K P Oli is Nepal’s Prime Minister for the fourth time. Regardless of the fact that we are just recycling the same old, tried, tested and failed leaders, Oli has now secured himself a position among Nepal's serial prime ministers.&nbsp; He has promised to vacate the chair for coalition partner Sher Bahadur Deuba, who will be PM for the sixth time in 18 months. Deuba has only one more tenure to go to prove his astrologer right. His consort Arzu Deuba was sworn in as foreign minister in the new cabinet this week. Surya Bahadur Thapa of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and Girija Prasad Koirala of NC were prime ministers five times each. Lokendra Bahadur Chand also of RPP has been PM four times, last appointed by the king Gyanendra at the peak of the Maoist conflict after he had dissolved Parliament.&nbsp; Oli first became prime minister in 2015, although he has been a powerful member of the UML ever since the 1990s. His second term was two and a half years later in 2018 after Nepal's first federal elections. The third time he was a minority PM and was in the office for two months before Deuba upstaged him in 2021. Now, the two leaders who backstabbed each other multiple times are partners in government again. There could be no better proof of the truth in the adage that there are no real enemies or friends in politics.&nbsp; Besides Arzu Deuba, the NC has also brought back Prakash Man Singh (son of democracy warrior Ganesh Man Singh) as deputy PM and Minister for Urban Development. Bishnu Paudel of the UML has returned as the Finance Minister for the third time with his work cut out to revive a stagnant economy. His appointment is also under a cloud because his son has been implicated in the Baluwatar land scam.&nbsp; Notably, there are only two women ministers in the cabinet. Besides Arzu Deuba, Bidya Bhattarai replaces Sumana Shrestha of RSP as the Minister of Education. There are no Dalit or Muslim ministers. In these archival images by photojournalist Bikas Rauniar, we trace the political journey of some of these prominent figures, and in their faces we see the passage of time. But we are also reminded that the more things change, the more they remain the same. We see Oli on a street demonstration with Madhav Kumar Nepal (now his nemesis) and other leaders in 1998 protesting inflation and state violence. Two years later, he is at a commemoration of the North Korean National Day in Kathmandu. We also catch a glimpse of Oli with a young Bidya Devi Bhandari, who later became the first female president.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024071617070_5bb57b7aacd98ce990c51a6c2d255bad10c8398bb3dd12b318c6beec3afa2c3f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024071617070_5bb57b7aacd98ce990c51a6c2d255bad10c8398bb3dd12b318c6beec3afa2c3f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2073" height="1285" loading="lazy" alt="K P Oli and Bidya Bandari in 1995"> <figcaption>Home Minister K P Oli , Bidya Devi Bhandari, Mirza Dilshad Beg at Kathmandu airport to see off Haj pilgrims in 1995.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024071617070_a2dbc57c66692d4b0712d16ebf8e62b004359b5b98768008b2e7d47ff6e84a5a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024071617070_a2dbc57c66692d4b0712d16ebf8e62b004359b5b98768008b2e7d47ff6e84a5a" data-rendition-name="original" width="2440" height="1204" loading="lazy" alt="K P Oli in UMP party meeting in 1996"> <figcaption>K P Oli, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bharat Mohan Adhikari and other UML leaders at a parliamentary party meeting at Singha Durbar in 1996.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240716160756_e85cc21bf3cb305e6e46471f323136f72ebe961654cdf55884ec3b83a4927806.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240716160756_e85cc21bf3cb305e6e46471f323136f72ebe961654cdf55884ec3b83a4927806" data-rendition-name="original" width="2357" height="1537" loading="lazy" alt="K O Oli in a protest with Madhav Nepal NT"> <figcaption>K P Oli, Madhav Kumar Nepal and others during a demonstration against the NC government outside Singha Darbar in 1998.</figcaption> </figure>  We also see Arzu Deuba as an activist attending a public hearing on the Arun III project in 1992, and another photo of her with her bespectacled husband, Sher Bahadur Deuba. A 1994 photo captures Prakash Man Singh with his father Ganesh Man Singh at a function.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024071617070_2a7130b955b7c7b41214c528ca93d59cf8d6e6fa6df0301c2fb660384a63725a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2024071617070_2a7130b955b7c7b41214c528ca93d59cf8d6e6fa6df0301c2fb660384a63725a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1332" height="669" loading="lazy" alt="Arzu Deuba at Arun III hearing"> <figcaption>Newly appointed Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba (2nd from left) with Anil Chitrakar, water expert Ajaya Dixit, journalist Rajendra Dahal, hydropower expert Bikash Pandey, Rishi Shah. (Behind) Barbara Adams, Huta Ram Baidya and others during the first public hearing of the Arun III project at Kathmandu Hotel in 1992. Arzu Rana was then working for International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024071617070_0c8b83e82cf7b3b121caf5000f1108a795ce5a8ec718701773a939a69f4a8137.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2024071617070_0c8b83e82cf7b3b121caf5000f1108a795ce5a8ec718701773a939a69f4a8137" data-rendition-name="original" width="1498" height="897" loading="lazy" alt="Arzu Deba during a heritage walk"> <figcaption>Arzu Rana walking with Karna Shakya and others in Thimi during a heritage observation walk in 1995.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024071617074_cc3fbd1e66e8c4f1e9dd381f780f8797a074988acc6f0b56b3710e2057bfba9f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2024071617074_cc3fbd1e66e8c4f1e9dd381f780f8797a074988acc6f0b56b3710e2057bfba9f" data-rendition-name="original" width="2468" height="1437" loading="lazy" alt="Prakash Man Singh and Ganesh Man Singh in 1994"> <figcaption>Prakash Man Singh with his father Ganesh Man Singh, Krishna P Bhattarai, Yog P Upadhyaya during a Nepali Congress rally at Khula Manch in 1994.</figcaption> </figure>  &nbsp;

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Those were the days

<h2>Gold Smuggling</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024032205038_6ff436f3ca5399751402ff6a360edee752b303b526320ae6e8b248f109194db2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2024032205038_6ff436f3ca5399751402ff6a360edee752b303b526320ae6e8b248f109194db2" data-rendition-name="original" width="700" height="600" loading="lazy" alt="Gold smuggling NT"> </figure>  On orders of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, police on Monday <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-s-corruption-carousel">arrested Maoist vice-chair and former House Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara</a> in Bhairawa while he was trying to escape to India. He is accused of involvement in smuggling 60kg of gold concealed in motorcycle brake parts from Hong Kong last year, as well as 9kg of gold concealed inside vape devices in December 2022. Mahara’s son Rahul has been in custody since last August.&nbsp; Police arrested customs officials, Chinese and Indian nationals, and middlemen involved in smuggling the 60kg, while a Chinese trader was detained for gold hidden in e-cigarettes. Police uncovered phone records of Mahara and his son apparently pressuring customs officials to release the seized gold. Other Maoists, including Finance Minister Barsaman Pun, former Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar, son of former vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun Dipesh Pun, are also implicated in the investigation report. &nbsp; Dipesh Pun was found to be directly linked to Dawa Tsering, the Belgian national thought to be the mastermind behind gold smuggling, who was arrested again last week after being released earlier. &nbsp; Finance Minister Barsaman Pun and his brother are alleged to have been in touch with one of the people said to be directly involved in the smuggling. They are so far not under investigation.&nbsp; <h2>Baluwatar Land Grab</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240322050312_a71c350eed753b8a19aec2925a051ed256b766167eabf6a9e7c13ecc93f289ea.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240322050312_a71c350eed753b8a19aec2925a051ed256b766167eabf6a9e7c13ecc93f289ea" data-rendition-name="original" width="1300" height="800" loading="lazy" alt="Lalita Niwas NT"> </figure>  Almost 14.45 hectares of real estate in Baluwatar nationalised by the government was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/crime-and-or-punishment-in-nepal">parcelled out to private owners by brokers</a> since the 1990s under the guise of returning it to Subarna Sumsher’s family. Former prime ministers, ministers, party leaders, bureaucrats, and land revenue officials are all said to have their hands in the honey pot. &nbsp;&nbsp; In 2023, the CIB recommended that the government prosecute those implicated, including former prime ministers Babauram Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal whose Cabinets allowed ownership of the land to be transferred to private entities. Senior UML leader Bijay Gachhadar was named, as was Bishnu Poudel of the UML who later returned a part of the property.&nbsp; Middlemen Ramkumar Subedi and Shobhakant Dhakal, Bhatbhateni Supermarket owner Min Bahadur Gurung, as well as officials of the Land Revenue Office were arrested for alleged involvement last year. Baburam Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal have been spared, and Bishnu Paudel cleared. <h2>Fake Refugee scandal</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240322050312_aca19c77e73d7dc603a1bccad13565768e5facd09d2e53c1d17ede36ddb7ae57.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240322050312_aca19c77e73d7dc603a1bccad13565768e5facd09d2e53c1d17ede36ddb7ae57" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="600" loading="lazy" alt="Fake Bhutanese refugee NT"> </figure>  Reporter Devendra Bhattarai for the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal <a href="https://ekantipur.com/news/2023/03/27/167988439341418193.html">broke the story in Kantipur </a>in March 2023 about top politicians and bureaucrats in cahoots with human traffickers to provide Nepalis with fake refugee papers so they could emigrate to the United States pretending to be from Bhutan. &nbsp; The masterminds were said to be Keshav Dulal, adviser to former Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala, and Sanu Bhandari who worked with former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand with then home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">In May</a>, police arrested Khand as well as UML leaders Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and his son, as well as the son of UML vice chair Ram Bahadur Thapa. Those arrested implicated Arzu Rana Deuba, wife of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Manju Khand, wife of Bal Krishna Khand. Both have denied the accusations and the CIB did not investigate them despite leaked tapes purporting to prove they were paid millions. Bal Krishna Khand was released on bail in December, while Top Bahadur Rayamajhi remains in custody.&nbsp; <h2>Cooperatives fraud</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024032205030_e6ad30233ba5e8c2b399e069a927cd29e34843c363272424b25700af8fa9f69c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="2024032205030_e6ad30233ba5e8c2b399e069a927cd29e34843c363272424b25700af8fa9f69c" data-rendition-name="original" width="800" height="800" loading="lazy" alt="Cooperatives NT"> </figure>  Last year arrest warrants were issued for Galaxy TV co-founder and former chair of Suryadarshan Cooperative G B Rai for embezzling deposits to fund business ventures. Rai is also alleged to have misappropriated more than Rs1 billion from Supreme Cooperative in Butwal and other microfinance institutions in Chitwan, Birganj and Kathmandu. Rai is on the run.&nbsp; Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane was co-founder of Galaxy TV, and was also <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/skeletons-in-the-cabinet-k5x6py1v">accused of cheating cooperatives </a>to bankroll the media company he co-owned. Lamichhane has refuted all allegations and since becoming Home Minister again transferred Kiran Bajracharya, the CIB chief investigating the cooperative fraud case. Instead, he jailed Maoist vice-chair Krishna Bahadur Mahara for his reported involvement in multiple gold smuggling scams and appears to be going after big fish in the NC next.&nbsp; Dipesh Pun, son of former vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun was arrested last week for his involvement in gold smuggling is also one of those named in the Supreme Cooperative fraud case. <h2>Bansbari Land Scam</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024032205034_887d724962f9e585ff9bec4cabf5c5b444a9f42d9723c8d95d7c2d8b4f03bac9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="2024032205034_887d724962f9e585ff9bec4cabf5c5b444a9f42d9723c8d95d7c2d8b4f03bac9" data-rendition-name="original" width="500" height="500" loading="lazy" alt="Land scam Bansbari NT"> </figure>  In February, the CIB arrested Arun Chaudhary of CG Holdings over alleged involvement in the illegal acquisition of 0.51 hectare of the government-owned Bansbari shoe factory. His brother, Nepal’s richest man and NC MP Binod Chaudhary, was also questioned on Thursday. The land was transferred without government approval in 1986 to the Chaudharys' Champion Footwear which is defunct, but the assets are owned by CG Chandbagh Residency, which also runs a school on the land. The CIAA was investigating, but the CIB took over after an <a href="https://www.ukaalo.com/ukaalo-vishesh/221022-cg-possession-in-bansbari/360">investigative report by Deepa Dahal in Ukaalo</a>. &nbsp;

Heads Roll

It seems like just yesterday that the momentous story broke. Police started investigating the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">fake Bhutanese refugee scandal</a>, and Nepalis held their breath. At last it looked like justice would be done.&nbsp;
Police followed the digital trail from middlemen who hoodwinked hundreds of Nepalis to part with millions of rupees. Phone records and text messages led them to the highest people in the land. Former ministers and secretaries were tracked down and arrested.&nbsp;
<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass">The story</a> was first broken in a piece commissioned by the Centre for Investigative Journalism Nepal, and written by Devendra Bhattarai for Kantipur daily in June. Despite state malfunction, it finally looked like press freedom, democracy and the rule of law were intact in Nepal after all.&nbsp;
Morale in the police and investigation agencies went up, journalists were encouraged that coverage had impact. After all, previous police inspectors and even the Commission on Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had received the complaints about being swindled by <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">fake refugee middlemen and their political patrons</a>, but had filed them away.&nbsp;
But it was all too good to last. SSP Manoj KC and AIG Shyam Gyawali, the two police inspectors leading the team investigating the refugee scam, were transferred.&nbsp;
We have since learnt that the Maoist Home Minister was under pressure to do so from topmost Nepali Congress (NC) leaders and their consorts of whom police had evidence of collusion. Not surprisingly, KC was replaced by Basanta Kunwar, the same police inspector who had earlier buried the complaint.
More scandals then erupted, including those involving the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/crime-and-or-punishment-in-nepal">sale of Baluwatar real estate</a> and gold ornaments at Pashupati.&nbsp;
In none of these were Maoist officials involved.&nbsp;
Then, as if on cue, 100kg of gold was found being smuggled from Hong Kong concealed as motorcycle brake pads. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-gets-gold-medal-for-corruption">Investigations led to senior Maoists and their progeny</a>, and it emerged that the organised criminals has used brake pads and vapes numerous times before.&nbsp;
Now, with all three of Nepal’s main parties neck-deep in muck, the scandals cancelled each other out. Backroom deals ensured ‘I will not probe your scandal if you don’t probe mine’.
Fast forward two months: none of these monsoon scandals have come to anything. Some small fish have been netted, other bigger fish are out on bail, but the cases are not going anywhere. This week, the CIAA made a show of framing a sitting Commerce Secretary on an unrelated budget allocation. Its chief is clearly trying to distract us from his earlier cover-up of the Bhutan refugee case.
The media has moved on, social media is captivated by the viral video of the day, and the three main parties are glad Nepalis suffer collective amnesia. Mainstream politicians are back to impunity as usual, using the Constitution Day pardon list to get President Ram Chandra Poudel to release a notorious gangster serving a 20-year jail term for murder.&nbsp;
They are playing politics with rising <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/east-is-east">ethno-religious tensions in Kosi Province</a> and across the Tarai where social networking sites have been weaponised with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/borderlines/crimson-saffron-and-green">Hindutva hate speech</a>. Throughout all this, the prime minister disappeared for nearly three weeks on a round the world photo-op.
It does not look like the gerontocracy of the NC, the Maoists or the UML have seen the writing on the wall. They were up on the balcony of Gaddi Baithak on Indra Jatra on 28 September (pictured) and must have witnessed the frenzied welcome for Mayor Balen Shah. Still stuck in partisan power struggles, they underestimate the anti-establishment public mood.&nbsp;
Independents and alternative parties are riding a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-populist-party-balenist">populist anti-incumbent wave </a>among Nepali youth. The dinosaurs of Nepali politics are oblivious to the approaching asteroid.&nbsp;

State malfunction

On 18 July, the Department of Revenue raided the cargo terminal at Kathmandu airport and seized 61kg of gold being smuggled in from Hong Kong hidden inside brake shoes of two-wheelers. Although this was the biggest haul of contraband gold in the country’s sordid history, it emerged that the smugglers had already carried out similar jobs dozens of times before.
In the days following the raid, Nepal Police arrested 21 individuals involved, including customs officials, Chinese and Indian nationals, and middlemen. Top politicians and their cronies who were the alleged masterminds were not touched.
The names included former Maoist minister Barshaman Pun, former speaker Onsari Gharti Magar, the family of former vice-president Nanda Kishor Pun, and Maoist Centre vice-chair Krishna Bahadur Mahara and his son.
Mahara was also said to be involved in another gold smuggling operation in December 2022 in which a Chinese national was found to have brought in gold concealed inside e-cigarettes at the airport
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/crime-and-or-punishment-in-nepal">Crime and/or Punishment in Nepal</a>, Sonia Awale
Investigative journalists then uncovered Mahara &amp; Son trying to pressure officials to release the gold for auction. The Maoist leader has denied being involved, but police have phone records to prove otherwise. Meantime, the gold itself has vanished from storage.&nbsp;
The stench from scam after scam this year has become unbearable. If this was an international tournament, Nepal should get the Gold Medal for corruption. And these are just the scandals that we know about, away from the spotlight there is rampant extortion by politicians and bureaucrats of businesses throughout the land.
Interestingly, not a single politician from the Maoist party of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha is behind bars. Nepali Congress (NC), opposition UML and Maoist defectors are in jail for the fake Bhutanese refugee scandal. The Lalita Niwas real estate scam has implicated just about everyone, even those who bought the property. But no Maoists.&nbsp;
Since senior figures from all three main parties are now entangled in one scandal or the other, a devious effort is afoot to protect each other from prosecution. It seems Nepal’s feuding politicians can only agree to scratching each other’s backs during their three-party meetings to discuss the UML obstruction of the house over the gold smuggling case.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">In a Federal Kleptocratic Republic of Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki
NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba has continuously and blatantly blocked attempts to investigate his wife Arzoo Rana in the refugee scam, and pressured Prime Minister Dahal this week to transfer Kathmandu Valley police chief AIG Shyam Gyawali, SSP Manoj KC of the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office, and Chief of Kathmandu Police SSP Dan Bahadur Karki. Dahal was only too happy to oblige since his comrades were also knee-deep in scandals.
The move has blindsided Home Minister Shrestha and brought into question his public commitment to rid the country of corruption.&nbsp;
As it stands, Nepal’s jumbo coalition government is held together only by mutual distrust. Deuba and other parties of the coalition are keeping close watch so Dahal does not direct ongoing investigations towards their own leadership in retaliation. And Dahal needs Deuba so he can remain in power to continue to loot in cahoots with cronies.
Nepal’s Supreme Court also ordered investigations into CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Kumar Nepal and Nepal Socialist Party head Baburam Bhattarai in the Lalita Niwas scam, but that has not gone anywhere. Both parties are in the coalition.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass">Losing our moral compass</a>, Editorial
Meanwhile, the government has concluded that the Gaur Massacre does not need an investigation. Dozens of Maoist cadres were brutally massacred in a 2007 confrontation. But since Upendra Yadav who was said to have masterminded it is now a key member of the ruling coalition, Dahal is willing to let bygones be bygones.
While scandals are erupting thick and fast, the Maoists are mum about their own embezzlement 15 years ago of billions meant for their former guerrillas in UN-supervised demobilisation camps whose numbers they have admitted to inflating.
Even as the Prime Minister and the Home Minister keep giving speeches saying the rule of law applies to all equally, it looks like some are more equal than others. With a few exceptions, none of the big fish have been netted, and even those who have could now be let go because investigating officers have been removed and replaced with yes men.&nbsp;
Early on, it really did look like Home Minister Shrestha, the CIB and the Police were going after the big crooks, and that this would deter thievery. Alas, that was wishful thinking. The politicisation of crime and criminalisation of politics is now complete.
Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/political-trash">Political trash</a>, Shristi Karki

Nepal gets Gold Medal for corruption

The first time I met <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/bhutan-s-refugees-between-hope-and-despair" target="_blank">Tek Nath Rizal</a> in Siliguri in 2000, it was inconceivable that he could one day be entangled in a scandal involving Nepalis trying to get <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top" target="_blank">fake refugee documents</a> to be resettled in the United States. Rizal was then just exiled after serving a decade long jail term, reduced from life sentence, but had not joined the other exiled leaders then. This was a man who advocated for the cause of genuine refugees, not creating fake ones. During my college days in Kathmandu I had read many accounts of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-tragedy-of-tek-nath-rizal-2g4dahmr" target="_blank">Rizal’s commitment to democracy</a>, identity and human rights against the oppressive Bhutan government. While in self-imposed exile in Nepal, the Panchayat regime deported him back to Bhutan in 1989 after which he was jailed and tortured for ten long years.&nbsp; I got to know Rizal personally while working with him on the initial draft of his book, निर्वासन. We spent countless evenings together, transcribing his dictations into text, and trying to give it structure and coherence.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230711150732_272acb29ed7f9018f8ef08a3c9f50f6094230fe3df9737ea8d236cefb33e6a2b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20230711150732_272acb29ed7f9018f8ef08a3c9f50f6094230fe3df9737ea8d236cefb33e6a2b" data-rendition-name="original" width="2550" height="1700" loading="lazy" alt="tek nath rizal books"> </figure>  It was evident that Rizal suffered from post-traumatic stress from <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17869" target="_blank">physical and mental torture during his incarceration</a>, much of which was spent in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/political-prisoners-languish-in-bhutan-s-jails" target="_blank">solitary confinement</a>. He would interrupt his recollections to curse individuals who had betrayed him, and at other times he would turn despondent over the loss of trusted companions. Recalling the "dual-role" officials played in Thimphu would incite furious outbursts from him. Rizal was known for straightforwardness in conversation, he was blunt and to the point. What you saw was what he was: it seemed like he was incapable of subterfuge. &nbsp; Initially in Kathmandu, his primary supporter and benefactor was Hiranyalal Shrestha and Krishna Pahadi who actively backed the cause of refugees from Bhutan. Shrestha was later sent as Nepal’s ambassador to Moscow. I helped Rizal relocate to his office from Sanepa to the Pulchok area. Along the way, Rizal has been deceived numerous times by close friends and trusted government officials, both in Bhutan and Nepal. He felt specially betrayed by Om Pradhan, the former Bhutan Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York and a former Minister for Trade and Industries. The latest betrayal is happening in Kathmandu, where at age 76 he has been jailed on charges of colluding with senior Nepali officials in a scam to get more than 800 Nepali citizens to pay for getting fake refugee papers, so they can be <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/who-stands-with-bhutanese-refugees-in-nepal" target="_blank">resettled in the United States</a>. Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">Rot at the top</a>, Shristi Karki Indrajit Rai, who wrote the foreword to Rizal’s book <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17869" target="_blank">Torture: Killing Me Softly</a>, possibly turned out to be the person to drag him into this scandal. Rizal had placed immense faith in Nepal’s bureaucrats and politicians to resolve the refugee problem. In his early days in Kathmandu some 18 years ago, Rizal was treated like a VIP. He received special treatment in hospitals, the Human Rights Commission, media outlets, the Foreign Ministry, and some foreign embassies. Refugee advocacy groups used his contacts to gain access to offices that were otherwise off limits. Newspapers and radio stations often interviewed him about the refugee question. One national daily even found his visit to a barbershop in Lalitpur to be newsworthy enough to warrant coverage. Tek Nath Rizal's dedication to fighting corruption stemmed from his revolutionary background as a human rights activist in Bhutan. He fearlessly reported corrupt practices by district and sub-divisional heads in Bhutan to King Jigme IV when he served as a member of the royal audit team. His commitment to justice led him to play an active role in Parliament, particularly in the issuance of citizenship ID cards to people from southern and eastern Bhutan. From these early days to his position in the Royal Advisory Council, Rizal amplified the concerns of ordinary people of whatever ethnicity in Bhutan. &nbsp; Along the way, he must have made enemies. And it was this dedication and integrity that eventually landed him in the notorious prisons of Bhutan, after being extradited from Nepal in 1989. Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">In a Federal Kleptocratic Republic of Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki I personally have witnessed first-hand the toll that the years of solitary confinement had taken on him. He would wake up in the middle of the night, pace the floor speaking aloud to himself. He would smoke a pack of cigarettes to calm his nerves, and I can only imagine the kind of mental distress he was going through. Once again, Rizal finds himself trapped within the walls of a prison cell. He has been betrayed again, this time as a scapegoat. Rizal did not have the means to create fake documents containing Nepal government seals on official letterheads.&nbsp; While listening to some audio recordings, it becomes clear that he may have unwittingly assisted the criminals under the misguided belief that it would benefit genuine refugees. I am mystified why Rizal was oblivious to the falsification of documents, and consented even to be associated with such criminals. Jogen Gazmer was deported to Bhutan with Rizal and Sushil Pokhrel in 1989 whom Amnesty International &nbsp;declared Prisoners of Conscience in Wangdi Phodrang prison. Gazmer was released in 1992, while Rizal continued to be locked up for another eight years. Gazmer now lives in Australia and is convinced that Rizal was framed. Rizal’s son, Vikram, lives in Canada and is convinced his father was a whistleblower. He is targetted by the very Nepali politicians whom he had repeatedly warned about the fake refugee scam. In his deposition after arrest in Kathmandu, Rizal explicitly mentioned that the Nepal government refugee allowance was withdrawn when he began reporting individuals impersonating officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs to make fake documents. Rizal went to the police a year ago to say that there were threats against him in Birtamod from those who had paid money to be refugee impostors. We do not know if the police acted on this complaint. &nbsp; Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/crime-and-or-punishment-in-nepal">Crime and/or Punishment in Nepal</a>, Sonia Awale Questions also remain about the fake Bhutan Human Rights Organisation and why Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs felt it necessary to obtain Rizal's signature on refugee resettlement documents, when he had never been asked to sign any such papers during previous phases of the program. This appears to be a deliberate move to make him culpable through unnecessary involvement. As the case unfolds, Tek Nath Rizal's character and lifelong dedication to justice and human rights must also be considered. The truth must prevail, and Rizal deserves a fair chance to prove his innocence without undue prejudice. Buddha Mani Dhakal lives in Kentucky, and is the former Chief Editor at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan_News_Service" target="_blank">Bhutan News Service</a>.

Scapegoating a champion of democracy

A former deputy prime minister, an ex-home minister, an erstwhile election commissioner, a senior government secretary and dozens of others are behind bars in a sweeping government crackdown on corruption.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">Big heads have rolled</a>, but are bigger heads being deliberately spared? The<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top"> fake Bhutan refugee scandal</a> and the organised crime behind the Lalita Niwas real estate scam have shown that Nepal’s media, investigation agencies, law enforcement and court system are all playing their check and balance roles. However, there is a whiff of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/rule-of-the-lawless">political vendetta</a> in some of the arrests, and concerns that even bigger fish are being let off the hook. There is also apprehension that loopholes in existing laws will be used for the guilty to get away, and some of the innocent who were duped by middlemen will be made scapegoats.&nbsp; “Politicians have made a mess of our legal and judicial system, they are strategically introducing and amending laws to suit their purpose,” says Padmini Pradhananga of the Nepal chapter of Transparency International.&nbsp; “The government has proposed a five-year time limit for prosecuting corruption,” she adds. “There can never be a statute of limitation in corruption cases, this is just unacceptable” Eyebrows are also being raised about why a coalition government in which both the prime minister and home minister are from the Maoist party has chosen to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/i-speak-nothing-but-the-truth-your-honour">prosecute</a> these two high profile corruption cases so doggedly. Not a single senior Maoist figure has been implicated in either scandal, and the first senior politicians to be named were Top Bahadur Raymajhi and Ram Bahadur Thapa, both former Maoists who defected to the UML in 2021. Independent observers say that although there is evidence against most of the accused so far in both cases of corruption in high places, there does not seem to be the same eagerness to probe <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/from-nepali-press/CIAA-under-threat,124">alleged embezzlement</a> by Maoist leaders of government allowances to the nearly 20,000 former guerrillas being demobilised in UN-supervised camps after the ceasefire.&nbsp; Hari Bahadur Thapa, author of the 2017 book Rajagj which examines <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-shortsighted-view-tower-craze">corruption</a> cases in Nepal’s recent history, says both the fake refugee scandal and the Lalita Niwas scam are manifestations of a corrupt bureaucracy that is rotten to the core and has contaminated the polity. The twin scandals rocking the highest levels of the Nepal government come at a time when the nine-party <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/the-reign-god">coalition of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal </a>is looking increasingly fragile. Part of the reason is Parliamentary arithmetics, but it is also because of the prime minister’s proclivity to ad lib. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/political-trash">Political trash</a>, Shristi Karki Coalition members themselves have been critical of the<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-tax-system-widens-rich-poor-gap"> new budget</a>, but Dahal managed to pacify them by offering pork-barrel funds. And when news leaked of the opposition UML making overtures to dissidents within the Nepali Congress, the prime minister responded by bringing together five leftist parties (except the UML) to form a loose Socialist Front.&nbsp; Prime Minister Dahal is facing flak for an unscripted remark at a book launch this week in which he said a Sikh transport tycoon had gone to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/super-hit-or-super-flop">New Delhi </a>to try to make him prime minister. A video clip of the remark lit fireworks on social media that led to opposition parties disrupting Parliament and demanding Dahal’s resignation. &nbsp;&nbsp; All this brouhaha is distracting attention from the ongoing investigations into the two scandals. Most of those charged appear to have been involved in varying degrees of wrongdoing. After last year’s elections in which i<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/rise-of-the-independents">ndependent and alternative candidates made a strong showing</a>, the Maoists may have read the writing on the wall and want to clean up their image to distinguish themselves from other established parties in the coalition and the opposition. It was the media that first exposed the fake refugee scam and has been uncovering some of the sordid details in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-oligarchy">Baluwatar land scam</a>. The Nepal Police and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) also appear to have been given a free hand in pursuing the cases. &nbsp;&nbsp; “Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha has repeatedly reassured people that no one involved in the scam will be spared. Let’s give him the benefit of doubt, at least he is cracking down on the culprits,” says former government secretary Khem Raj Regmi. He adds: “This gives the public a real hope that other corruption cases like the wide body scandal will also be investigated. But we have to keep prosecuting corruption cases right till the end, we can’t be complacent.” However, this has not absolved Home Minister Shrestha from allegations that his party is pursuing political vendetta, and at the same time trying to limit the investigation to mid-level political figures. &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepal-populist-party-balenist">Nepal Populist Party (Balenist)</a>, Editorial  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230706090748_c439bb466484b25194143c12022cc974a1eb1b5435dc0254c8f7f1548efd1389.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20230706090748_c439bb466484b25194143c12022cc974a1eb1b5435dc0254c8f7f1548efd1389" data-rendition-name="original" width="3600" height="2288" loading="lazy" alt="Page 4 RSS"> <figcaption>ALL SMILES: Prime Minister Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the CPN (US) at a function this week in Bhaktapur. Nepal has been implicated in the Baluwatar land grab scam. Photo: PRADEEP RAJ ONTA/RSS</figcaption> </figure>  When the police dragnet started to widen in May, the three top leaders of the Maoist Centre, Nepali Congress and the UML circled their wagons and held lengthy meetings in Baluwatar in what was seen as a damage control exercise to ensure that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass">the investigation </a>did not reach the highest echelons.&nbsp; For example, Arzoo Deuba, the wife of NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba, has not been investigated despite being implicated, as others who were arrested were, in testimonies on the fake Bhutanese refugee scandal. Likewise, former prime ministers Babauram Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal have also been spared so far in the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandu-s-unreal-real-estate-prices">Lalita Niwas scam</a> even though their Cabinets allowed ownership of government land to be transferred to private entities.&nbsp; ‘If they do not go after people like Arzoo Deuba, Baburam Bhattarai and Madhav Kumar Nepal, they cannot accuse those lower down who were just following orders,’ argued &nbsp;senior advocate Balkrishna Neupane in an interview with Everest News. ‘All this boils down to the involvement of politicians post multi-party democracy in organised crime.’ The two scandals have also bolstered the argument of monarchists who have been engaged in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/now-and-then">heated debate in the public sphere</a> about whether Nepal was better governed during the Panchayat days. They say the fake refugee scandal is high treason, and the real estate scam is indication that the rot goes right to the top.&nbsp; However, it could also be argued that the scandals have been exposed and investigated precisely because Nepal has a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/monopoly-on-information">free media</a>, functioning rule of law and independent investigations.&nbsp; The concern now is the politicisation of the judiciary and the CIAA (Commission on the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority) and whether they are being restricted to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/ciaa-traps-small-fish-lets-big-ones-go">investigating only mid-level bureaucrats and selected politicians</a>. Indeed, the CIAA in 2020 had under political pressure quashed the investigation into the forgery of land titles of Lalita Niwas, and the CIB revived the case only after Shrestha became home minister.&nbsp; “In Nepal, we have national unity only in high level corruption cases where the top leadership are hand in glove with each other,” says Khem Raj Regmi former secretary who also served as president of Transparency International Nepal. “For example, in the Sudan APC scam, there was no paper trail to implicate politicians, and the police took the fall.” In 2017, three former police chiefs were jailed for misappropriating Rs288 million while purchasing armoured personnel carriers and other logistics for the Nepal Police peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur. The kickbacks would not have been possible without collusion at the highest levels of government.&nbsp; Unlike in the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/04/30/shadow-over-elections/">Sudan Scam</a>, the Lalita Niwas case has files with signed documents by ex-prime ministers Bhattarai and Nepal but the CIAA cited a legal provision that policy decisions by the Cabinet are out of bounds to shelve the probe. The anti-graft body was investigating the case after former secretary Sarada Prasad Trital led an investigation committee on the Lalita Niwas land scam at the behest of the UML government at the time. “We have now reached a point where corruption is taking a dangerous form of organised crime,” says investigative journalist and author Hari Bahadur Thapa. “There are also indications that political rivalry is driving some of the investigations.” Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-tragedy-of-tek-nath-rizal-2g4dahmr">The tragedy of Tek Nath Rizal</a>, Editorial The CIAA also spared those who returned Lalita Niwas property, including senior UML politician <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/let-them-eat-cake">Bishnu Poudel</a>. But others who also returned land they bought were not accorded the same concession and are in the CIB dragnet. Those who innocently bought property from real estate agents but were not otherwise involved are also being investigated.&nbsp; Explains Regmi: “Not all Cabinet decisions are policy decisions, the CIAA should have allowed the court to decide that. The fact that they did not means that there was political interference.”&nbsp; There have been many complaints over the years that the CIAA has been<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/commission-for-the-abuse-of-authority-karki-impeachment,3335"> used by politicians to go after rivals and for extortion</a>. Calls for it to be headed by independent and credible individuals have never been heeded.&nbsp; “It is clear for everyone to see that major players were being protected with the excuse that they made policy decisions in Cabinet. If only the CIAA had worked more honestly, we would not be in this mess,” adds author Thapa. Pradhananga of Transparency International agrees that politicians want to call everything a ‘policy decision’ so that no one can challenge them. She says: “This is the same as saying we are not allowed to question them once they are elected. In that case, what is the use of the CIAA? Policy decisions are supposed to be for the public good, not for personal gain.” Prime Minister Dahal has been using the anti-corruption crusade launched by Home Minister Shrestha as proof that his party is committed to root out corruption. He has vowed that senior political figures will not be spared.&nbsp; Even critics give Dahal and Shrestha credit for re-opening the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-has-to-curb-corruption-before-wooing-investors">corruption files</a>. The fake refugee scandal has further dented Nepal’s international standing and the Lalita Niwas land grab has shown that Nepal has been hollowed out by corruption.&nbsp; “Nepal has lost the goodwill and trust of the world,” says Pradhananga. “We have damaged our reputation for loyalty and bravery. It will have consequences for big projects in Nepal and our diaspora.”&nbsp; The investigations into the two scandals demonstrate that there is political will to set things right – but only if the probes are free from <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/chief-justice-suspension-linked-to-mcc-ratification">political interference</a>.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/real-refugees-want-to-go-back-to-bhutan">Real refugees want to go back to Bhutan</a>, Sujata Dhungana

Sonia Awale

Crime and/or Punishment in Nepal

There was silence in the chamber of the Kathmandu District Court as Bhutan’s refugee leader <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/bhutan-s-refugees-between-hope-and-despair" target="_blank">Tek Nath Rizal</a> started to speak. He began in a soft and measured voice, recounting his <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/bhutan-king-must-free-political-prisoners" target="_blank">struggle for freedom and citizenship</a> for which he was hounded, persecuted, tortured and imprisoned in Bhutan. His &nbsp;voice rose as he protested his arrest on complicity in recommending &nbsp;Nepalis to obtain fake refugee papers for resettlement in the United &nbsp;States. Looking behind him at over a dozen accused, including two former &nbsp;ministers, a government secretary, recruiters and their accomplices, he &nbsp;said: “These are the crooks who have insulted us Bhutanese refugees, &nbsp;these senior government officials are solely responsible for the crime &nbsp;that has brought them here.” Former minister and deputy prime &nbsp;minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, who defected from the Maoist-Centre to &nbsp;the UML, former NC home minister Bal Krishna Khand and secretary Tek &nbsp;Narayan Pandey and others listened expressionless. Rizal then &nbsp;turned to the judge, pounded the rostrum with his fist, and thundered: &nbsp;“I cannot take such humiliation anymore, how can these scoundrels extort &nbsp;Nepalis in the name of resolving the issue of 6,000 remaining refugees &nbsp;from Bhutan?” Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">Rot at the top</a>, Shristi Karki A &nbsp;few days later on 20 June, the District Court ordered Rizal, Rayamajhi, &nbsp;Khand and 13 others into judicial custody. Twelve more accused are &nbsp;still at large in a scam that involved extorting up to Rs5 million each &nbsp;from 875 Nepalis to make fake refugee documents, and tricking them into &nbsp;thinking that the resettlement program had been reopened.&nbsp; Rizal &nbsp;was arrested after police found evidence that one of the accused &nbsp;recruiters had paid Rizal Rs700,000. And in a deposition before the &nbsp;government attorney, Rizal is said to have told Minister Rayamajhi in &nbsp;2019 that he was not concerned about fake Bhutan refugees being &nbsp;resettled as long as the welfare of genuine refugees was addressed. Tek &nbsp;Nath Rizal is a leading Bhutanese pro-democracy leader and was an &nbsp;Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience who spent nearly 10 years &nbsp;in jail in Bhutan. Rizal used to be a royal counsel and head of Bhutan’s &nbsp;anti-corruption bureau, but was targeted by the regime for speaking out &nbsp;against persecution of the country’s Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people. Fearing &nbsp;arrest, Rizal fled to Nepal in 1988 but was arrested kidnap-style by &nbsp;the Panchayat regime and deported to Bhutan after which he was mostly in &nbsp;solitary confinement in the notorious Chemgang Prison being physically &nbsp;and mentally tortured for 10 years. Rizal has documented much of this in &nbsp;his 2010 book, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17869" target="_blank">Torture: Killing Me Softly.</a> An investigative story by Devendra Bhattarai <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/political-prisoners-languish-in-bhutan-s-jails" target="_blank">published in this paper in 2021</a> &nbsp;listed other prisoners, many of whom had served decades in jail in &nbsp;Chemgang without visits by the ICRC. One of them, who had been released, &nbsp;brought out a photograph of the jail cell in which Rizal had etched &nbsp;into the cement wall the sacred Hindu Gayatri Mantra.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230620130628_74b87ea0f1a3d5bf1853c7632eff33cfe69f63daef2c50e95a0bfe56a634909c.png" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20230620130628_74b87ea0f1a3d5bf1853c7632eff33cfe69f63daef2c50e95a0bfe56a634909c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1092" height="1356" loading="lazy" alt="Tek nath rizal gayatri mantra"> <figcaption>A photograph of the jail cell in which Rizal had etched into the cement wall the sacred Hindu Gayatri Mantra.</figcaption> </figure>  It was <a href="https://cijnepal.org.np/gang-extorts-millions-by-adding-fake-schedule-to-report-on-bhutanese-refugees/">Bhattarai’s story</a> &nbsp;in March that first exposed the story of hundreds of Nepalis who had &nbsp;been duped by recruiters into paying them large sums in return for fake &nbsp;refugee documents. The recruiters were arrested, and soon started &nbsp;singing to the police and implicating senior government officials who &nbsp;were given a cut from the extortion racket.&nbsp; It is hard to &nbsp;believe that someone with Rizal’s history of struggle would have been &nbsp;involved in helping Nepalis get fake citizenship papers. Rizal is said &nbsp;to have admitted to police that he did indeed borrow Rs700,000 from one &nbsp;of the recruiters, but for some other purpose and that he had returned &nbsp;the money.&nbsp; Another accused has told police he paid Rizal Rs1.1 &nbsp;million to sign off on the citizenship of 34 fake refugees. Rizal has &nbsp;admitted to signing some of the citizenship papers when Rayamajhi asked &nbsp;him to, and indeed, many of the fake Bhutan citizenship papers are said &nbsp;to be from Rizal’s constituency of Lamidanda.&nbsp; In a deposition to &nbsp;the police, Minister Rayamajhi is said to have taken Rizal to meet &nbsp;Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoists and Sher Bahadur Deuba of the NC when &nbsp;they were prime ministers. Rizal told the court his purpose in meeting &nbsp;them was to warn them of the fake refugee scam, and also to reinstate &nbsp;the Rs100,000 monthly allowance that had been suspended.&nbsp; Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">In a Federal Kleptocratic Republic of Nepal,</a> Shristi Karki From &nbsp;what we have heard of the evidence presented to police so far, it looks &nbsp;like the kingpins used Rizal’s credibility and respect in the refugee &nbsp;community to convince fake refugees that the scheme had official &nbsp;sanction. It may also be that Rizal signed the papers in return for &nbsp;fulfilment of his demands for reunion of family members. There is &nbsp;also the question within Nepal of whether the really big fish have been &nbsp;caught. There is said to be evidence of the three top leaders of the &nbsp;parties instructing police to just investigate those caught so far, and &nbsp;not go further up the food chain.&nbsp; “I stayed behind in Nepal even &nbsp;though most refugees have been resettled because I wanted to either go &nbsp;back to my homeland, or be a refugee in the land of my ancestors,” Rizal &nbsp;told the court.&nbsp; Whatever the final verdict in Rizal’s case, it &nbsp;has done irreparable harm to the Nepali state, bureaucracy and the &nbsp;Bhutan refugee leadership. The only entity to gain from this sordid tale &nbsp;is the Bhutan regime that 30 years ago evicted one-sixth of its &nbsp;population.&nbsp; Rizal, who spent 10 years in prison in Bhutan, faces the tragic prospect of more jail time in Nepal.

The tragedy of Tek Nath Rizal

The fake refugee scandal that is rocking the government is only the latest outrage that Nepalis have witnessed. Indeed, they are so inured to corruption in high places that most have taken it as a given.&nbsp;
But even by the standards of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">Nepal’s kleptocracy</a>, this one is blatant in its planning and execution, implicating the very ministries entrusted with internal security, and one that has tainted Nepal’s global standing. It is proof that Nepal’s ruling class has lost its moral compass.
For the moment we can only take some comfort from the fact that Nepal’s independent media is taking its check and balance role seriously at a time when the three other pillars of our democracy are tottering. The Police has also so far been conducting their investigations diligently.
Because of the intense scrutiny by the media, civil society and individual Nepalis on social media platforms, any attempt to prevent the prosecution of the culprits will now be seen as an even bigger crime than the scam itself.
In so many ways, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">fake Bhutanese refugee scam</a> is a reflection of everything that is wrong with the people who have ruled Nepal since 1991, and they tend to be the same people and parties.
Read on: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">Rot at the top</a>, Shristi Karki
The attempt to trick desperate Nepalis to pay up hefty sums to go to America when third country resettlement of Bhutanese was closed seven years ago itself speaks to the brazenness of the crime.
As Nepal’s newest MP, Swarmin Wagle of the RSP, put it during a discussion in Kathmandu this week: this is fraud, corruption, human trafficking, transnational organised crime, and sedition, all rolled into one.
“There has been a meticulous legalisation of corruption through amendments in Parliament. So we seem to be creating a corruption-friendly regime,” said Wagle. “Our legal system needs to be able to catch up with those who are corrupt.”
The scam was possible in the first place because Nepal’s legal system allows it. Our Parliament is a farce, the judiciary is guilty of abetting the guilty, and impunity prevails upon the land.&nbsp;
Despite widespread concern, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/nepal-s-transitional-justice-and-the-west-s-recalibration">Transitional Justice Bill</a> which allows war criminals to literally get away with murder was rushed through Parliament. It gave a clean chit to Maoists and state-side perpetrators of conflict-era atrocities. The Bill even made the disingenuous distinction between ‘murder’ and ‘extreme murder’.
In 2020, then communication minister <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/alpha-males">Gokul Baskota</a> was caught on tape soliciting a Rs700 million bribe for a security printing press. Less than two years later in the 2022 November federal elections, Baskota was voted to Parliament from Kavre-2.
There are scandals involving Maoist leaders pocketing compensation money meant for their guerrillas, kickbacks on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/aborted-landing-in-nijgad">international airport deals</a>, payoffs for hydropower licenses. The list is so long it will exceed the word length for this Editorial.
Despite all these elephants in the room, Nepal’s conservative male politicians are obsessed about what RSP MP Sumana Shrestha wears in Parliament. The fact that her t-shirt and Chino was even a topic for discussion exposes not just blatant misogyny, but also a collective inability to discern our priorities and address the real issues affecting Nepalis. The contrast to a male MP who dared disrobe on the floor of the House not being an issue could not have been more stark.
Read on: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-a-federal-kleptocratic-republic-of-nepal">In a Federal Kleptocratic Republic of Nepal</a>, Shristi Karki
When impunity is rife and morals become elastic, we cannot fault desperate Nepalis attempting to break the law by trying to make fake refugee documents. 
 The scandals are coming thick and fast. A respected 75-year-old agriculture expert in Khotang is caught in a Setopati exposé abusing girls in a school he founded.&nbsp;
Elsewhere, rapper Balen Shah who campaigned as the voice of the impoverished has since started upsetting the apple cart of street vendors in the name of cleaning up the streets. What happened to his election promise of segregating <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/multimedia/nepal-still-mixing-garbage-with-politics">Kathmandu’s garbage</a> at source?
The media also <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/investigation-introspection-and-investment-in-media">needs to self-reflect</a>. Although it was the relentless pursuit of the story <a href="https://ekantipur.com/news/2023/03/27/167988439341418193.html">by Kantipur</a> and other media that the fake refugee scam is throwing up more high profile guilty, the proof of the pudding will be in the persecution of the guilty.
The media cannot be an island of integrity when society has been hollowed out by corruption and wrongdoing. Journalists need to be even more careful to be objective, and not become mouthpieces for the highest bidders. This is even more crucial at a time when populism and ultranationalist sentiments have permeated all sectors of the state.
Sonia Awale

Losing our moral compass

Former Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi had been on the run ever since he was named as one of high ranking officials involved in a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top">fake refugee scandal</a>. After being MIA for 10 days, he was finally arrested on Sunday evening. Rayamajhi is a former Maoist guerrilla commander who defected to the UML, and served in the K P Oli government after 2018. Warrants for his and his son’s arrest were issued on 3 May. His son was detained the same day, but Rayamajhi reportedly fled to India and was finally arrested in Kathmandu.&nbsp; He is the highest ranking former government official to go down in a scandal that has so far snared another former home minister from the Nepali Congress (NC), Bal Krishna Khand, government secretaries, middlemen and masterminds of a scheme to send hundreds of Nepalis pretending to be Bhutanese refugees to the United States. The story came out after <a href="https://ekantipur.com/news/2023/03/27/167988439341418193.html">an expose in Kantipur</a> in March in which Nepalis who had paid up to Rs5 million to recruiters to take them to the US as refugees from Bhutan lodged complaints against them. They had paid to have falsified documents to be on a list of Bhutanese refugees who were supposed to be resettled in the US, even though the relocation scheme had been closed since 2016. On 10 May, former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand was arrested from Kathmandu after being implicated in the scam. Bal Krishna Khand’s wife Manju, who is also an MP, has also been incriminated, and is said to be on the run.&nbsp; MP Arzu Rana Deuba, the wife of NC leader and five-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has also been accused of accepting a kickback from the fake refugees on the basis of an audio recording made by one of the recruiters. Rana for her part strongly denied the accusations on the floor of Parliament, calling for an investigation into the audio, which she maintains is fake.&nbsp; As the police investigation continues, top leaders from the NC, UML, and Maoist Center have met to discuss developments amid growing demands from within their own parties for an unhindered inquiry into the scam, and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Social media is rife with accusations that the three main parties are trying to brush the dirt under the carpet.&nbsp; The leaders of the three parties have publicly called for an objective and thorough investigation, even though Deuba is said to be the most worried -- keeping tabs on the police inquiry over his concerns that his wife will be embroiled in the investigation. The snowballing scandal and its international repercusiions appears to have spooked the government, and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal summooned Kathmandu-based diplomats to Singha Darbar on Monday to put forth his government's commitment to pursue the guilty. &nbsp; Earlier on Monday, former minister and Nepal’s ambassador to India Nilamber Acharya, former head of the CIAA (the anti-corruption watchdog) Surya Nath Upadhyay, as well as independent lawmaker Amaresh Kumar Singh and RSP MP Swarnim Wagle spoke about the scandal and its implications for Nepali politics and the country's standing on the global stage during a program organised by the Tanka Prasad Acharya Foundation in Patan (pictured, below).  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023051509050_d49c69d980f713d03af4c535a32e53afc620ac54c042be101dd1a1790c4f32b0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2023051509050_d49c69d980f713d03af4c535a32e53afc620ac54c042be101dd1a1790c4f32b0" data-rendition-name="original" width="3072" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Corruption panel"> <figcaption>Photos: GOPEN RAI</figcaption> </figure>  Speaking at the event, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/india-nepal-ties-must-move-beyond-1950-treaty">Nilamber Acharya</a> said the scandal has put the spotlight on Nepal’s governance failure and a decline of its political mechanisms, adding that corruption, not ideology, unites leaders making it easier for parties with fundamentally opposing principles to come together in governments. He stressed that crime is on the rise because powerful figures commit them, and even more powerful figures shield criminals. “The world is watching Nepal,” warned Acharya. “And it is up to us which side we choose to stand on: whether we establish Nepal as a country of corruption, or emerge from this as a nation that holds the corrupt to account.” Meanwhile, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10283">Surya Nath Upadhyay</a> praised Nepal Police for their independent investigation so far without giving in to pressure, adding that there have been attempts to whitewash it by people in power even as they publicly call for a thorough inquiry. Upadhyay was chief commissioner of the CIAA from 2001 to 2006, and during his tenure cracked down on many corrupt government officials. In 2002, the CIAA under his leadership busted 22 high-ranking officials of the revenue department for corruption. In 2006, the CIAA charged five former ministers as well as secretaries of the government, and police personnel for amassing illegal wealth and property. What is needed now, Upadhyay added, is for the public to be the watchdogs and see the investigation through. “If the media, civil society, and law enforcement lose steam, all of the progress we have already made will evaporate, and people will eventually forget,” said Upadhyay. “We need to make an example out of every perpetrator involved in this crime.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023051509054_3d6f09aab22c983819927a83dbd04bf3378f523eacc69215df8aa15890d1f167.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2023051509054_3d6f09aab22c983819927a83dbd04bf3378f523eacc69215df8aa15890d1f167" data-rendition-name="original" width="3072" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Nilamber Acharya"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023051509058_71bb5e740023e2d793be2dcad01e49769b7e5b0e21fc5464628f914cee52e7f6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="2023051509058_71bb5e740023e2d793be2dcad01e49769b7e5b0e21fc5464628f914cee52e7f6" data-rendition-name="original" width="3073" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Surya Nath Upadhyay"> </figure>  Swarnim Wagle, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/in-with-the-new-out-with-the-old">the newest RSP lawmaker in Parliament</a> after he won the by-election from Tanahu in April, spoke about the size and severity of the scandal, the changing nature of corruption, and the need for institutional reform: “This has been a simultaneous overlapping of crimes: fraud, corruption, human trafficking, transnational organised crime, and sedition.”&nbsp; Wagle also noted how corruption has evolved with the sophistication of the economy, moving from cash transactions to shares, gold and jewels and to the point that even public figures known for being corrupt could openly challenge the authorities to prove their crimes in an absence of traceable corruption. Wagle added that impunity has aided and abetted many corrupt officials.&nbsp; “There has been a meticulous legalisation of corruption through amendments in Parliament. So we seem to be creating a corruption-friendly regime,” said Wagle. “Our legal system needs to be able to catch up to those who are corrupt.” The fact that officials from all major parties were involved in the refugee fraud meant that there was “all-party corruption” in Nepal, lawmaker <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13098">Amresh Kumar Singh </a>who was formerly with the NC and ran as an independent during federal elections last November. Most recently, Singh disrobed in Parliament last week in protest over being denied time on the floor to speak about the scandal.&nbsp; Singh warned that the police have so far only caught the “small fish” of the refugee scam, cautioning that it would be foolish to believe otherwise even as former home ministers are arrested. “This scandal is merely a mirror that has reflected how Nepal is run on patronage by political brokers, reaching the most influential of ministries,” continued Singh. “Nepal is not a democracy, it is a particracy. And corruption supersedes even political parties.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023051509058_1b3a30577fd72a2fea627df2e667593a5a0a5e324796ba3cd229afaba4515eaf.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="2023051509058_1b3a30577fd72a2fea627df2e667593a5a0a5e324796ba3cd229afaba4515eaf" data-rendition-name="original" width="3071" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Swarnim Wagle"> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023051509058_597f098672a1d9ad83974ff68d78aa21d83473e9f7c63189edac995cd20fe0f0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2023051509058_597f098672a1d9ad83974ff68d78aa21d83473e9f7c63189edac995cd20fe0f0" data-rendition-name="original" width="3113" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="Amresh Kumar Singh"> </figure>  Singh added that this scandal marked a political turning point in Nepal and that the future and leadership of the three major political parties are at stake.&nbsp; The four speakers also discussed what the scandal meant for Nepal’s position on the global stage. “Not only political parties, Nepal’s credibility globally, and the people’s faith in the country are at stake,” said Singh.&nbsp; Wagle also spoke to the implications that the scandal could have for the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/migration-not-a-wish-but-necessity-for-nepalis">Nepali diaspora across the world</a>. “Nepal is not isolated anymore, and this scandal will impact the dignity and self-respect of the millions of Nepalis who have either temporarily or permanently migrated outside Nepal,” he said. Globally, geopolitically, and diplomatically, Nepal has historically been on the receiving end, as such the country’s development, economy and global standing is likely to suffer irreparable damage, Upadhyay explained.&nbsp; Meanwhile, Nilamber Acharya noted that there was no reason for Nepal and Nepalis to be embarrassed as long as investigation is moving along in the right direction. The media was also effectively playing a check and balance role in exposing wrongdoing. Said Acharya: “It is not yet time for us to hang our heads in shame on the global stage, as long as we ensure that the corrupt are held to account and justice is served.”

Shristi Karki

In a Federal Kleptocratic Republic of Nepal

Background Following the 1989 census in Bhutan, the Druk regime began a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/gross-national-reconciliation-in-bhutan">systematic crackdown</a> on its Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people, who made up one-sixth of the country’s original population. By 1992, some 100,000 Bhutan nationals had been driven across India to UNHCR-run camps in eastern Nepal. Starting 2007, about 90,000 were resettled in the United States, with smaller numbers going to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Bhutanese-refugees-in-united-kingdom-find-stability,1585" target="_blank">the UK</a>, Canada, Norway, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15045#.W2gmdmaB1TY" target="_blank">the Netherlands</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=17868#.Wk3SKlWWbIU" target="_blank">New Zealand</a> and Australia. The process was supervised by the International Organisation of Migration (<a href="https://www.iom.int/" target="_blank">IOM</a>). Some <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/family-separation-bhutan-style" target="_blank">6,000 refugees, mostly elderly, remain</a> in Nepal. Breaking the News&nbsp; On 27 March, investigative reporter Devendra Bhattarai of Kantipur <a href="https://ekantipur.com/news/2023/03/27/167988439341418193.html">broke the story </a>that linked Nepal’s bureaucrats and politicians in a scam to provide false papers to Nepalis pretending to be Bhutanese so they could migrate to the United States. The US is a much sought-after destination for economic migrants, and many Nepalis in the past have also applied for political asylum in the West, faking persecution by the Maoists or the state during the conflict. Cast of Characters More stories came out of fake refugees who had paid up to Rs 5million each to middlemen from Jhapa to take them to the United States. Two of the agents were caught by police, and spilled the beans, implicating Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and Ram Bahadur Thapa (Badal), both Maoist leaders who had defected to the UML. Thapa was Home Minister in the K P Oli government in 2018, and set up a task force led by his security adviser to get the paperwork done for the refugees.&nbsp; One of the middlemen threatened to self-immolate if his deposition implicating other top political figures was not recorded. Police Chief Dan Bahadur Karki’s investigation of the mobile phone data of the recruiters pointed the finger at the wives of former NC Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand.&nbsp; The middlemen had already paid “higher-ups” to facilitate necessary documentation for nearly 900 fake refugees. Khand had by then become home minister in the Deuba government in 2021, and the recording of an audio leak pointed at the involvement of NC leaders Arzu Deuba and Manju Khand.&nbsp; The task force was formed in 2020 by the KP Oli government headed by Bal Krishna Panthi, then joint secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, to gather information on refugees from Bhutan who were left out of the refugee registration process for various reasons. Keshav Dulal, personal adviser to former Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala, and Sanu Bhandari, both thought to be the original masterminds, are said to have got access to a proposal written by Panthi in 2021 that included a list of refugees, during the tenure of Khand as home minister with the help of then home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey.&nbsp; The group is then believed to have added bona fide Nepalis to the list as well, creating false Bhutanese identities and documents after demanding money from their victims multiple times, and promising to settle them in the US.&nbsp; More than 100 Nepalis who were defrauded have filed complaints with Nepal Police since 2022 after their complaints were not heard in 2021 due to political pressure. But the fake refugees themselves broke the law by illegally impersonating refugees.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230511080540_49f58d3347c5b92b161206a7bc9d61bc2aaf0e96383c599be5aa9e7680801b85.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20230511080540_49f58d3347c5b92b161206a7bc9d61bc2aaf0e96383c599be5aa9e7680801b85" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1366" loading="lazy" alt="Fake Bhutanese refugees"> </figure>  The Story So Far Nepal Police on Wednesday arrested Khand, and were said to be on the lookout for his wife, as well as Rayamajhi and Thapa. Later on Wednesday, Rayamajhi sent a sick note to Parliament to explain his abscence.&nbsp; Keshav Dulal and Sanu Bhandari have also been detained. Sagar Rai, former ward chair in a village in Jhapa’s Pathani village, is also being investigated for facilitating the payment to the bureaucrats.&nbsp; Indrajit Rai, the security adviser to former Home Minister Thapa has been arrested, but his son Neeraj Rai is on the run. Rayamajhi’s son, Sandeep, however, has been arrested. Former Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, who served under Khand, has also been arrested while another former secretary Prem Kumar Rai, who is also said to be involved, currently heads the Centre for the Investigation for the Abuse of Authority (CIAA).&nbsp; Now What? Although top leaders across party lines have called for “thorough and objective” investigation into the scandal, it has not stopped them from desperately meeting one another. KP Oli of the opposition UML has met his arch enemies in the governing coalition, Deuba and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoists. He has also met Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha. The UML only suspended Rayamajhi as party secretary after news of Khand's arrest on Wednesday. There is widespread concern that the three top men will try to sacrifice some scapegoats in order to protect their spouses or close comrades. There is also speculation that Home Minister Shrestha has not interfered with the investigation because NC, UML and Maoist leaders who defected from his party have so far been implicated.&nbsp; Nepalis will have to wait if this scam goes further up the chain of command, and what role Deuba will play to protect his wife.&nbsp; Arzu Deuba herself has forcefully denied involvement in the floor of the House and lodged a complaint at the cyber bureau, calling the leaked audio a smear.&nbsp; &nbsp;Nepal’s Image The media exposé and subsequent police investigation have shown that their check and balance role and independence are intact. However, the scandal has confirmed what most Nepalis already knew, that their government is rotten to the core. The federal legislature, controlled by the three main parties, has tried to obstruct debate on the scandal, leading an independent MP to disrobe on the floor of the House in protest this week.&nbsp; Nepal’s international image has been seriously dented. Its moral high ground on the Bhutan refugee question has been undermined. Nepal’s model historical role to let in persecuted peoples from Tibet, Bhutan, the Rohingya, Somalia, or Afghanistan has now been besmirched. The Nepali passport will now be scrutinised even more minutely. But more than anything else, the scandal exposes the desperation of Nepalis to vote with their feet, and offers devastating proof that Nepal has been run by the same crooks for the past 35 years.&nbsp; In the near future, it will be worth noting how this controversy will affect the Bhutanese refugees who remain in Nepal, along with the lives of those who have been resettled across the world. It also remains to be seen how this will affect Nepal's global standing, diplomacy, and its bilateral relationship with the US.

Rot at the top

Nepal’s only international aviation gateway, at Kathmandu airport, will cut night-time operation hours to allow construction of taxiways, and airlines have been told to curtail flights. This is expected to lead to more than normal chaos during the height of peak autumn and spring tourist seasons at an airport that is congested even at the best of times. The airport will close from 10PM to 8AM from 8 November-31 March 2025. The taxiways will now connect to the thresholds at both ends of the runway, making the airport more efficient in handling higher frequencies of landings and takeoffs. The parallel taxiway extension will allow international flights to land every 4 minutes instead of the current every 7 minutes. At present planes have to wait to land until a plane taking off backtracks along the runway.&nbsp; Kathmandu is Nepal’s only airport with international operations, and it has only one runway that is only one way in from the south over the mountains. With the taxiway improvement, the airport will be able to handle 42 aircraft landings and takeoffs per hour — double the current capacity.&nbsp; The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has been trying to entice international airlines to also start flying to and from the other two international airports at Pokhara and Bhairawa (Lumbini) by slashing landing and handling charges. But so far only Nepal Airlines operates a weekly flight to Bhairawa from Kuala Lumpur.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241018161016_046569e53d1d66cd445cc66c697c0ef724810aec9f54bdf827481e3cd6b80c32.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241018161016_046569e53d1d66cd445cc66c697c0ef724810aec9f54bdf827481e3cd6b80c32" data-rendition-name="original" width="2356" height="1134" loading="lazy" alt="Kathmandu airport expansion"> <figcaption>Kathmandu Airport Expansion plan with extension of taxiways to the thresholds of runways 02 and 20 that will limit airport operations from 8 November 2024 - 31 March 2025. Areas in blue are existing structures, including the international terminal which in future will be the domestic airport, and the new international terminal near the north end of the runway,</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241018121028_6e17cc2ee87c1b02d78cb54905825b7aa15299b7a00f5eddb01a59579ab85c1a.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241018121028_6e17cc2ee87c1b02d78cb54905825b7aa15299b7a00f5eddb01a59579ab85c1a" data-rendition-name="original" width="1353" height="1328" loading="lazy" alt="Kathmandu airport NT"> </figure>  CAAN has reportedly told international airlines to cut their flight frequency to Kathmandu citing the shorter operation hours and has told budget airlines to shift some of their flights to Pokhara or Bhairawa, or face cuts. Many airlines currently operate regular flights to and from Kathmandu between 10PM and 8AM: Air Arabia to Sharjah, Fly Dubai to Dubai, Jazeera Airways to Kuwait, Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, Singapore Airlines, several Nepal Airlines flights, and one of four daily flights by Qatar Airways to Doha. Jazeera Airways, FlyDubai, and Thai AirAsia have applied and got permission from CAAN to begin regular flights to Bhairawa’s Gautam Buddha International Airport. Starting 9 November, FlyDubai will start making a stopover in Bhairawa before flying on to Kathmandu. Immigration, customs and security are all fully functional in Bhairawa. In Kathmandu, the next phase of the airport upgrade includes converting the current international terminal for domestic operations, the construction of a new international terminal where the domestic departure area is now, as well as moving the hangars and the Nepal Army Air Wing to the eastern side of the runway. The apron area will also double its parking space for widebody jets. This is part of a Airport Capacity Enhancement Project that was initially funded through a $80 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the entire masterplan is expected to cost $800 million. This project is the latest upgrade to Nepal’s only international airport since it saw its first flight in 1949. The current international and domestic terminals are too small to handle the current annual traffic volume of 8.5 million passengers a year that is growing at 20% a year.

Kathmandu airport to cut flight hours

As Kathmandu becomes more congested and polluted, and with remote online work becoming the norm, many professional Nepalis are planning to retire in Pokhara, or move there.&nbsp; With its stunning mountain panorama, balmy winters and proximity to a profusion of wilderness areas, builders are responding to this demand with new townhouses, housing development and apartments. One such block of flats is the 10-storey <a href="https://sungavaapartment.com/">Sungava Apartment</a> located at Phulbari above the Seti River, near the point where it flows into and under Pokhara. The imposing structure near Manipal Hospital is almost complete, and on a recent visit the site was strewn with huge boulders unearthed while digging the foundation.&nbsp; The Seti brought down these boulders during a gigantic flood that geologists estimate happened 800 years ago when a chunk of Annapurna IV broke off and ploughed into the glacier below. Today, Sungava (means ‘orchid’) sits safely on a high terrace, 100m above the blue-green Seti and commands a view of Dhaulagiri, Annapurna South, Machapuchre, Annapurna III and IV.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024102411104_5f8fc736c86ea3c08d7bef43bb727081d3cc1a2caa55ae2b441717e6044de7e9.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2024102411104_5f8fc736c86ea3c08d7bef43bb727081d3cc1a2caa55ae2b441717e6044de7e9" data-rendition-name="original" width="2016" height="1512" loading="lazy" alt="High living below the Himalaya NT"> </figure>  The soil here is conglomerate that has solidified like concrete, and the boulders were extracted by heavy earthmovers. It is intriguing to think that these metamorphic rocks as big as cars, rounded by glacial grinding, were once a part of a much higher Annapurna IV. Even for those with little interest in geology, Sungava is an ideal place to contemplate the tectonic forces that pushed these peaks into the sky to be sculpted into delicate shapes by wind, snow, earthquake and avalanche over millions of years. The view of the Himalayan panorama from Sungava’s many balconies are breathtaking when not obscured by clouds, or the haze that drifts in from across the southern border. On most days, just watching the towering pyramid of Machapuchre (Tamu name: कतासुँ क्लिको) play hide and seek with the clouds is mesmerising. There are rocks aplenty at Phulbari, and it is probably the flowers that grew along the flat terraces e that gave the place its flowery name. The boulders will hopefully be turned into a rock garden while landscaping. An nearby restaurant complex is making the best use of the stones in its design, using flat rocks as outdoor benches and tables. Sungava was designed by the husband-wife architect team of Deepak Sherchan and Jyoti Joshi of <a href="https://thedarkmermaidamarbshrestha.blogspot.com/2013/12/creative-builders-collaborative-cbc.html">Creative Builders Collaborative (CBC)</a>, which also built Heritage Plaza, Indreni Apartment and numerous other projects in Nepal. Sadbhavana retains CBC’s trademark Newari-style masonry and here it borrows from the orange brickwork of the old town of Pokhara, integrating it with modern design elements. A few of those heritage houses are still standing in Ganesh Tole and Ram Krishna Tole in Pokhara’s old quarter.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024102411108_5eb64a4885961b6d30781cefeb1e8a313da313ac5227c7a66b60f0c7d48d6fab.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2024102411108_5eb64a4885961b6d30781cefeb1e8a313da313ac5227c7a66b60f0c7d48d6fab" data-rendition-name="original" width="1362" height="595" loading="lazy" alt="High living below the Himalaya NT"> </figure>  About 400m from the apartment past a bend on the river, and down below three tiers of terraces in the canyon is a suspension bridge. Below it, the Seti is still swollen with post-monsoon flow as it tumbles away in a hurry to head down south.&nbsp; Back at the apartment, it is quiet, far away from the hubbub of Lakeside a 15 minute drive away, and in the lap of greenery. There are 52 units at Sungava and it already has a close-knit prospective community of professionals, including doctors, publishers, engineers, and businesspeople from the renewable energy and IT sectors.&nbsp; Some residents say they opted for a second home in Pokhara to make it a ‘base camp’ to explore the Annapurnas with its many hiking trails made newly accessible with new roads. With the NRN citizenship law, overseas Nepalis can now also buy the flats. &nbsp; The floor plans include options for north and south-facing 3-bedroom apartments with verandas, and the facility has underground parking has EV charging, heated pool, sauna and gym. There are still some unsold apartments with panoramic views of the mountains and one can imagine oneself at the kitchen with its huge window, humming a ditty while preparing breakfast: “खाना पकाउँ हिमाल हेरेर...”

High living below the Himalaya

When the United Nations held its Summit of the Future at its headquarters in New York in September, many world leaders, including Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Oli, highlighted the effect of climate breakdown in increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. What did not get as much attention was the long term impact of the climate crisis on food production. In fact, heat stress, weather extremes and the consequences on rain-fed agriculture is already being felt worldwide, undermining the chances of the <a href="https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/">UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)</a> being met by 2030.&nbsp; The SDG’s 17 targets commit countries like Nepal to reduce poverty and inequality, end malnutrition, protect the natural environment, and ensure that citizens all enjoy health, justice and prosperity without leaving anyone behind.&nbsp; However, besides the impact of climate breakdown on agricultural production, in Nepal the area under cultivation is impacted by urban expansion, falling productivity and the need for expensive inputs like fertiliser and pesticides.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241019041052_626413c5baf4dae407ac9579231b41daeb51510aa636b75aeb7489d94cca6a62.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241019041052_626413c5baf4dae407ac9579231b41daeb51510aa636b75aeb7489d94cca6a62" data-rendition-name="original" width="999" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>Kathmandu's urban sprawl is eating into its fertile cultivable lands. Photo: TAYLOR MASON</figcaption> </figure>  Now, a new study led by Nepali researcher Prajal Pradhan at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands looks at how urban agriculture may offer a solution to falling food production and meeting SDG targets. The researchers evaluated 1,450 publications exploring the contributions of urban agriculture with both positive and negative effects, and published their findings in the journal Cells Report Sustainability. Urban agriculture can help achieve 17 SDGs, positively influencing 81 targets. However, it could also undermine 51 goals.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-vanishing-land">The vanishing land</a>, Taylor Mason “Urban agriculture offers immense potential for sustainable development, but realising this potential depends crucially on adopting practices that minimise its adverse effects while maximising its benefits,” Pradhan explains. Urban agriculture can substantially enhance urban food security, provide employment to the urban poor, serve as ground water recharge in built-up areas, and preserve open spaces that can serve as safe havens during disasters like earthquakes. However, it also presents problems like the potential health risks from contamination and the need for expensive inputs. &nbsp; “Urban agriculture plays a definitive role in advancing the SDGs, but achieving this requires tailored, context-specific solutions that address the unique challenges of different regions,” says Yuanchao Hu of Wuhan University in China and who is a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “But it needs equitable access and rigorous management of environmental risks.”&nbsp; Rapid urbanisation is eating into Nepal’s most fertile agricultural land, which means farming in remaining open spaces inside cities can be a viable alternative, especially as food prices rise.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241019041052_7b7c9413086226fbdc630d45acf772cfa1ced77a8970b9056ec5ec7e5226fdf8.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20241019041052_7b7c9413086226fbdc630d45acf772cfa1ced77a8970b9056ec5ec7e5226fdf8" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>A vegetable patch in between new houses in Thimi. Photo: TAYLOR MASON</figcaption> </figure>  “The conversion of Nepal’s most fertile land into cities is a severe problem,” Pradhan told Nepali Times. “Crop cultivation, horticulture, agroforestry, beekeeping, livestock rearing, or aquaculture can all be farming activities within and around cities.”&nbsp; The study makes recommendations for sustainable practices that build on the positive aspects of urban agriculture while mitigating the downsides, thereby promoting more resilient cities in future. Research shows that urban agriculture has been helping many countries attain SDG targets by enhancing food security and biodiversity while helping education and preservation of open spaces.&nbsp; Indeed, many farmers from the hinterland who have settled in Kathmandu Valley or other urban areas of the country have been practicing urban agriculture, leasing neighbourhood patches or cultivating roof gardens both out of necessity because of inflation and falling income to grow their own food, and also as a fulfilling hobby. Saurav Dhakal, a sustainability advocate with Story Cycle and now research fellow at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, says there are socio-economic and environmental benefits of urban agriculture. “It provides benefits to all urban dwellers, regardless of their income status,” says Dhakal, “families get fresh food, and there are many other benefits like water retention, heat regulation and biodiversity. These are all public goods, so special government incentives may be needed.” It is not unusual to see vegetable patches and even paddy fields within inner city Kathmandu where an older generation of farmers are using available fertile land and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/rooftop-gardens-kathmandu,1415">roof gardens to produce fresh, nutritious food </a>to reduce their dependence on food items that have to be bought after being trucked in from large distances.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2024101905100_1291ce98dbbb8caed8702ac4b1d469b3e13016d7ecaaf3bfd5f91c974d3c0c77.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2024101905100_1291ce98dbbb8caed8702ac4b1d469b3e13016d7ecaaf3bfd5f91c974d3c0c77" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="999" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>An older generation of farmers are using any available fertile land to continue farming but it is getting more and more difficult. Photo: TAYLOR MASON </figcaption> </figure>  Nepal’s urban population grew rapidly from only 3.6% in 1991 to 25% today. There is large outmigration from the mountains to peri-urban areas of the Tarai, to Kathmandu Valley and Pokhara, with many young men then moving abroad for work. Kathmandu Valley’s population has swelled to nearly 3 million, and is growing at 6.5% a year. Dilip Shrestha, 71, used to work for Nepal Food Corporation, so he knew firsthand about inflation, shortages and vegetables with pesticide residue. So, when he designed his new house in Kathmandu, he built a spacious roof where he grows cucumber, ginger, garlic, coriander, onions, tomatoes, chili, beans, okra, pumpkin and lettuce. His family eats healthier, and he has reduced dependence on the market.&nbsp; The co-author of the Cell Reports Sustainability journal article, Daya Raj Subedi who is a PhD candidate at Beijing Forestry University, says urban agriculture also promotes inclusion and psycho-social wellbeing.&nbsp; He says, “A crucial finding of the study is the identification of opportunities and challenges associated with urban agriculture, it can promote sustainable transformation of society.” In Banepa, 55-year-old Bijaya Manandhar in her lifetime has watched the fertile farms of her neighbourhood that used to supply vegetables to Kathmandu, now completely built up with no open space left. The pandemic lockdown prompted her to turn to the family’s <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/rooftop-agriculture-on-the-roof-of-the-world">ancestral livelihood by growing food</a> not on terrace farms, but on the roof terrace. Manandhar is now a part of <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/rooftop-agriculture-on-the-roof-of-the-world%5C%5C">कौसी खेती र करेसाबारी क्रान्ती</a> (Rooftop Farming and Garden Revolution) which has an online membership of 52,000, and awards annual prizes to women who excel in urban agriculture.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241019041052_7257f5def8f823f35a799fa6f6825e153f2ffa406ac11325d4fe74049b79e96d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20241019041052_7257f5def8f823f35a799fa6f6825e153f2ffa406ac11325d4fe74049b79e96d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1600" height="736" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> <figcaption>Rooftop farming is gaining popularity as a form of urban agriculture. </figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241019041052_beff1a4494ce896dd8fd383ee1f518e5448bcf7ea8bb138255391c7bcb9769ed.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20241019041052_beff1a4494ce896dd8fd383ee1f518e5448bcf7ea8bb138255391c7bcb9769ed" data-rendition-name="original" width="4000" height="3000" loading="lazy" alt="urban agriculture in Kathmandu"> </figure>  Pradhan says the challenge now is to upscale such examples of successful urban agricultural practices so they support Neal’s efforts to meet SDG targets. He adds, “Crop cultivation around cities can be protected by land use plans and regulations. Promoting community-based agriculture, including rooftop gardens, requires community engagement and public-private partnerships across the food value chain.”&nbsp; Such support would accelerate the popularity of existing rooftop farming and community gardens in Kathmandu Valley, or kitchen garden initiatives in Pokhara, and building on traditional farming practices that are preserved and integrated into urban settings like in Bhaktapur and Banepa. In Lalitpur, the Women Entrepreneurship Facilitation Center promotes urban farming enhancing both sustainability and empowerment.&nbsp; Another co-author of the report, Yuanchao Hu from China says followup research of the team will aim to identify good practices in local urban agriculture practices. He adds, “There are examples of urban agriculture that optimise sustainability, ensuring that it remains a viable solution for cities globally while countries try to meet SDG targets.” Prajal Pradhan, Daya Raj Subedi, Kshitij Dahal, Yuanchao Hu, Prakriti Gurung, Sijal Pokharel, Sagar Kafle, Biplav Khatri, Sudeeksha Basyal, Monika Gurung, and Aruna Joshi. Urban Agriculture matters for sustainable development. Cell Reports Sustainability, 1:100217, 2024. [DOI: 10.1016/j.crsus.2024.100217] Prajal Pradhan (<a href="mailto:p.pradhan@rug.nl">p.pradhan@rug.nl</a>) This article 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.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240630110640_30c3782f9c09219bf1c249b51483a3cfb7a53a06d117d2aebd23ca7080d12758.jpg" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20240630110640_30c3782f9c09219bf1c249b51483a3cfb7a53a06d117d2aebd23ca7080d12758" data-rendition-name="original" width="680" height="103" loading="lazy" alt="SDG logo"> </figure>

Back to the land in the cities

The 700-year-old Lakshmi Narasingha temple in Bhaktapur houses a rare half-lion and half-human incarnation of Lord Vishnu carrying the Goddess Lakshmi. The temple was destroyed in the 1934 mega earthquake that killed 10,000 people and destroyed many monuments in Kathmandu Valley. It was rebuilt by a German project in the 1980s, but as a single-storey structure instead of its original two-tier pagoda design.&nbsp; With new findings from in-depth research, Bhaktapur municipality began re-restoring the temple in 2021, preserving its original architecture.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241017131016_2fae38cce543ad7b1f6de632feb3e212e08ed1acedd747830e949d7b8e878f18.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20241017131016_2fae38cce543ad7b1f6de632feb3e212e08ed1acedd747830e949d7b8e878f18" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="In with the old in Nepal NT"> </figure>  “Our temples and heritage sites hold deep meaning. It is disheartening to witness how often they lose their original elements, whether by design or accident,” explains Kumar Chawal of the Consumer Committee of Bhaktapur. “There is a need to preserve our architecture and protect its historical value for future generations. Otherwise, we risk losing a vital part of our identity.” The Laksmi Narsingha restoration is similar to the Bhai Dega temple in Patan Darbar Square which also collapsed in 1934, but was rebuilt with a Moghul-style dome by the Rana government at the time. Only two months before the 2015 earthquake, heritage conservationists had started to rebuild Bhai Dega as the original three-tier based on early photographs. But priorities shifted when four other temples in the square were brought down by the 7.8M earthquake on 25 April 2015.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241017131016_697ea707d9ad163be5de5f2efbf5b70d3cab771adcc22f0fae6bf937c6cb0130.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20241017131016_697ea707d9ad163be5de5f2efbf5b70d3cab771adcc22f0fae6bf937c6cb0130" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="In with the old in Nepal NT"> </figure>  This showed how damage to monuments in Kathmandu Valley spanned from one earthquake to the next. Bhai Dega restoration remains half-complete to this day because money for its restoration ran out.&nbsp; Whereas Bhai Dega restoration was done by the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust with grants from western embassies and international foundations, in Bhaktapur it is the municipality itself that allocated the Rs30.7 million needed to restore the Lakshmi Narasingha temple. The expected date of completion is early 2025. The municipality and local communities are focusing on two main aspects: preserving the past and promoting localisation. The restoration team has designed a blueprint for the temple by using historical photographs and insights from older generations.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241017131016_182882fdc393c99e70d1d0490319e415229563666c4934e3a582426ebf00ca30.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20241017131016_182882fdc393c99e70d1d0490319e415229563666c4934e3a582426ebf00ca30" data-rendition-name="original" width="1200" height="560" loading="lazy" alt="In with the old in Nepal NT"> </figure>  “At first, the Lakshmi Narasingha temple had only one entrance, but during the demolition process, we uncovered the foundations of four doors. Now, we are restoring all of them. This is an example of how our ancient structures have changed over time, often without our knowledge,” says Chawal. “Constructing temples is not like building houses. They carry historical and spiritual values, which is why they hold a special place in our hearts,” he adds. By replicating ancient design elements and rebuilding the temple as accurately as possible to its original form, the team has stayed true to Bhaktapur’s soul. But the restoration also revived ancient techniques that were in danger of being forgotten, generating employment for woodcarvers, masons, and contractors. The community of Bhaktapur’s Gahiti neighbourhood near the famous Nyatapola Temple has also set aside specific days for locals to volunteer in the reconstruction work. This has encouraged young people to take pride in ownership of their heritage. Families have also supported the effort by donating funds for bells, the temple pinnacle, and other structural features to the temple.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20241017131016_db850ec0c084cdbe54f65bee92dad2ad8122d20fd60ec87ec086fbb9d2f72bd6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20241017131016_db850ec0c084cdbe54f65bee92dad2ad8122d20fd60ec87ec086fbb9d2f72bd6" data-rendition-name="original" width="2048" height="1365" loading="lazy" alt="In with the old in Nepal NT"> </figure>  “I feel at peace knowing I have contributed my sweat to restoring this temple,” said one volunteer. “It is our duty to preserve our temples and heritage. The Nyatapola area will look magical once this temple is completed.” Community mobilisation is a long-standing tradition in Bhaktapur. In the past, locals have actively participated in the restoration of other temples in the city, such as Bhairav and Nyatapola fostering a strong sense of ownership. This collective engagement has not only been crucial in preserving the city's historical monuments but also in strengthening the bond between local communities and their heritage, says officials at the municipality. While securing funding is essential, and the municipality showed it values heritage conservation, the Lakshmi Narasingha restoration is proof that active involvement and sense of responsibility of the local community is as important, if not more. Local involvement also means that the monuments will be cared for into the future, When locals take ownership of these efforts, the restored monuments are not only protected in the present but are also cared for in the future.

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