Media Scanner: For the love of reading

Introduced without much fanfare, this column aims to offer a cursory reading of news reports appearing mainly in the Nepali print media. Though no big name in the Nepali media firmament, yours truly will try through this forum to offer an unbiased and insightful analysis of the stories by not discriminating against any publication big or small. The effort will be on coming up with this column daily, though yours truly admits that the task will not be that easy for a juggler.

Hope you all will be with yours truly through thick and thin.  

Lemme start with a piece of good news selected from among Nepali dailies published on July 27, 2019. 

Course Correction

The Naya Patrika daily writes in its front page lead story that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is opting for some sort of course correction. Indeed, it had been quite sometime since the chief of the executive had stopped his trademark tirade against the opposition and other critics. It had been days like he had stopped sounding like a humour artist, of which there's no dearth in Nepal with major TV/radio channel making a fortune by running comedy shows and enjoying a huge fan following. Thanks to these shows, we are already one of the happiest nations on Planet Earth. So, there's no need for our political leadership to make us happier by cracking jokes.

Of course, this government with a two-third majority in the Parliament can make us the happiest bunch on Earth by ensuring just one thing: Good governance. 

In his course correction, the daily writes, PM Oli is a) initiating talks with fellow Communist Party of Nepal leaders like Bamdev Gautam, Jhalanath Khanal and Madhav Nepal in a bid to mend his ties with them b) Coming out of his coterie and offering ministerial berths to his critics like Bhim Rawal, Ghanashyam Bhusal and Yogesh Bhattarai c) As most of the government-sponsored Bills like the Guthi Bill have sparked public outrage and courted controversy, PM Oli has ordered that such Bills not be tabled in the Parliament in haste 

The electorate gave the CPN under KP Oli a resounding majority in the Parliament with profound hope that he will be able to end the prolonged political instability and usher the country into a new era of progress and prosperity by bringing all on board. Now, the onus is on him to show through his deeds, not through words, that he is up to the task. 

The Chinese Push

The Kantipur daily (kantipurdaily.com) writes in its front page lead story that Nepal now will have access to 15 airports in China, up from seven now.  This move from the northern neighbour comes at a time when Nepal has not been able to use even one Chinese airport. The memorandum of understanding signed after a two-day Air Service Agreement review meeting, which, apart from allowing Nepal Airlines, the flag-carrier, to operate direct flights to major hubs like Beijing, Shanghahi, Lhasa, Guangzhou,  Kunming, Chengdu and Sian, has allowed Nepal to choose eight other destinations. 

Yours truly hopes that this will help bring in a huge number of Chinese tourists not only to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Gautam Buddha, but also to other tourist hotspots like the Sagarmatha region, Pokhara, Chitwan and many many other little-known tourist destinations, giving the Nepali economy a much-needed boost. 

That's not the end of the good news, though. 

Giving a major push to Nepal, China has already booked 21 weekly flights to two international airports under construction -- the Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa and the Pokhara Regional International Airport. Encouraging developments like these will make it easier for Nepal to make Visit Nepal Year 2020 a smashing success.     

At this time, all we need to do is keep our house in order, drastically improve our institutional capacity and fasten our seat belts for the exhilarating flight, for the sky's the limit!

Flood Talks

The Naya Patrika daily (https://nayapatrikadaily.com) writes in its front page story that the government will hold 'serious talks' with India about inundation of Nepali territories resulting from India-built dams during foreign ministry-level talks between the two countries. 

According to the report, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradip Gyawali said this at a programme titled Dams along Nepal-India Border, Inundation and Way Out that Nepal Forum for Environmental Journalists had organised on Friday. 

He reportedly stressed that Nepal (upper riparian country) and India (lower riparian country) should work in tandem for the resolution of this 'common problem', despite the fact that India has taken measures like unilateral construction of water-regulatory structures abutting no-man's land to protect its territories, causing huge losses of life and property at the upper riparian state. 

By obstructing the natural flow of rivers and streams, these structures, built in blatant violation of international practices and good neighborliness, have largely localised the negative impacts of monsoon disasters in Nepal, enabling India to use water collected on Nepali territories for off-season farming, fisheries and other purposes during the lean season. 

The Cuba Factor

The same daily has an interesting piece that may not make the sole superpower so happy. It states that CPN Co-Chair and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has expressed solidarity with the people of Cuba in their struggle against the ongoing US embargo. 

A few days ago, news reports had disclosed that the son of the embattled Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was in Nepal along with some ministers, causing certain inconveniences for the government and making analysts wonder whether Nepal had changed its foreign policy priorities under the august leadership of communist leaders. 

Needless to ask: Who knows the sensitivities of this strategically important country located between two global giants better than Prachanda? Nonetheless, here's hoping that top political leaders like Prachanda will be able to raise similar voices when Nepal faces blatant foreign intervention in its domestic affairs, which happens all too often. 

Bad Roads

The same daily reports about the bad condition of our arteries like Chabahil-Sankhu, Kapan, Tokha, Jorpati-Sundarijal, Tripureshwor-Kalanki-Nagdhunga, Sitapaila and Balaju roads, pointing that concerned authorities have not made honest efforts to improve the condition of these roads. The report points: Because of the lure of the lucre (greed of commission) on the part of concerned authorities, people have been compelled to bear with dust pollution during the summer and muddy roads during the rainy season. 

Here's hoping that the government wakes up to the task and does the needful to alleviate the problem of the masses.  

Text and Picture: Devendra Gautam