3d52d9eceec06a0bc8c90208f13e402c50f319583b1c1a93b87" data-rendition-name="original" width="694" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="DD 67"> <figcaption>Binu Gurung's work involves taking care of elderly Japanese.</figcaption> </figure>  Building trust and rapport takes time, patience and familiarity. I do not think there is a way to explain how happy I feel when they are happy with the care we provide and thank us in smiles like we are their own family members.&nbsp; My own grandmother back in Nepal was in a similar situation requiring care before she passed and I am able to extend that kind of care to many patients.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250511160536_0f41ad57ae1ac5bd2f406d86cdc5f542b613cef6961d8fdf20c883ee38404b5e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="20250511160536_0f41ad57ae1ac5bd2f406d86cdc5f542b613cef6961d8fdf20c883ee38404b5e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="1067" loading="lazy" alt="DD 67"> <figcaption>Binu Gurung in Yokohama.</figcaption> </figure>  I know that this job is not for everyone. That is why some nurses who come to Japan because they want to just<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/making-overseas-migration-better"> migrate overseas </a>at any cost without considering the kind of employment realise that caregiving might not be for them.&nbsp; You have to be mentally, physically and emotionally prepared for it. If you are short-tempered by nature, for example, it may not be the best fit. However, for those who are genuinely interested in care work like I am, there are many growth opportunities in nursing which are also financially rewarding.&nbsp; While working under the SSW visa, I was able to take training classes on the side and passed the national exam for nursing. I was then able to change my visa from SSW to nursing caregiver visa. My son joined my husband and I recently in Japan and has started school.

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