With Xi Jinping as host, Narendra Modi and K P Oli are both attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting on 31 August. It would be appropriate if the diplomatic ‘sherpas’ were able to organise a joint meeting to overcome some sticking points that have emerged in the trilateral interface. These issues are relatively new, related to China’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/what-china-wants">economic and geo-strategic rise</a>, which has reversed its earlier disinterest on matters south of the Himalaya (other than concerns over Tibet activism). While Beijing’s leaders used to be standoffish on Nepal, even advising Nepali leaders to remain on good terms with New Delhi, they are now bullish while lacking full appreciation of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-and-the-us-india-tariff-tiff">Nepal’s positions and interests</a>. Matters are complicated for Nepal by the fact that after decades of relative Indo-Chinese calm following the debacle (for India) of the 1962 war, the 2023 Galwan clashes led to a bilateral nosedive. Both neighbours entered a phase of hi-decibel rancour, with the Indian officialdom and media expecting Kathmandu to choose sides. New Delhi tends to hype any engagement by Kathmandu with Beijing as proof of a ‘China tilt’, or opportunistic use of the ‘<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/china-syndrome">China card</a>’. There is irony in this, of course, because China is India’s foremost trading partner, and a source for much that makes <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/india-has-arrived">India’s economy</a> hum, from pharmaceutical raw material to EV batteries, solar panels, integrated circuits, industrial machinery, etc.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250821100828_327349e434da4a44b12be66625d7a7b1b030c08e38b9a3a96734218e70929302.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20250821100828_327349e434da4a44b12be66625d7a7b1b030c08e38b9a3a96734218e70929302" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="When Xi meets Modi and Oli"> <figcaption>TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE: Demonstrations in Kathmandu against India's opening of a new link road to Mansarovar of Tibet via Nepal's Lipulek in 2020. Photo: BIKRAM RAI/ NT ARCHIVE </figcaption> </figure>  While in an inextricable economic embrace with Beijing, New Delhi diplomats, media commentators and ‘think-tankers’ would want Kathmandu (and Dhaka, Colombo) to keep Beijing at arm’s length. Nor would they stop to consider that it was the Indian economic<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/aftershocks-of-the-blockade"> blockade </a>of 2015 that accelerated Kathmandu’s signing a slew of agreements with Beijing two years later on cross-border roads, transmission lines, bilateral trade, third-country transit, as well as the Belt and Road Initiative Framework. Chinese goods and services New Delhi analysts must abandon suspicions of foul play whenever a South Asian neighbour seeks out <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/International/China,442">Chinese goods and services</a>, scientific advances, education, and bilateral and third-country trade. They also need to consider <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/looking-beyond-two-boulders">the advantages</a> of Nepal providing the most geographically practical surface connectivity between the Chinese mainland and the Indus-Ganga-Brahmaputra basin, using the railhead that has already arrived at Shigatse west of Lhasa. Of the 14 countries that China borders, and India’s seven, Nepal is unique for its open border to the south. New Delhi security experts constantly warn of third-country infiltration into India using the free passage, but if that is the case Beijing too will now have reason to feel vulnerable, given the possibility of quick south-to-north passage across Nepal on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/on-the-fast-lane-to-expressways">new highways</a>. Nepal is also unique in that its citizens have historically been allowed to join the Indian military, even though recruitment is halted since 2022 due to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/lockdown-5-utlzqtvs">the Covid pandemic</a>, followed by India’s introduction of the Agnipath recruitment scheme. As is natural between any two neighbours, Beijing and Kathmandu have issues to sort out, such as: the mutual respect of Bon, Mahayana and Vajrayana communities across the Himalaya defiles, access to historically shared high pastures, unilateral closure of border points by Beijing that impacts<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/missing-out-on-nepal-s-tourism-potential"> tourism and trade</a>, and the occasional ill-considered statements regarding Nepal’s third-country relations that emerge from Beijing officialdom, such as on the US-funded Millennium Challenge Compact. It is a fact, however, that the Nepal-China relationship is clouded by diffidence of the Kathmandu polity in dealing with Beijing interlocutors. The Nepal side has been conditioned over the decades by the need for Kathmandu to prop up the China relationship as a counter to the overwhelming presence of India in the polity, which has meant more fawning northward than is healthy. Meanwhile, it would help for Chinese delegations not to insist on the Nepali side repeating ad nauseum its commitment to the one-China policy, or disallowing Nepali territory to be used against China. These are by now state policy, not requiring humiliating repetition. India-China-Nepal The <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-love-triangle-with-china-and-india-impacts-investment">India-China-Nepal</a> interface has not been discussed enough as a foreign affairs sub-discipline, mainly because of the timidity of Kathmandu’s officialdom and intelligentsia. In these times of ascendant China and defensive India, Nepal must place its concerns on the three-way table.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250821100856_d4497e2620bba81211d27e427393974877e09006abc26e13055508996e5b29ea.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20250821100856_d4497e2620bba81211d27e427393974877e09006abc26e13055508996e5b29ea" data-rendition-name="original" width="1108" height="1550" loading="lazy" alt="When Xi meets Modi and Oli"> </figure>  Limpiyadhura Triangle: The area in Nepal’s northwest encompassing 370 sq km between Limpiyadhura peak, Lipulek pass and Kalapani encampment is claimed by Kathmandu, the area having been incorporated in the 2015 Constitution. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/borderline-disorder">The Sugauli Treaty of 1816 </a>indicates Nepal’s western boundary as the Kali River, and Kathmandu claims the main river stem as starting from Limpiyadhura. Whereas, New Delhi claims that the smaller stream going straight north from Kalapani is the official Kali. Nepal is thus in a significant territorial dispute with India, a matter that was ignored by both New Delhi and Beijing when they reached an accord in May 2015 to regularise cross-border trade and pilgrim traffic via Lipulek. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala sent a protest note to both capitals. And yet, tone-deaf to Nepal’s position, foreign ministers Wang Yi and S Jaishankar on 19 August 2025 signed an agreement to resume border trade via Lipulek. (Addendum: The 19 August agreement referred to above is as per the statement published by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, with Point No. 9 referring specifically to “reopening of border trade through the three designated trading points, namely Lipulekh Pass, Shipkila Pass and Nathula Pass”. However the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement of the same date says in Point No. 8 that both sides agreed “to facilitate trade and investment flows between the two countries through concrete measures.” India’s MEA statement refers to Lipulek while the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement does not. But then there is another statement, out of talks between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval of the same date, which says (Point No. 9) that the two side agreed to re-open “three traditional border trading markets, namely Renqinggang-Changgu, Pulan-Gunji and Jiuba-Namgya.” Pulan-Gunji clearly refers to the Lipulek route.) Especially because he is scheduled to visit the SCO Summit in end-August and Bodh Gaya on 17 September, it is important for PM Oli to immediately send diplomatic notes to both capitals as did his predecessor PM Koirala. To recall, it was under Oli as Prime Minister that the Limpiyadhura Triangle was officially incorporated into Nepal’s Constitution in the Second Amendment of June 2020.&nbsp; Hydropower Exports: While there is a power trade agreement between Nepal and India, New Delhi has put regulations that restrict Kathmandu from exporting from hydropower plants that are funded, financed or constructed with Chinese involvement. This stricture even applies to the agreement to supply 40MW to Bangladesh via the Indian grid. New Delhi’s officialdom evidently believes that electrons have nationality, and anything with a whiff of Chinese involvement is to be rejected. This is an unfriendly position towards both Nepal and China, though one does not know whether Beijing is bothered enough as it seeks to woo India and its massive consumer market. Meanwhile, the restrictions on ‘China tainted’ energy exports have impacted Chinese FDI in Nepal’s hydropower sector. Airports and Airlines: The new international airports at Bhairawa and Pokhara have become a burden on the economy because of the in-country graft and malfeasance. Neither of the two airports has been able to ‘go international’ due to the government’s inability to plan ahead on air routes, passenger traffic and tourism. India has been least cooperative, however, disallowing instrumental landing system at Bhairawa on the pretext that it will interfere with flights at its nearby military airbase. This point is moot now because of satellite-aided navigation systems, but New Delhi officialdom continues to dissuade airlines from connecting Indian cities to both airports because of Chinese involvement in their construction. Sourcing international loans, grants and contractors is Kathmandu’s sovereign lookout, and it is improper for New Delhi to act so obstructionist. While Pokhara’s airport was built on a loan from the Export–Import Bank of China, Bhairawa was financed by the Asian Development Bank, with only the civil works carried out by a Chinese company responding to a global tender. At the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, whose goal is “regional security, economic cooperation and cultural exchange”, PM Oli must remind both his host President Xi and fellow guest PM Modi that the China-India relationship even as it blows hot and cold can never be at the cost of Nepal. &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/fixing-the-broken-parts-in-nepal-china-ties">Fixing the broken parts in Nepal-China ties</a>, Kanak Mani Dixit

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When Xi meets Modi and Oli

<figure><img width="1248" height="819" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151112/636bb5ff9c7e80680e07bc37jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Houses built by the Chinese as seen from Lapcha Pass in 2016 with Lake Mansarovar visible in the distance. Photograph of the same place last month (below), with the new Chinese compound. Nepal’s Foreign Minister accepts that the structures are 1km inside Chinese territory. Photo: BHARAT BANDU THAPA</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="640" height="326" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151112/636bb6039c7e80680e07bc38jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Last month, reports emerged in the Indian media that the Chinese had built seven structures in a ‘disputed’ border area between China and Nepal in Humla district.This was not the first time the area on Lapcha Pass on the ridge between Limi Valley and Tibet had been in the news. After the Chinese built two houses there in 2015, a Nepali team had concluded that it was indeed inside China as per the 1962 border demarcation, and the matter had been laid to rest.However, after the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/politics-and-history-of-nepals-kalapani-claim/">Lipu Lekh row</a> between Nepal and India in April, security forces from the Nepali side had stepped up patrols along the Nepal-India and Nepal-China borders and had been inspecting border pillars.One team last month saw that the Chinese had built new compound near border pillar #12 at Lapcha Pass on Limi Valley, and reported this back to Kathmandu, which ordered the Chief District Officer of Humla to go inspect the area. On Monday, the CDO’s team reached the compound, and were told by a Chinese soldier with a hand-held hailer to go back. The person who spoke English was then removed, and the Chinese started speaking in Mandarin, brandishing a map. This encounter hit the headlines in Kathmandu on Wednesday. There was even a sudden demonstration outside the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu with banners that said ‘Back Of China’ (sic). <figure><img width="4608" height="3456" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151112/636bb6069c7e80680e07bc39jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="800" height="379" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151112/636bb6099c7e80680e07bc3ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Minister of Foreign Affairs and government spokesperson Pradeep Gyawali went into damage control and told a press briefing on Wednesday evening: “In 2015, our team visited the site and made a field report saying that the structures were 1km inside Chinese territory … Nepal does not have any border dispute with China.”Later at night, the Chinese Embassy spokesperson in Kathmandu also clarified: “There is proof that the houses shown in media reports are on Chinese side … it can be further verified if Nepal wants. We do not have any dispute with Nepal.”The team that went to Lapcha then trekked westward along the border to Hilsa and on Tuesday located Border Pillar #11 which was half-buried in snow and dirt at an elevation of 5,202m on Takule peak.Survey expert Budhhi Narayan Shrestha says the 1962 demarcation resolved many of the contested areas between Nepal and China, erected pillars, and where that was not possible, decided the Himalayan watershed was the border. <img width="640" height="418" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109151112/636bb60b9c7e80680e07bc3bjpeg.jpg" alt="">Photographer <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/northwestern-tip-of-nepal-Humla,3430">Bharat Bandhu Thapa</a> who trekked through the region four years ago remembers looking down from Lapcha Pass, a wide meadow on the border ridge, and taking a picture of the two houses. This is one of the few points in Nepal from which Lake Mansarovar  and Mt Kailash are visible, and it is clear from the images that the Chinese structures are down the northern side of the Pass.  “I remember locals telling me the houses were in China, and that the army post further down was built after the Chinese found out there were people moving across Lapcha Pass because it was an easy place to cross between Tibet and Nepal,” Thapa recalls. “They said the Chinese never gave locals any trouble, but would stop outsiders.”

North of the border

<figure><img width="1295" height="728" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba7549c7e80680e073777jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>The dispute over the Farakka Barrage that India built near the Bangladesh border on the Ganges in 1975 was finally resolved through bilateral talks. Photo: Daily Star</figcaption></figure>The 4,156km border between India and Bangladesh is the fifth longest land border in the world – even longer than the 3488km India-China border. They inherited the boundary from the British days, and it follows the ‘Radcliffe Line’ as defined by the British architect and chairman of the Border Commissions Sir Cyril Radcliffe during partition in 1947 based on Hindu-Muslim demographics.After the 1971 Liberation War when East Pakistan became Bangladesh, a Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) was signed by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman three years later. However, it was ratified only in 2011 by India, and a revised version was signed in Dhaka in 2015. <img width="640" height="802" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba7579c7e80680e073778jpeg.jpg" alt="">The India-Bangladesh border disputes involve land, river and maritime boundaries which encompass much more territory than Nepal’s territorial claims with India. But there are similarities -- like the reliance on British maps of Lilu Lekh, and the Susta dispute caused by the change in course of a river in the plains.  Five Indian states border Bangladesh: 262km in Assam, 856km in Tripura, 180km in Mizoram, 443km in Meghalaya and 2,217km in West Bengal. The 2015 LBA included an exchange of enclaves and adverse possessions.There were 111 Indian enclaves (6,900ha) within Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves (2,877ha) within India. The residents in the enclaves were given a choice either to reside in the enclaves, or to move to the country of their preference after the exchanges. India and Bangladesh also swapped territory with Bangladesh gaining more land than India.Legend has it that the enclaves were created as part of a high stakes card game centuries ago between the Raja of <a title="Cooch Behar" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooch_Behar">Cooch Behar</a> and the Maharaja of Rangpur. Others say it was a result of a botched expansion of the Mughal empire. There is even a story about a drunk British colonial officer spilling ink on a map. Whatever the reason, the enclaves were an absurdity even as far as man-made boundaries go.This seemingly intractable issue was resolved when Indian Prime Minister <a title="Narendra Modi" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi">Narendra Modi</a> visited Dhaka in 2015 and Bangladeshi Prime Minister <a title="Sheikh Hasina" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Hasina">Sheikh Hasina</a> (daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) came to New Delhi in 2017. <img width="640" height="366" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba7599c7e80680e073779jpeg.jpg" alt="">There have been other territorial adjustments between India and Bangladesh since 1971. One of them is the Tin Bigha Corridor, a 170-km long land bridge that India agreed in 1982 to lease to Bangladesh indefinitely as part of the LBA agreement. It connects the largest Bangladeshi enclave Dahagram-Angarpota in Cooch Behar district of India. Bangladesh ceded Berubai as part of the deal.The Tin Bigha Corridor was partially opened on June 26, 1992 after many years of nationalistic and communal politics both in India and Bangladesh and the removal of General Mohammed Ershad from power in Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh relations have also been strained by bitter river and water disputes. Bangladesh shares 54 trans-boundary rivers with India,including the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Teesta. There have been disputes about too much water in the monsoon causing floods downstream in Bangladesh, and too little in the dry season when it is needed for agriculture. <img width="640" height="491" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141112/636ba75b9c7e80680e07377ajpeg.jpg" alt="">But in August 2019, India and Bangladesh held a meeting of the Joint River Commission in Dhaka and the two countries agreed to collect data and prepare water-sharing agreements for seven other trans-boundary rivers. Bangladesh borders India’s strategically located northeastern states, where India wants to bring quicker economic development by using road links to the sea through Bangladesh. India is also worried about the growing Chinese influence in Bangladesh., and is bent on resolving outstanding border and water-sharing issues with Dhaka.The most famous water-sharing dispute between India and Bangladesh is over India’s construction in 1975 of the Farakka Barrage on the Ganges near the border. This river straddles the India-Bangladesh border for about 100km before it joins  Jamuna (Brahmaputra) in Bangladesh.  The width of the constantly-shifting river varies from 1.5-14km. India built the Farakka Barrage to stop siltation at its important port on the Hoogly near Kolkata. However this reduced the flow into north-western Bangladesh in the dry season. Despite this history of mistrust, the two countries signed a 30-year treaty on the sharing of the Ganges water.  The other riverine dispute is the Teesta, which flows down from Sikkim and also joins the Jamuna in northern Bangladesh. India constructed a barrage over the Teesta, reducing the flow into Bangladesh in the dry season. After years of dispute, in 2015 things took a positive turn after the Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee agreed to support the Central Government of India on a new water-sharing agreement. A dispute over water sharing of the Feni River after it changed course after floods was also resolved in 2019. Another dispute over whether a British map of 1893 constituted the real border at the Muhari River (as preferred by Bangladesh) or the 1854 map (as India wanted) was also solved using the international 1967 Helsinki Rules on the Uses of the Waters of International Rivers.Besides rivers, India and Bangladesh have also grappled for three decades with their maritime border in the Bay of Bengal. It was finally settled by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2014 in a ruling which favoured Bangladesh, and the country got 19,467 km2out of the 25,602 km2disputed coastal seas.Prabhakar Sharma is a Nepali expert on international boundaries, and worked as a survey engineer for the Cameroon-Nigeria border demarcation by the United Nations.

India-Bangladesh border talks have lessons for Nepal

At the stroke of the midnight hour, it finally came to something everyone in Nepal’s oldest and biggest party had been dreading — a split.
Not that this was anything new. The Nepali Congress (NC) had splintered twice before and the main protagonist both times was five-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. After the GenZ uprising and being physically mauled and his house looted and set on fire on 9 September Deuba had said he was stepping aside, but it seems old ambitions die hard.
The showdown between the Gagan Thapa-Bishow Prakash Sharma camp and Deuba came to a head on Wednesday as the establishment leadership decided to suspend Thapa, Sharma, and Farmullah Mansoor for five years to punish them for daring to challenge the leadership and hold a special general convention.&nbsp;
Bhrikuti Mandap in the centre of Kathmandu is the venue for trade exhibitions, but this week it was where an exhibition of everything that is wrong with Nepali politics was on full display — lack of internal party democracy and an unaccountable gerontocracy clinging on to power.&nbsp;
Thapa and Sharma had gathered the support of 62% of the NC membership at their convention and chose Gagan Thapa as the new party leader and proposed him as a prime ministerial candidate after the 5 March election.
Deuba’s allies had refused to attend or endorse the special general convention, and were adamant about holding a general convention to choose a new party head after the election. Thapa, Sharma and their supporters argued that the party faced ignominious defeat in the polls if Deuba insisted on being prime minister again.
The events of September 2025 have cast a long shadow over Nepali politics, with many new parties and alliances pledging to represent the aspirations of the GenZ movement. However, that realisation does not seem to have dawned on the tried, tested and failed leadership of the NC, UML and the NCP where the party leaders have held on to power by sidelining all rivals. &nbsp;
Thapa and Sharma were NC general secretaries held multiple rounds of discussions to convince Deuba to accept their eight-point demand that for the party’s and the country’s sake his time was up, and he should cut and cut cleanly. Despite having already handed over the party leadership to Purna Bahadur Khadka in September, Deuba refused to step down.&nbsp;
‘What demands has the Nepali Congress been unable to reconcile that it is headed for a split? There is no ideological dispute, just a proposal to make it easier to go for the election,’ noted journalist and author Narayan Wagle. ‘If those who have been in politics for so many years cannot reach an agreement, what have they learned in life and what hope is there for the country?’
Gagan Thapa was elected unopposed as the new party president on Thursday midnight, with Sharma and Pushpa Bhusal appointed vice-presidents. Thapa has said backroom talks are still ongoing though mediators, but for all intents and purposes the split seems irreconcilable.&nbsp;
The million dollar question now is: who gets to be the real Nepali Congress? Who gets the NC’s tree election symbol at the polls?
Both the Thapa and Deuba factions have written to the Election Commission (EC) laying claim to the party and its symbol. Whatever the EC decides, with less than two months to go for the polls, the dispute over its legitimacy will almost certainly have to be decided in the courts.
Deuba and his counterpart K P Oli in the UML have been unwilling or unable to fathom the level of outrage that young Nepalis feel about their parties. They have shown an inability to heed the call for institutional overhaul within parties and in Nepal’s political culture post-September. Second generation leaders within those parties who have grown old waiting for reform, seem to have better internalised the need for internal restructuring.&nbsp;
Oli has managed to hold on to power after displaying increasing authoritarianism within his UML, while Deuba has shown an unwillingness to bow out of leadership with grace. Both have squandered away their legacy.
For Gagan Thapa, the events of Thursday was a culmination of his long-standing claim for leadership change within the NC coupled with a compulsion to address the demands of the youth movement to maximise gains for his party this election. Just like Deuba, Thapa’s house was also looted and torched during the September protests.
Thapa told Onlinekhabar on Thursday: “Our belief was that we cannot go into elections under the present circumstances under [Sher Bahadur Deuba’s] leadership and with him as the party’s prime ministerial candidate. We would lose.”
The special general convention has taken further steps for reform, endorsing amendments to the party statue, which has set term limits for key leadership positions, including a one-term limit for party president, two-term limit for prime minister, three for a ministerial position, and four terms for a directly elected member of Parliament. Meanwhile, party members are only allowed to become lawmakers through the Proportional Representation system for one term.&nbsp;
If Thapa’s leadership holds legitimacy, this new chapter for the NC might come as a welcome change to young Nepalis who have been calling for leadership overhaul and internal party reforms within the establishment parties. But it may also come at the cost of the NC’s core base. It remains to be seen which side tips the scale at the polls.&nbsp;
The NC’s infighting and institutional shake-up has also posed fresh concerns about how it will affect the election schedule just as it looked as though all the mainstream political parties were finally on board and preparing for the polls. With voting barely weeks away, Nepal’s political parties are still too busy cleaning up their own house to give too much time to work on their platforms, agendas and serious campaigning
Historically, political break-ups and make-ups in Nepal are not set in stone. Even the newest alliance between Rabi Lamichhane’s RSP and Kulman Ghising’s UNP did not even last 12 days. &nbsp;Balen Shah is set to resign from his mayor position in the next and has gotten into the thick of election preparation with the RSP. His next step will be to choose which constituency he is going to contest from.
Meanwhile, in the light of a new day, the two NC factions may still decide that breaking up is hard to do when they are so close to elections, and the political stakes are so high.&nbsp;

Grand split in Nepal’s grand old party

The India Art Fair (IAF) advertises itself as ‘the biggest event in India’s cultural calendar … a leading platform’ for art collectors who can discover modern and contemporary art from South Asia.&nbsp; For this year’s ticketed event on 5-8 February in New Delhi, more than 133 exhibitors from 14 countries will be representing top artists from their networks. Danfe Arts, a touring art space from Kathmandu, will participate in the Galleries Section of IAF’s 17th edition featuring a booth with works by six Nepali artists.&nbsp; One of them is Sanjeep Maharjan, Assistant Professor for Sculpture at Kathmandu University, who will showcase his claywork as part of Danfe Arts’ entourage. In 2024, Maharjan curated a show for Danfe Arts at Takpa Gallery titled, ‘Unfolding the City’. The IAF prefers to showcase skilled artists who have honed their practice over many years. Much like various biennales and residencies that have been popping up increasingly in Asia, the Fair delves into sociopolitical issues of the region such as many comissioned works including <a href="https://indiaartfair.in/exhibitor/yogesh-barve-supported-by-art-charlie" target="_blank">Yogesh Barve</a>’s installation entitled ‘I am not your Dalit’ featured at the feastival last year.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260115110136_13f262546fca46c0fe4d76f758a694afe7c0c1cfee5bf74eb4f257f78734f8f2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260115110136_13f262546fca46c0fe4d76f758a694afe7c0c1cfee5bf74eb4f257f78734f8f2" data-rendition-name="original" width="989" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Nepali artists at India Art Fair"> <figcaption>Anil Shahi's Hand of Hope, Oil on Canvas, 36 x 60 inches. Exhibiting work at IAF.</figcaption> </figure>  As the name implies, it is a grand bazaar where artists and their agents show up, to be seen — a powerful regional platform where creativity merges with commercial interests. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Artists have a reputation for being weak at business.&nbsp; And in Kathmandu, where the contemporary art scene has been steadily expanding since the early aughts, more and more creatives are seeking platforms like IAF and collaborators like Danfe Arts in order to boost their portfolios. A NEW COURSE In 2022, I was invited to participate in a formal group discussion by founder of and curator at Danfe Arts Shivangi Bansal who was preparing to chart a new course with her Danfe Journal. The journal included photos of artworks as well as writings about art and helped bridge the gap between art and the Nepali public’s understanding of associated processes. Contemporary art and literature is considered a niche activity. Proper marketing and outreach is required to make the product accessible to the average consumer. Besides, consistency can also be an issue. Too often, energetic graduates might register organisations and launch initiatives only to burn out within a year or so. Nepali society would benefit more from a sustained effort with a long-term vision rather than trendy initiatives that look bright and shiny. Danfe Arts discontinued the journal but continued to engage with Nepal’s art community, like facilitating a commission for Mini Tamang by the India Art Fair (IAF) in 2025, as part of IAF’s Young Collector’s Program. Tamang’s artwork, ‘Evocative Waves’, was installed at New Delhi’s Stir Art gallery last year. In 2024, Danfe Arts had organised a group exhibition called ‘A Lake That Once Was’ in New Delhi’s Bikaner House to coincide with the India Art Fair, which listed the exhibition as part of its parallel programs. This meant the Nepali artists received more visibility and value among IAF’s much larger audience.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011804014_2a15d57a63c375503965a41396b22c006152368a018450d2617f4c8c076ccc74.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026011804014_2a15d57a63c375503965a41396b22c006152368a018450d2617f4c8c076ccc74" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="998" loading="lazy" alt="arts"> <figcaption>A Lake That Once Was, 2024 at Bikaner House, Delhi.</figcaption> </figure>  Since its inception, Danfe Arts has put out an eclectic mix of programs, demonstrating innovative thinking and effort. With its multi-platform approach, Danfe Arts has collaborated with restaurants like Mezze, putting up an exhibition in November 2025, ‘Bhoye - The Feast’. Danfe Arts is also cultivating relationships with specific artists based on synergies and sensibilities.&nbsp; The history of art practice in Nepal is long and illustrious, but due to political and geographical constraints, esteemed artists have been sheltered and confined within our national borders.&nbsp; By featuring these six artists for the 2026 edition of IAF, Danfe Arts is helping them make regional connections. And as our artists and gallerists show up on global platforms, they might in turn compel Nepalis to view more critically the value of art and how creative practices can contribute positively to society. As technology takes over and AI bots spam the Internet, the issue of originality might become tantamount to survival. We should take risks in our professional pursuits in order to design new communal models of exchange. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; India Art Fair New Delhi 5-8 February&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011804014_f226a31af8a33f8da5e7359886289de3fd1b2db17697b96b909404e582d75124.png" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2026011804014_f226a31af8a33f8da5e7359886289de3fd1b2db17697b96b909404e582d75124" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1875" loading="lazy" alt="arts"> </figure>

Nepali artists at India Art Fair

The series <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/looking-good-by-doing-good">Nepal Made</a> profiles world-class Nepali products and the people behind them. Deepak Acharya was born and raised in Simara, before his uncle took him to Pokhara when he was only in sixth grade. After class, he helped sell jackets and outdoor gear at his uncle's Lakeside store. &nbsp; Twenty-two years later, &nbsp;Acharya is still selling jackets. Not international brands like he used to, but products of his own outdoor gear company, DOLPO.&nbsp; Acharya and his brother-in-law, Krishna Ammai, started making and selling jackets and gear for international companies out of Thamel. After losing his business partner in the 2015 earthquake, he was done selling imported items. He launched his own line of outerwear, named after Nepal’s rugged and remote district, known for its stunning arid landscape. The careful selection of the name DOLPO paid off. It took off, providing a high-quality, affordable Nepal-made alternative to foreign companies.&nbsp; “A lot of work went into choosing the name Dolpo,” says Acharya, who considered what came into people’s minds when they heard the name of a place with double-O sound. “I wanted a brand that local customers would instantly relate to toughness and mountains.” The elegant logo reflects this as well, made up of two overlapping rounded triangles denoting mountains with a third peak in the middle. Underneath is ‘DOLPO’ in upper case sans serif.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260116120148_968d9354094049265372d851d0e44e16ae4fc86b5631481e365e6e977f13d37d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260116120148_968d9354094049265372d851d0e44e16ae4fc86b5631481e365e6e977f13d37d" data-rendition-name="original" width="854" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Dolpo NT"> <figcaption>Photo: DOLPO</figcaption> </figure>  RIGHT QUALITY, RIGHT PRICE “Our philosophy is Right quality, Right price,” says co-founder Deepak Acharya, adding with a smile that the pricing strategy of a particular competitor has made business easy: “The employees at North Face may sell North Face, but they wear Dolpo.” The rebranding was so successful that Acharya regrets not launching it sooner. The reason for the success is that the outdoor gear market in Nepal has taken off with more and more domestic tourists trekking in the high mountains to share their adventures on social media.&nbsp; Nepalis seem to be consciously choosing sustainable, Nepal made products of international quality. Acharya says: “Of course, there will always be a demographic that only wears North Face, or Sonam. But we have the right design, right price philosophy.”&nbsp; DOLPO uses fabric and material mainly from Japan, and adheres to strict quality control. The reversible down jackets, windcheaters, shorts, fleece-lined pants, trekking trousers, backpacks, and polo shirts can be bought through its website, or two exclusive flagship stores in Sorakhutte and Thamel Chok. “After the rebrand, we slowly made a digital platform, marketed online, and worked with a delivery company to get items directly to buyers,” says Acharya. “We have no brokers or middlemen to keep prices low for the consumer.” DOLPO is a family business with Acharya’s mother and sister also involved, and nephew Nishant Ammai driving digital sales. Acharya points out that there is a lot of business opportunity in Nepal, as there are too many low-quality products being sold at too high a price. &nbsp;“The market is begging for an auto-correction,” he says. For Nepal’s pessimistic youth who are fleeing the country, Acharya urges patience: “The younger generation wants shortcuts. The mindset is to set up a venture and in three years they will be set for life. But this is not how success works.” “Choose a field, put in ten years of effort, really learn about it, and then you will see the vast possibility present in Nepal,” he continues.&nbsp; Last month, the DOLPO logo was seen on the jerseys of the Biratnagar Kings in NPL 2. The company made hats, jackets, and jerseys for star-studded cricket players including Lokesh Bam, Sandeep Lamichhane, Faf Du Plessis, and Martin Guptill. The Kings finished second in the group, and although Acharya is a football fan, he is happy to contribute to the rise of cricket in Nepal. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Proud to wear DOLPO

Only a handful of people who witnessed the 1934 megaquake as children are still alive. And the memories of 2015 are fading fast.&nbsp;
We were shaken, but have not stirred into action. We have not even started preparing to be prepared for the inevitable, for it is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’.&nbsp;
Thursday 15 January was National Earthquake Safety Day commemorating the 1934 disaster that killed 10,000 people in Kathmandu Valley at a time when its population was barely 100,000.
Nepal is in an active seismic zone, and a really big one is overdue in the seismic gap in western Nepal where there has not been a megaquake for 500 years. The 7.8M quake in 2015 did not completely release the tectonic stress below Central Nepal.
An 8M+ earthquake epicentred in western Nepal will be even more violent than the 2015 one in Kathmandu and will be powerful enough to cause destruction across northern India as well.&nbsp;
We Nepalis are resilient, but we are also complacent and fatalistic. How else does one explain the unsafe and unplanned building construction in Kathmandu, Pokhara and other towns despite frequent reminders of what quakes can do?&nbsp;
Most designs are ad hoc and follow no engineering logic. Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) is now widespread across the country since such structures mostly withstood the 2015 event. But structural engineers say most concrete buildings are substandard, and can be death traps. Also, the country lacks equipment and training for search and rescue in cement houses.&nbsp;
FIRE HAZARD
If an earthquake struck Kathmandu on a windy winter evening, there is the added risk of fires from gas cylinders in collapsed buildings spreading across the densely packed city core. Fire trucks will not be able to reach those areas because the streets will be blocked.
Seismic risk is now amplified by climate breakdown. Nepal now needs to factor in the co-hazard of massive avalanches and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) triggered by future earthquakes. There are 41 potentially dangerous glacial lakes in the region, and 27 of them are in Tibet feeding rivers that flow into Nepal. A megaquake there could cause multiple simultaneous GLOFs.&nbsp;
If the 2015 earthquake had not happened on a Saturday, tens of thousands of children could have been killed in the 7,000 schools that were flattened. More than 2,500 government buildings came down, and would have killed and trapped many if it had not been a weekend.
Schools and health facilities retrofitted before the disaster were unscathed, and served as shelters for survivors. Chhatrapati Free Clinic (CFC) was reinforced three years before the earthquake for Rs5.2 million, and with support from National Society of Earthquake Technology (NSET), 800 community members were trained in search and rescue.
Bhuwaneswori Secondary School in Bhaktapur and Bal Bikas Secondary School in Kathmandu both survived 2015 because they had been retrofitted. Singha Darbar, the Supreme Court and the Department of Roads buildings were also made seismic resistant after 2015 quake, but the arson attacks on 9 September gutted them.
While many private residential homes built after 2015 continue to flout building codes, municipalities are now stricter. New schools and colleges, hospitals and high rises now have to meet stringent requirements for seismic resistance.
Nepal is a hotspot for many types of disasters — earthquakes, floods, droughts, glacial outbursts, wildfires. These are not ‘natural’ disasters, they are human induced. Earthquakes do not kill people, poorly-built buildings do. Climate breakdown is anthropogenic.&nbsp;
Waiting for a disaster to strike means we have waited too long. Search and rescue readiness are well and good, but much more important is preparedness — seismic resistance structures especially of public buildings, strict zoning to establish open spaces, pre-positioning supplies and simulated drills.
We do not know how much time we have before the next one. But it is not too late to start preparing. &nbsp;
Sonia Awale