<figure><img width="624" height="468" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d17a59c7e80680e0ac77bjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>China's Nepali students still stuck in Kathmandu stage a demonstration requesting for their return to their universities. </figcaption></figure>Nepali students in Chinese universities who had come home for holidays during the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/learning-during-the-pandemic-in-nepal/">pandemic</a> have been stuck for two years, unable to return and complete their degrees. Since China formally closed its doors for international students in February 2020, those who had come to Nepal for the winter break in December 2019 and the initial days of the pandemic are still stranded in Kathmandu. Their hopes of completing their studies and career prospects are in limbo.  “My gap year is coming to an end but I’m confused about what steps to take next, I haven’t received any guidelines on conducting medical internships in Nepal,” says Praveer Raj Singh, a medical student at Peking University who has been stuck in Nepal for nearly two years.Away from universities and having to attend <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lockdown-gives-distance-learning-a-boost-in-nepal/">online classes</a> has left Nepali students deeply anxious and desperate, prompting some of them to join WeChat groups like ‘Nepal-China Returning Students’ to organise discussions and initiating petitions to apply pressure on the governments of both Nepal and China as well as their universities. <figure><img width="624" height="351" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d17a79c7e80680e0ac77cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Nepali medical students studying at Chinese universities stage a protest.</figcaption></figure>Across these WeChat groups, there are new petitions every few days asking students for personal information, which is redundant as every international student studying in China is already required to complete their registration procedure with their details.Since the beginning of the pandemic, China has introduced strict rules for foreign arrivals. Although the novel coronavirus appears to have started here, China has been more successful than most countries in bringing the pandemic under control.The Chinese Communist Party, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, does not want to jeopardise its domestic stability ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Hence, China is unlikely to allow international students to return anytime soon, notwithstanding protests or petitions.A more effective approach would be for official in Kathmandu to talk to their Chinese counterparts at a government-to-government level, since that fits in better with China’s top-down approach to doing things.Furthermore, due to the existing language barrier and China’s restrictive internet policies like ‘The Great Firewall’, concerns that are primarily raised in English through platforms like Twitter and Instagram have little to no reach in China. Students have managed to raise awareness, but among themselves and not on the right platforms.  Articles written in Mandarin by Chinese authors about the situation of international students do not have enough reach either, since they have mostly been from personal WeChat blogs. Mainstream Chinese media on the other hand has not touched the issue of international students, and there has been no discussion on popular interactive social media platforms like Weibo, which has over 500 million active users. Similarly, the complaints and petitions brought up by students are mostly conveyed in English or Nepali, which are not effective with a Chinese audience. Student protest is a widely used tool to pressure the authorities and fulfil demands for change in Nepali colleges and universities. That process will not work in China, or with Chinese universities. The petitions and protests may be heard, but do not guarantee sufficient pressure for those in decision-making positions. In fact, students who once believed in protests have since lost hope. An informal survey on WeChat groups by over 100 Nepali students waiting to go back to universities revealed that the majority no longer believe it is a route that can help them return to China. <figure><img width="542" height="413" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161124/636d17a99c7e80680e0ac77djpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>“Nepali Students in China” Twitter account campaigning to return Nepali students back to China</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwi4lfifvqvzAhWi83MBHaD0AtsQFnoECAwQAQ&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fenglish.khabarhub.com%2F2021%2F30%2F200079%2F&amp;usg=AOvVaw0XGPpCjNLLSeJI0wihXTdA">Nepali political leaders and the Nepal embassy in China also have been raising the issue with the Chinese authorities</a>, but so far to no avail. Most international students in China do not seem concerned about classmates from other nationalities not returning, and do not raise the issue with their respective universities.  Students who remained in China in 2019 feel lucky to not have rushed back home during the peak of the pandemic. One of them is Aayush Maskey, an undergraduate student of Xidian University in Xi’an.   “There are several opportunities for international students who stayed on  campus, the universities sponsored several city tours,” says Maskey, whose classes are still mostly online but he has a better prospect of jobs and internship opportunities. He is now the face for his university’s promotional campaigns, and has benefited from in-person interactions.  China will eventually let international students in, but only when its government wants to. Until then, the only thing the students can do as what they have been doing since the beginning of the pandemic: wait for further notice. Suniva Chitrakar is an undergraduate student majoring in International Political Economy at Peking University. Aneka R Rajbhandari is pursuing her Master’s degree in Chinese Politics from the Silk Road School, Renmin University.

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China’s Nepali students in limbo

<figure><img width="1500" height="842" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131116/636cec6f9c7e80680e09ad65jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>China’s new batch of medical supplies for Nepal published in Global Times.</figcaption></figure>The Covid-19 <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-nears-10k-daily-cases/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">second wave ravaging Nepal</a> has raised concern in China’s social media platform Weibo, and prompted some to post appeals for the government to help the neighbouring country in its time of need.The coronavirus surge <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mom-in-delhi-dad-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sweeping India and Nepal</a> has been creating a significant buzz on China’s social media platforms, with comments expressing compassion as well as nationalistic outbursts at the situation in India. Recent news that China was sending a new consignment of medical equipment to Nepal, as well as posts about mismanagement of the Covid-19 surge in India has sparked discussion among the Chinese netizens. The news of the steep rise in cases in Nepal started being reported in the western media mostly after Covid-19 cases were detected at <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everests-covid-dilemma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mt Everest Base Camp</a>. It was only in the past week that the alarming news from Nepal started gaining traction here.The posts appear to reflect residual nationalism from the India-China border conflagration last year, and geopolitical tension between the two Asian giants -- which could not be more different in the way they have tackled the pandemic.One of the most prominent <a href="http://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%23%E5%B0%BC%E6%B3%8A%E5%B0%94%E7%96%AB%E6%83%85%E4%B8%BA%E4%BD%95%E8%BF%85%E9%80%9F%E6%81%B6%E5%8C%96%23" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hashtags, </a> #尼泊尔疫情为何迅速恶化 (translation: ‘Why the pandemic is rapidly worsening in Nepal’) gained 55 million engagements in 24 hours this week. Even though the hashtag concerns Nepal, most of the posts and replies using it centred around India’s failure to contain the second wave.  <figure><img width="677" height="839" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131120/636cec739c7e80680e09ad66jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>CRI News coverage of the rate of positive cases in Nepal at 44% high using the hashtag #尼泊尔疫情为何迅速恶化（Why is the pandemic rapidly worsening in Nepal）</figcaption></figure>Some deliberately derogatory posts that seemed to rejoice in India’s tragedy were taken down after outrage on social media. One post tagging ‘China Lighting a Fire’ showing China’s rocket launch last week side-by-side with ‘<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56963996" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">India Lighting a Fire</a>’ showing a mass-cremation site in Delhi drew so much backlash from Weibo users inside and outside China that it was deleted.The post was traced to the official Weibo account of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which is under the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.   <figure><img width="895" height="936" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131120/636cec769c7e80680e09ad67jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A Weibo post tagging ‘China Lighting a Fire’ showing China’s rocket launch last week side-by-side with ‘India Lighting a Fire’ showing a mass-cremation site in Delhi was deleted after backlash from users.</figcaption></figure>The topic then shifted focus as Chinese netizens worried that Nepal’s Covid-19 spread and response will become similar as that in India. Indeed, the <a href="http://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%23%E5%B0%BC%E6%B3%8A%E5%B0%94%E6%98%AF%E5%90%A6%E4%BC%9A%E5%8F%98%E6%88%90%E4%B8%8B%E4%B8%80%E4%B8%AA%E5%8D%B0%E5%BA%A6%23" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hashtag</a> #尼泊尔是否变成下一个印度 (translation: “Will Nepal become the next India’) got over 80 million engagements and counting this week. On 8 May, Toutiao News, a major information portal followed the popularity of the hashtag and ran a rather unusual <a href="https://m.weibo.cn/status/4634582304164592?wm=3333_2001&amp;from=10B5093010&amp;sourcetype=weixin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">week-long poll asking</a> Chinese netizens' opinion on whether ‘Nepal will become the next India’. More than 85% agreed with this possibility, and some even feared that the spread of the pandemic in Nepal could be worse than in India. While most posts have lumped Nepal and India together on the Covid-19 theme, others have drawn attention to the Nepal-China friendship and urged the Chinese government to help Nepal with emergency supplies.‘Isn’t Nepal a good friend of China? All efforts should be made to help them,’ said one post, while some others asked that immediate support be rushed to China’s ‘good neighbour’. Just as the western media’s concern about Nepal’s pandemic is largely limited to Mt Everest, the Chinese social media focus is India-centered. Global Times, China’s state-affiliated media, even ran a story highlighting how Chinese enterprises in Nepal were trying to <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222721.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">prevent Nepal from becoming a ‘mini India’.</a>   <figure><img width="677" height="837" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131120/636cec789c7e80680e09ad68jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Toutiao News report on Nepal's surging COVID-19 cases using hashtag #尼泊尔正在变成一个迷你印度（Nepal is becoming a mini India)</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="677" height="750" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110131120/636cec7b9c7e80680e09ad69jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Toutiao News’ week-long poll on whether Nepal will become the next India. Source: TOUTIAO</figcaption></figure>China has offered assistance to India to respond to the pandemic, and <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/firmly-support-india-in-fight-against-covid-19-wang-yi-writes-to-jaishankar-101619714772524.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">after a statement of concern by Foreign Minister Wang Yi</a> with an expression of support, many Chinese social media users have urged similar help for Nepal. Indeed, Beijing seems to be responding. A Nepal Airlines plane is flying to Beijing on Monday night to bring <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-05/08/c_139932642.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">China’s offer of </a>20,000 oxygen cylinders and other medical essentials, as Nepal’s hospitals struggle to cope with the seriously ill. A similar flight last month brought back 800,000 doses of the Chinese VeroCell vaccine donated by China.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-begins-covid-19-vaccination-drive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s vaccination program</a> has ground to a halt after an early promising start after India stopped further export of the Covishield AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute even though Nepal had already paid for 2 million doses.Social media posts here quote the Chinese saying ‘A close friend is better than a distant relative’, but others have also urged Nepal to improve its governance and delivery instead of just depending on the outside world for help.One Chinese social media post notes: ‘The spread of Covid-19 will make China a ‘thin horse’ so it should not just give assistance for free.” The growing debate on China’s foreign assistance, both at policy-making level and on social media, hints that countries like Nepal should focus more on early preparedness and control as most other countries grapple with their own Covid-19 crisis. Aneka Rebecca Rajbhandari studies political science at Peking University. Raunab Singh Khatri is a graduate student in economics at Yenching Academy of Peking University.

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Concern in China over Nepal Covid-19 surge

<figure><img width="1500" height="842" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b844e9c7e80680e067788jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>China’s new batch of medical supplies for Nepal published in Global Times.</figcaption></figure>The Covid-19 <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-nears-10k-daily-cases/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">second wave ravaging Nepal</a> has raised concern in China’s social media platform Weibo, and prompted some to post appeals for the government to help the neighbouring country in its time of need.The coronavirus surge <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mom-in-delhi-dad-in-kathmandu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sweeping India and Nepal</a> has been creating a significant buzz on China’s social media platforms, with comments expressing compassion as well as nationalistic outbursts at the situation in India. Recent news that China was sending a new consignment of medical equipment to Nepal, as well as posts about mismanagement of the Covid-19 surge in India has sparked discussion among the Chinese netizens. The news of the steep rise in cases in Nepal started being reported in the western media mostly after Covid-19 cases were detected at <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/everests-covid-dilemma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mt Everest Base Camp</a>. It was only in the past week that the alarming news from Nepal started gaining traction here.The posts appear to reflect residual nationalism from the India-China border conflagration last year, and geopolitical tension between the two Asian giants -- which could not be more different in the way they have tackled the pandemic.One of the most prominent <a href="http://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%23%E5%B0%BC%E6%B3%8A%E5%B0%94%E7%96%AB%E6%83%85%E4%B8%BA%E4%BD%95%E8%BF%85%E9%80%9F%E6%81%B6%E5%8C%96%23" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hashtags, </a> #尼泊尔疫情为何迅速恶化 (translation: ‘Why the pandemic is rapidly worsening in Nepal’) gained 55 million engagements in 24 hours this week. Even though the hashtag concerns Nepal, most of the posts and replies using it centred around India’s failure to contain the second wave.  <figure><img width="677" height="839" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b84519c7e80680e067789jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Some deliberately derogatory posts that seemed to rejoice in India’s tragedy were taken down after outrage on social media. One post tagging ‘China Lighting a Fire’ showing China’s rocket launch last week side-by-side with ‘<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56963996" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">India Lighting a Fire</a>’ showing a mass-cremation site in Delhi drew so much backlash from Weibo users inside and outside China that it was deleted.The post was traced to the official Weibo account of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which is under the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.   <figure><img width="895" height="936" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b84549c7e80680e06778ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The topic then shifted focus as Chinese netizens worried that Nepal’s Covid-19 spread and response will become similar as that in India. Indeed, the <a href="http://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%23%E5%B0%BC%E6%B3%8A%E5%B0%94%E6%98%AF%E5%90%A6%E4%BC%9A%E5%8F%98%E6%88%90%E4%B8%8B%E4%B8%80%E4%B8%AA%E5%8D%B0%E5%BA%A6%23" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hashtag</a> #尼泊尔是否变成下一个印度 (translation: “Will Nepal become the next India’) got over 80 million engagements and counting this week. On 8 May, Toutiao News, a major information portal followed the popularity of the hashtag and ran a rather unusual <a href="https://m.weibo.cn/status/4634582304164592?wm=3333_2001&amp;from=10B5093010&amp;sourcetype=weixin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">week-long poll asking</a> Chinese netizens' opinion on whether ‘Nepal will become the next India’. More than 85% agreed with this possibility, and some even feared that the spread of the pandemic in Nepal could be worse than in India. While most posts have lumped Nepal and India together on the Covid-19 theme, others have drawn attention to the Nepal-China friendship and urged the Chinese government to help Nepal with emergency supplies.‘Isn’t Nepal a good friend of China? All efforts should be made to help them,’ said one post, while some others asked that immediate support be rushed to China’s ‘good neighbour’. Just as the western media’s concern about Nepal’s pandemic is largely limited to Mt Everest, the Chinese social media focus is India-centered. Global Times, China’s state-affiliated media, even ran a story highlighting how Chinese enterprises in Nepal were trying to <a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1222721.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">prevent Nepal from becoming a ‘mini India’.</a>   <figure><img width="677" height="837" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b84569c7e80680e06778bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="677" height="750" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109111140/636b84599c7e80680e06778cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>China has offered assistance to India to respond to the pandemic, and <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/firmly-support-india-in-fight-against-covid-19-wang-yi-writes-to-jaishankar-101619714772524.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">after a statement of concern by Foreign Minister Wang Yi</a> with an expression of support, many Chinese social media users have urged similar help for Nepal. Indeed, Beijing seems to be responding. A Nepal Airlines plane is flying to Beijing on Monday night to bring <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-05/08/c_139932642.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">China’s offer of </a>20,000 oxygen cylinders and other medical essentials, as Nepal’s hospitals struggle to cope with the seriously ill. A similar flight last month brought back 800,000 doses of the Chinese VeroCell vaccine donated by China.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-begins-covid-19-vaccination-drive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s vaccination program</a> has ground to a halt after an early promising start after India stopped further export of the Covishield AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute even though Nepal had already paid for 2 million doses.Social media posts here quote the Chinese saying ‘A close friend is better than a distant relative’, but others have also urged Nepal to improve its governance and delivery instead of just depending on the outside world for help.One Chinese social media post notes: ‘The spread of Covid-19 will make China a ‘thin horse’ so it should not just give assistance for free.” The growing debate on China’s foreign assistance, both at policy-making level and on social media, hints that countries like Nepal should focus more on early preparedness and control as most other countries grapple with their own Covid-19 crisis. Aneka Rebecca Rajbhandari studies political science at Peking University. Raunab Singh Khatri is a graduate student in economics at Yenching Academy of Peking University.

Home Minister Sudan Gurung resigned on Wednesday following increasing coverage of and criticism over his investment in companies linked to controversial Nepali business figures Sulav Agrawal and Deepak Bhatta, who are currently under investigation for money laundering.
‘I am resigning from the position of Home Minister effective today to ensure impartial investigation into matters associated with me, and to make sure that there is no conflict of interest,’ Gurung wrote, saying that morality and public trust mattered more to him than office.
Gurung ended his message to the nation in English as he invoked the security forces, writing: &nbsp;‘For my country and For the respect of our security forces and For the youths of Nepal.’
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Gurung has become the second member to depart the Cabinet, serving for less than a month, despite the Nepali electorate’s hopes that Nepal would finally get a stable government after the RSP’s sweeping victory in the March elections.&nbsp;
Prime Minister Balendra Shah had sought clarification from Gurung on Wednesday after new details emerged about his shares in two micro-insurance companies, Star Micro Insurance and Liberty Micro Life, which are said to have been issued their licence by the Nepal Insurance Authority at the behest of Bhatta and Agrawal.
Gurung denied financial misconduct, saying that his investment in the two companies was included in his asset disclosure and insisting the misunderstanding is because of how the shares have been categorised.&nbsp;
Leaders within the RSP had called for an internal investigation into Gurung as they sought to maintain the party’s platform of clean governance and transparency. As such, Gurung’s position had become increasingly untenable, especially since former Labour Minister was sacked without being given an opportunity for clarification over a disciplinary breach involving his wife’s appointment to the Health Insurance Board.&nbsp;
On social media, Sah on Tuesday seemed to express dissatisfaction over the PM’s request for Gurung’s clarification.&nbsp;
Judging by the comments under Gurung’s resignation post, a significant part of the Nepali public seems to be firmly on Gurung’s side, blaming the mass media and what they call mouthpieces of old parties for driving him out of the Cabinet.&nbsp;
This is a reflection of his meteoric rise and the continued support he has maintained since he stepped into the spotlight as the leader of Nepal’s youth movement in the aftermath of the September protest.&nbsp;
Gurung has made headlines constantly ever since he burst onto the national stage, which includes questions over the degree of his and his organisation Hami Nepal’s involvement in the September 9 unrest, calls to divulge details behind Hami Nepal’s finances, and not paying five years of rent for an illegal lakefront property in Pokhara.&nbsp;
There have also been unsubstantiated claims, despite Gurung’s denial, about his ‘ties’ to the Free Tibet movement, which has made the Chinese— as well as Nepalis— wary.&nbsp;
As Home Minister, Gurung cultivated an image of a tough but approachabe leader, overseeing a series of high-profile arrests of previous political leadership and business figures even as he posted photos of sleeping in a sofa in his office, and engaged with the public on the streets and on social media.&nbsp;
As it stands, the Home Ministry was a bone of contention between Shah and RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane before it was awarded to Gurung, who is a close ally of PM Shah. Analysts had noted that with Gurung in charge, the Home Ministry would be a hook for Shah if Lamichhane, with his share of controversies, stepped out of line.&nbsp;
Following Gurung’s resignation, the Prime Minister’s secretariat has said that the PM would take charge of the portfolio for the time being. But it will be interesting to see if and how fresh negotiations for the Ministry unfold within RSP.&nbsp;
And with his supporter base largely intact, it remains to be seen how much of an impact this setback will have on Sudan Gurung’s political aspirations.&nbsp;

Home Minister Sudan Gurung resigns

Sudan Gurung is dancing. It is 2009. He has an emo fringe falling over one eye and is spinning on a polished floor. His dance shows dedication — moves that take years of bruised elbows to land. The clip is 16 years old, and had been sitting in the dead archives of YouTube and old Facebook pages, watched by almost nobody. This month <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@4gr4j/video/7621892206902725909">it has 1.9 million views</a>. Gurung became Home Minister on 27 March and resigned on Wednesday, barely a month into office. His<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@aayvik/video/7626069452177542408"> pre-political life had been put back into circulation</a> at industrial speed -- the b-boying, the DJ sets, and the YouTube video of him dancing in a music clip.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026042202040_71df4d531423e7c941abde95fb8106346c70ab0afb71bbeb520cc570f14ba178.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026042202040_71df4d531423e7c941abde95fb8106346c70ab0afb71bbeb520cc570f14ba178" data-rendition-name="original" width="2300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="When aura meets audit"> </figure>  The youth of Nepal, well-versed in snappy TikTok edits and aura compilations, turned the archive into a meme economy almost overnight. TikTok remixed the footage to trap beats. The comments settled on a nickname that crossed into everyday speech within days: 'Homie Minister'. <div class="embed-block"><blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@yalexthwreal/video/7622325255792512276" data-video-id="7622325255792512276" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@yalexthwreal" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@yalexthwreal?refer=embed">@yalexthwreal</a> <a title="sudangurung" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sudangurung?refer=embed">#sudangurung</a> new home minister of Nepal😎 <a title="fyppppppppppppppppppppppp" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyppppppppppppppppppppppp?refer=embed">#fyppppppppppppppppppppppp</a> <a title="sudangrg" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sudangrg?refer=embed">#sudangrg</a> <a title="home" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/home?refer=embed">#home</a> <a title="minister" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/minister?refer=embed">#minister</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - •⪨н є α я т ❤н α ¢ к є я ⪩• - Music Universe 🎧" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-•⪨н-є-α-я-т-❤н-α-¢-к-є-я-⪩•-7308733170064231170?refer=embed">♬ original sound - •⪨н є α я т ❤н α ¢ к є я ⪩• - Music Universe 🎧</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script></div> As Home Minister, Gurung was in charge of the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Department of Immigration, and the country's internal security apparatus. Calling him 'homie' collapsed the distance between that office and the Discord server where the movement that brought him into power had organised itself. What is harder to explain is why the nostalgic clips did the narrative work for Gurung's political standing right up until the moment the paperwork did not. A teenager on a dance floor in a Thamel club, filmed before smartphones had decent cameras, was functioning as political currency for a powerful home minister, while a share registry was quietly filling the other column. The footage was not an argument. Gurung was not doing anything in it that related to home affairs. He was just dancing. The comments compared him to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@4gr4j/video/7621892206902725909">Korean film heroes</a>. A separate <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tandavyt7/video/7622151050128018708">48,000-like edit</a> was captioned 'Our New Home Minister Aura'. The replies were full of people saying they got chills listening to him speak. Even after his resignation, most comments on his Facebook page were supportive, saying he had been punished for pursuing truth and justice.&nbsp; Political legitimacy in Nepal has been built out of many things over the last 70 years, but it has never been built out of this. The question was always: what happens when the job starts demanding things his style, boldness, and swag cannot provide. Political aura in Nepal used to be a slow harvest, now it isn't. B P Koirala spent eight years in prison under the Panchayat. He wrote fiction at Sundari Jal. The writing survived, the prison sentences survived, and that experience became the template for what a serious Nepali politician looked like: someone the state had tried to break and failed. Legitimacy was accumulated by having their lives taken away, and refusing to bend the knee. The old mechanics of legitimacy produced politicians who could be audited. The record was made of words, dates, votes, and years behind bars. A voter who wanted to know what a leader stood for read his writings. A journalist digging for inconsistency could find it. The system was slow, often corrupt, and frequently boring. But boring was part of the job description. A minister was supposed to be slightly dull — evidence that the person was doing the unglamorous work of reading files and sitting through committee meetings. Today, boring is a disqualification. The attention economy rewards velocity and visual charge, and a politician who cannot generate either does not exist in the feed, and that means does not exist at all. The legacy parties are still issuing press statements criticising the new guard in the grammar of paper trails and procedural failure. But the audience has stopped reading, users scroll for their next viral bite. Sudan Gurung, unlike the old parties, understood exactly which grammar the feed rewarded. On his first evening as Home Minister, he posted a photo of himself sleeping on a sofa inside the ministry. Caption: creation cannot be greater than the creator, government is not above the people. The image travelled further in 12 hours than any ministerial press release has ever done.&nbsp; A minister napping on a sofa, phone-shot, zero production, read by the public as evidence of a minister who had skipped the motorcade and got straight to work. Gurung used Facebook to announce the names of former ministers and businessmen he intended to arrest. The feed was used to pre-announce state security action.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260422010456_2fa1918e1dd031d01f38b4001ee306d9414073cec0b795fa43a75cb5a8deb8c7.png" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20260422010456_2fa1918e1dd031d01f38b4001ee306d9414073cec0b795fa43a75cb5a8deb8c7" data-rendition-name="original" width="926" height="868" loading="lazy" alt="When aura meets audit"> </figure>  INFLUENTIAL INFLUENCER This is not how the Ministry of Home Affairs has ever operated. It is how a YouTuber releases a series. Sudan Gurung was a political content creator. As home minister, he was an influential influencer kinetically doing something in the visual medium. Much like Prime Minister Balendra Shah's sunglasses, Gurung's aura, authenticity and swag were a brand asset, instantly recognisable at thumbnail size. Balen's rap career supplies a pre-political archive that authenticates him the same way Gurung's DJ sets and b-boying clips authenticated him. The aesthetic is doing the work a manifesto used to do. The work is authenticity, and the strategy is auramaxxing. The emo fringe predates the ministry. The DJ sets predate Hami Nepal. The b-boying predates the earthquake, the NGO, the September uprising, the interim cabinet, all of it. Whatever Gurung is now, he was already that person before the office existed. This was the real spectacle of the Homie Minister: authenticity. Nepal's youth have grown up watching heavily-polished, talking-point ministers speak in a language aimed at nobody in particular. But that grainy archival clip of the Home Minister from 2009 was honest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260422010456_5d6dff3a09e8b7e77dc60c3aa567c9e02b6bd5f90f94e20737ec05cc9a09023b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20260422010456_5d6dff3a09e8b7e77dc60c3aa567c9e02b6bd5f90f94e20737ec05cc9a09023b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1800" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="When aura meets audit NT"> </figure>  The effect transcended GenZ. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@ektapokharel/video/7623242573481561365">A TikTok trend</a> captioned NOT ONLY OUR HOME MINISTER, WE ARE ALSO FROM THAT ERA <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sonykhadka/video/7624106790266948872">has millennials posting their own</a> archive photos from the same period, aligning themselves with Gurung's pre-political aesthetic. The aura did <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@_thakuri/video/7623397397556645141">cross-generational work</a>. It was a shared legibility, spanning at least 15 years of Nepali youth culture, with the Home Minister standing at its centre.&nbsp; The traditional politician's entire adult life is a performance of identity. Every photograph is lit for the media, every statement is vetted. The persona is the product, and the product has been in development for 30 years. This makes the old guard legible but suspect in the attention economy. A generation raised on authenticity-as-currency reads the decades of careful performance as evidence of something to hide. The polish is the problem. The nostalgic Sudan Gurung party clips inverted this. The polish was absent. The footage could not be performance aimed at the viewer, because the viewer did not exist in 2009 and neither did the political stakes. The clip was therefore read as real, in a way a press conference can never be. It was just a kid dancing, and he happened to grow up to be the Home Minister. But Sudan Gurung's job was never to go viral. The Ministry of Home Affairs requires the person running it to file a complete asset declaration and to avoid holding financial interests in crony entities.&nbsp; None of that work is content. A correctly filed asset declaration does not get remixed into a trap beat. A functioning immigration database is not a TikTok. The paperwork that constitutes actual governance is structurally boring in exactly the way the old parties are structurally boring, and for the same reason. It is the slow, procedural, checkable apparatus that the old system was built to produce and that the new system has not yet learned to replace. And it is painstaking follow-the-money paper trail investigative journalists in the legacy media who uncovered the evidence. You cannot auramaxx your way out of a share registry. You cannot post your way past a conflict-of-interest statute. No amount of fire outfits and wild DJ transitions does anything for you when a journalist pulls the initial shareholder list of Star Micro Insurance and finds your name at number 49, with Rs2.5 million in shares alongside investors linked to Deepak Bhatta and Sulav Agrawal — two men currently at the centre of a Rs 3.7 billion money laundering investigation. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@blox.drop/video/7622173520981658900">Auramaxxing was engineered</a> for the mechanics of reaching office. It is the reason Sudan Gurung became Home Minister and Gagan Thapa did not. The question that had not yet been tested, until this week, was whether the same weapon works when the terrain changes. The terrain does change when you assume power. This week, the answer arrived. TWO CLOCKS Two clocks had been running, and they did not sync. The first clock was built for auramaxxing. A clip posted at eight in the morning peaked by noon. A sofa photo was remixed before the minister had left the building. The feedback loop is fast and legible, and a politician playing this clock gets real-time data on what to post next. The old guard never learned to read it, which is a large part of why they lost the election. The second clock was the one the ministry actually runs on. It measures in quarters, court calendars, and the slow grind of investigation files moving between offices. A share registry takes weeks to pull. A money-laundering case moves at the speed of the prosecutor's office, which is to say, it often does not appear to move at all, until one morning it does. The legacy mass media is fed leaks, and the second clock does not care whether the minister is currently trending. The two clocks collided this week, and the second clock got there first. Faster than anyone expected. The first clock put Gurung in the Home Ministry in weeks. The second clock put him out of it in less than a month. On Sunday evening, Diyopost and Janaastha published documents showing Gurung as a founding shareholder in Star Micro Insurance and Liberty Micro Life — companies licensed by the Nepal Insurance Authority in 2022 following what reporting identified as political lobbying by Bhatta and Agrawal. A photograph also surfaced of Hami Nepal, the NGO Gurung chairs, honouring Bhatta as a donor on 21 December 2021. Gurung's first response was auramaxxed. A Monday Facebook post distinguishing ‘rumours’ from ‘facts’, insisting the shares were disclosed within his broader Rs20 million securities portfolio, promising to cooperate with any investigation. "Allegations and truth are not the same thing," he wrote. "Decisions should be based on evidence, not sentiment." It was a coherent clip, but it did not stop the clock. By Wednesday, Prime Minister Balendra Shah had sought written clarification. Leaders within the RSP itself were calling for his resignation. The opposition Nepali Congress had framed the question as one of democratic transparency.&nbsp; Gurung resigned, posting his decision to Facebook as he did everything else. Ethics, he wrote, hold more weight than any position. There is no power greater than public trust. He ended in English, invoking ‘my country … the respect of our security forces … the youths of Nepal’. Even the exit was content. And this is the asymmetry the office exposed. A politician whose legitimacy is built on fast 30 second videos is structurally exposed to a process that runs slower than the news cycle, because the archive of aesthetic proof was not engineered to answer documentary evidence.&nbsp; It was engineered to displace the demand for documentary evidence in the first place. When that demand returns, as it always does once a politician takes office, the digital archive keeps performing, but the documents keep getting uncovered. And the two tracks do not communicate. The old guard knew this clock because they had no other clock to know. What they lost in charisma they gained in durability: a politician built over 20 years of parliamentary record is harder to dislodge with a single document because they have already survived thousands of documents. The new guard has not been stress-tested against its own paper trail. Sudan Gurung has now been tested, and the test is over, and the template has been written in his exit rather than his survival.&nbsp; A politician can enter office on the strength of a dance clip, and the same class of evidence — share registries, company filings, founding-shareholder lists at number 49 — that would have ended the career of a politician in a previous era of Nepali politics has ended his. The second clock got there. The feed did not save him. Or not entirely. Because the resignation itself is now in the feed. The Facebook post. The 46 brothers and sisters. The epic sign-off. Within hours of stepping down, Gurung had already re-enrolled his exit into the same register that put him in office. The clip of the Home Minister dancing in 2009 is still in circulation. The sofa photo still reads as sincerity. The investigation into the micro-insurance shares will move at the speed of Nepal's prosecutor's office, which is to say, at a speed the feed has long since outrun. The movement that installed Gurung in the name of ending elite capture has had its answer about whether its own hero is subject to the same audit it demanded of everyone else. He walked — or was walked — before the audit ran its course. The resignation was framed as moral choice rather than forced exit, and the framing is already winning. Whether that framing holds is the next test. Auramaxxing, it turns out, is a weapon that works in one direction only: it got him the job, and when the documents arrived, it did not save him. But it may yet save the person. These are not the same thing. If the technique is wounded, it is not yet dead. The next Nepali politician with a pre-political archive and a phone is watching how Gurung exits, not just how he entered. And the answer is: you exit the same way you entered: on Facebook. In your own voice. Before anyone else writes the caption. Whether he comes back is the thing to watch. Whether the technique does is already decided. &nbsp; &nbsp;

When Aura meets Audit

Just three weeks in, Prime Minister Balendra Shah has already shed two ministers, and is having to contend with the economic fallout of the West Asia war plus the global order that it has upended.&nbsp;
The new dispensation in Nepal has aroused interest in New Delhi, Beijing as well as Washington. The ouster of Home Minister Sudan Gurung, whose first act in office was to arrest former prime minister K P Oli, has foreign policy wonks scratching their heads.
The US sent Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Samir Paul Kapur on a special mission to figure out what is happening in Kathmandu. In town at the same time was Cao Jing, Deputy Director General of the Asian Affairs Department of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And Prime Minister Shah is preparing for an official visit to India.
For the Americans, it is mostly about containing China and looking after the welfare of Tibetan refugees, while pushing its own MCC Compact and State Partnership Program (SSP). Beijing is mindful of the post-Dalai Lama era, and does not want instability in Nepal to encourage free-Tibet activities. India lately seems more wary of American activity in what it considers its backyard.
The Chinese appear relieved to see Sudan Gurung go. Only last week, Ambassador Zhang Maoming met Gurung during which he raised the issue of Tibetan and Taiwanese activities in Nepal, seeking firm commitment that Kathmandu would not harbour activities hostile to Beijing.
“Geographically we are close to Tibet and not to the Mainland, so China remains suspicious of us, especially after the TOB and free-Tibet components that emerged from the GenZ protests,” says geopolitical analyst Indra Adhikari.
Kapur, for his part, met RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal. Although investment and infrastructure was on the agenda, the main issue seems to have been about Tibetan refugees. In nearly parallel meetings with ministers, Cao Jing warned Nepal not to be too cosy with the Americans.
For Indian academic and Nepal watcher Sukh Deo Muni, all this harks back to American activity in Nepal during the height of the Cold War. He tweeted: ‘US senior diplomat Paul Kapur's statement in Kathmandu must be understood carefully in New Delhi. He said the US does not want China or any other country to dominate Nepal.’&nbsp;
‘Any other country’ could be a pointed reference to India, and what this means is that Nepal may now have to navigate even more carefully a tri-polar world order reshaped by the West Asia war.&nbsp;
Nepali journalist based in New Delhi Akanshya Shah agrees that the United States may not be seeing Nepal through the Indian lens anymore, while New Delhi does not want heightened US activity in what it considers its sphere of influence. All this is further complicated by recent frostiness in Washington-New Delhi ties.
“New Delhi doesn’t have that familiarity factor it used to with old leadership in Nepal, but it is curious about what the young Balen Shah will do and what kind of relation he will pursue with India,” she adds. “Certain decisions of the Balen government such as ending VIP culture and delivering passport at homes have hugely resonated with the Indian people, he has in some ways become a role model among the youth in India as well.”
India has invited Prime Minister Shah for an official state visit, which will be his first foreign trip as per tradition. Shah graduated in structural engineering from a college in Bengaluru, and knows India well. Shah has injected religious elements into his public exposure as prime minister and this could help project Nepal’s ‘soft power’ in dealing with India.
But he has also been a nationalist on the Limpiyadhura map dispute, and there are other thorny issues like air connectivity, river projects and power exports that need to be ironed out.&nbsp;
Sukh Deo Muni warns that the old Indian diplomatic approach based on religio-cultural stakeholders in Kathmandu may not work anymore. He wrote: ‘India's Modi government must prepare itself well to deal with new Nepalese leadership and their empowered support base, which is self-confident, highly nationalist, aspirant and impatient.’
The RSP’s 22-page National Commitment document said Nepal should abandon its historical ‘buffer state’ identity to serve as a ‘vibrant bridge’ between regional and global powers. Much of this debate is theoretical, and there is much navel-gazing that distracts from regional realpolitik.&nbsp;
“Whether we are a buffer state or a vibrant bridge, in today’s heightened geopolitical scenario we have to have good relations with good neighbours,” explains Akanshya Shah. “What is of paramount importance is that our ties are based on the aspirations of the young generation, so that they are engaged.”
Indra Adhikari goes as far as to say that the concepts of “buffer state” and “vibrant bridge” have both failed and Nepal is neither. “We have had zero roles in mediating or de-escalating the tensions between India and China to call ourselves a buffer state. As a vibrant bridge, we cannot facilitate trade of the two countries. The new government should have researched and consulted more before proposing the same outdated and failed foreign policy concepts.”&nbsp;
What will be much more important for Prime Minister Shah is to continue Nepal’s traditional policy of ‘equidistance’ and convince his interlocutors that it is not an anti-Indian stance.&nbsp;
“At a time when there is increased interest of big powers in Nepal, we need to do a bit of our own homework for the systemic reforms we want,” says Akanshya Shah. “As for India, we first need to clearly define what we want on connectivity, energy and culture. But most importantly, we have to capitalise on the goodwill of India which we haven’t been able to in the past.”
Adds Indra Adhikari: “When it comes to fundamental aspects of foreign policy that ensures and enhances the well being of our citizens, national parties should all have one unified voice that doesn’t change when the government does. Only then the future generations can own it.”

Love thy neighbours (and America)

Krishna Bahadur Ramtel was returning home after visiting a temple when his family insisted on climbing the Dharara viewtower in Kathmandu. He climbed up the narrow steep stairs with his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. His wife was nine months pregnant and chose to stay behind. At the top, Ramtel was holding the balcony bars when the tower started swaying at 11:56AM on 25 April 2015. The 62m tall Dharara, built and rebuilt after previous earthquakes, then collapsed into a jumble of bricks and masonry. “I heard screams everywhere, I told my mother-in-law and sister-in-law not to panic,” recalls Ramtel after regaining consciousness on a pile of rubble (pictured, below). Rescuers extricated his legs from under a brick arch and rushed him to the hospital, which was already crowded with patients writhing in pain.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260423120420_76bbf4eefc3b54464f585ac4fac81ac602cc10f7be56871860114724074847bb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260423120420_76bbf4eefc3b54464f585ac4fac81ac602cc10f7be56871860114724074847bb" data-rendition-name="original" width="801" height="399" loading="lazy" alt="Dharara survivor"><figcaption>Photo: KRISHNA BAHADUR RAMTEL / FACEBOOK(Photo: Sonia Awale)</figcaption></figure>  His wife survived, but his in-laws did not. Ramtel was devastated, more so for his wife who was going to be a new mother, but lost two family members. His right leg needed an operation, but he made a complete recovery. His child was born soon after, and Ramtel’s wife had to take care of her baby as well as her injured husband. But tragically, she lacked the help of her mother and sister. The 7.8M earthquake 11 years ago this week killed 8,962 people in Central Nepal. Because it was Saturday, Dharahara Tower was more crowded than usual, and at least 180 bodies were later retrieved from the ruins. Most like Ramtel who miraculously survived were on the balcony, while those climbing or descending the staircase were killed. Built by Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa in 1832, there were originally two towers. But one collapsed and other was damaged in the 1834 earthquake and rebuilt. Exactly 100 years later, another earthquake brought it down again. It was again restored only to collapse in 2015.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260423120420_25be3e1f9f78a3c08dcf16d5ac6663f8fbb860073d1eaf740c02b8dd18e1ea21.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260423120420_25be3e1f9f78a3c08dcf16d5ac6663f8fbb860073d1eaf740c02b8dd18e1ea21" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Dharara survivor"><figcaption>Photo: ADITYA KHARE(Photo: Aditya Khare)</figcaption></figure>  Only the base of the original tower remains as a memorial inside the Dharahara complex, where a reinforced concrete tower now stands. Dubbed ‘Seto Tower’ by Prime Minister Balendra Shah when he was mayor of Kathmandu is broader than the previous tower and even has a lift that goes up to the viewing deck. But Ramtel says he not going anywhere near Dharara. He says, “That place holds memories that I do not want to remember, but I cannot forget either.” Soon after his operation, Ramtel returned to his hometown in Dhading where more members of the extended clan offered support. But now he lives in Kathmandu with his family, his son is now 11 and he recently had another child.. “Being alive is a blessing. As long as one is living, there will be struggles, and I am ready to face them all,” he tells us.  <figure><img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260423120420_4a205fcd45f87cf1251742f6ed09f447d5f3ff363f1c65c646da46c9c456339d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260423120420_4a205fcd45f87cf1251742f6ed09f447d5f3ff363f1c65c646da46c9c456339d" data-rendition-name="original" width="640" height="427" loading="lazy" alt="Dharara survivor"><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI / NEPALI TIMES ARCHIVE(Photo: Sonia Awale)</figcaption></figure>  NO PREPAREDNESS While 25 April serves as a reminder of the last major earthquake in Nepal, 16 January is marked annually as Earthquake Safety Day, coinciding with the 8.3M megaquake of 1934. Seismologists say the 7.8M disaster was not the big earthquake that Kathmandu experiences every 80-100 years, and the Big One is yet to hit. Building standards are still regularly flouted in densely populated parts of Kathmandu, which worries Ramtel. “The government acts only after the disaster has happened, people and the authorities forget quickly and move on. There is little preparation, and we expect God to save us,” says Ramtel, who also survived because of divine intervention.

weibo

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Concern in China over Nepal Covid-19 surge

Home Minister Sudan Gurung resigns

When Aura meets Audit

Love thy neighbours (and America)

Living to tell the tale