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Five British-Nepali candidates—Bishnu Bahadur Gurung, Lachhya Bahadur Gurung, Jit Ranabhat, Kamal Gurung, and Jagannath Sharma—have emerged triumphant in the May 5 local elections in the UK.   

Bishnu Bahadur, the incumbent mayor of London borough of Hounslow, has been re-elected for the third time. The Labour candidate garnered 1,037 votes, beating his Conservative rival with 268 votes. A former British Gurkha soldier, Bishnu Bahadur had previously served as the deputy mayor of Hounslow.

Lachhya Bahadur, the former deputy mayor of London Borough of Barnet Council, is another candidate to be re-elected—in what is his second win—as the councilor of Edgwarebury ward. The Conservative emerged the victor, edging his rival by just 42 votes. It’s a bittersweet win for the likely future borough mayoral candidate from his party, as voters handed Labour candidates the majority.

Meanwhile, Ranabhat has become the first Briton of Nepali origin to be elected councilor from Plumstead and Glyndon ward of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. There were 10 aspirants for three councilor seats in the ward. All three seats went to Labour candidates.

Ranabhat received 2,319 votes and his two fellow party winners each got more than 2,400 votes. Except for one losing candidate, none secured more than 500 votes.

Several British Nepali candidates had previously been elected in the UK local elections, but Ranabhat made history by becoming the first British Nepali to win from one of the royal boroughs.

Elsewhere, in North Yorkshire County Council, Sharma won the councilor’s seat from the Hipswell and Colburn division. Sharma is also former deputy mayor of Colburn town and the Conservative Party’s deputy chairperson for Richmondshire district, the constituency of British finance minister Rishi Sunak.

 Sharma, who was also running for the post of North Yorkshire County councilor, lost the election with just eight votes to the Green Party candidate. North Yorkshire is the largest non-metropolitan county of England and Sharma is the first Nepali-origin Briton to run for the post of councillor.

Likewise, Kamal Bahadur, a former British Gurkha soldier and Labour candidate, has been elected to represent Burnt Oak ward of London Borough of Barnet. He registered a comfortable win with a vote difference of 2,377 against his Conservative rival whose vote count was lower than 1,000.

Chitra Bahadur Gurung, Suman Pun, Bhim Saru, Gyan Prasad Gurung, and Sanjay Panta were among other British Nepali candidates in the local elections, but they all lost. Besides Saru, all four others represented the ruling Conservative Party of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

With the Election Commission barring contractors from filing candidacy in the upcoming local level elections, there have been several reports of construction company owners transferring their firms to their relatives’ names. 

Most of these reports have come from places like Bajura, Pyuthan, Jajarkot and Dhanusha. In Bajura alone, as many as 12 contractors have transferred ownership of their companies. With the May 13 polls approaching, the company registration office in the district is notably busy these days. 

Nriparaj Khatri, the incumbent ward chair of Budinanda Municipality-1, recently transferred ownership of his company, Lokmani Construction and Order Suppliers, in his daughter’s name. Earlier, he was operating a construction company while also holding the post of ward chairman. He wishes to contest in the upcoming local polls for a second term. 

A Congress member, Khatri recently registered his company in the name of his daughter Netru. 

Hari Bahadur Rokaya of Gaumul Rural Municipality, Kali Bahadur Shahi of Jagannath Rural Municipality and Krishnaraj Padhyay of Budinanda Municipality are other construction company owners who, like Khatri, were elected in the 2017 polls and are planning to get elected for a second term. They all have transferred ownership of their companies to the names of their close family members in the wake of the candidate criteria set by the Election Commission. 

Sundar Bista, who owns Dinesh Construction and Order Suppliers Construction, is planning to enter the race for the post of ward chairman from Budinanda-1. He had made an unsuccessful bid for the post five years ago. He too has transferred his company to his younger brother Uttam.

The number of contractors hoping to get election tickets from major political parties is also high in Pyuthan and Jajarkot districts. 

Sunil Shahi of Mallarani Rural Municipality, Pyuthan, has been involved in construction for over three decades now. He is also a CPN-UML member and the aspirant for the post of the rural municipality chair. 

Shovaram Neupane of Gaumukhi Rural Municipality, who owns Hariyali Construction Service, is another contractor who is planning to run for the post of rural municipality chair. He is also a former vice-president of the Pyuthan chapter of Contractors’ Association of Nepal and a Nepali Congress supporter. 

There are dozens of contractors in Pyuthan, eyeing for elected office in the upcoming elections. 

In Jajarkot district, Ratna Bahadur Khadka, who is the central vice-president of Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal, is contesting for the post of mayor from Chhedagad Municipality. 

Khadka is also the district chapter vice-president of Congress. A party meeting recently nominated his name for the mayoral candidate, sidelining eight other aspirants. 

In Janakpurdham Sub-metropolitan City of Dhanusha district, Balaram Mahato, contractor accused of financial crime, has announced to run for the post of mayor as an independent candidate. 

Mahato and his company Raman Construction are currently under investigation for VAT bill forgery and tax evasion.

The 55th executive meeting of Pokhara Metropolitan City recently decided to reduce the areas of ‘building exclusion zone’ around its lakes. 

As per the decision, property developers will now have to maintain a 30-meter buffer to construct buildings and other structures around Phewa Tal, the country’s second largest lake. Earlier, the limit was set at 65 meters from the lakeshore.

Likewise, the exclusion zone for Begnas Tal and Rupa Tal has been set at 55 meters from the previous 100 meters. For Lekhnath, Dipang, Gude, Maidi, Nyurini and Kostey lakes, the limit has been set at 20 meters.

The city’s decision has offered a respite to many lakefront landowners who were unable to build on their properties. They had long been complaining that the old restrictions were unfair.

Conservationists have a different take on the new regulation. They say the decision, which comes ahead of the local elections, could have a deleterious impact on Pokhara’s lakes. Human encroachment and construction activities, they worry, could pollute and shrink the lakes.

Bharatraj Poudel, information officer at Pokhara city office, disagrees. He says the decision was taken after studying the lakes and their surroundings.

“The boundary for Phewa Tal was set at 30 meters based on the directive of the lake delimitation and mapping committee, the Supreme Court’s order and the study report,” he says.

In 2007, Kaski district council had decided not to allow any construction within 65 meters of the lakefront. In April 2018, the apex court had also ordered all three tiers of government to conserve Phewa Tal from encroachment. It directed the Office of Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers to demarcate the boundary of the lake and coordinate with the provincial and local governments to strictly set a building exclusion zone.

Poudel says the new set of guidelines was issued based on the recommendations of a study committee.

A task force, led by Tirtharaj Adhikari, the ward chair of Pokhara-17, was formed to set the latest building guidelines around the lakes after the study committee submitted its report last year.

“The guidelines are based on the recommendation of the task force,” says Poudel.

People who own property around Phewa Tal say while they welcome the official decision, not everyone’s concerns have been addressed.

“There are still those people who own small plots of land near the lakeshore. The city has failed to address their concerns,” says Nabin Baral, who represents a stakeholders’ committee of landowners. 

Standard Chartered (the Group) today announced ambitious new targets to reach net-zero carbon emissions from its financed activity by 2050, including interim 2030 targets for the most carbon-intensive sectors. The Group’s approach is based on the best data currently available and aligns to the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario (NZE).

Whilst 33 of our 59 footprint markets do not at present have a commitment to reach net zero by 2050, we are setting out our plan for this timeline, recognising the pivotal role we can play in the transition. Many of these markets are currently reliant on carbon-intensive industries for their continued economic growth. Achieving a just transition – one where climate objectives are met without depriving developing countries of their opportunity to grow and prosper – will require capital and specialised support. We are uniquely placed to help by directing capital to markets that have both the greatest opportunity to adopt low-carbon technology, and some of the toughest transition-financing and climate challenges.

Our net-zero approach has three aims: 

Reduce the emissions associated with our financing activities to net zero by 2050, setting 2030 interim targets in our most carbon-intensive sectors

Our current estimate of in-scope baseline emissions from our corporate client base as at year-end 2020 is 45.2 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, associated with USD74.8 billion of assets (or 77% of our total drawn on-balance-sheet financing exposure of USD97.3 billion to corporate clients.) There is currently insufficient available data to accurately reflect the financed emissions of the remaining 23 per cent of our in-scope corporate lending assets.

We will stop financing, at an individual client entity level (e.g. subsidiaries), companies that are expanding in thermal coal. Ongoing provision of financial services to the client group will be subject to enhanced due diligence. We aim to reduce absolute financed thermal coal-mining emissions by 85 percent by 2030, in addition to the existing prohibition on financing new or expanding coal-fired power plants. By 2030 we will only provide financial services to clients who are less than 5 percent dependent on revenue from thermal coal.

As we expand our green and transition finance, we are targeting 2030 reductions in revenue-based carbon-intensity (i.e. the quantity of greenhouse gas emitted by our clients per USD of their revenue) of:

1) 63 percent for power
2) 33 percent respectively for steel and mining (excluding thermal coal mining)
3) ​30 percent for oil and gas

While the NZE foresees a decline in fossil-fuel production, progress won’t be linear and production of some fossil fuels may rise before it comes down in our markets, e.g. gas as it replaces more carbon-intensive alternatives such as coal in the transition phase.

By the end of 2022 we expect all clients in the power generation, mining and metals, and oil and gas sectors to have a strategy to transition their business in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Having already covered nearly two-thirds of our in-scope financed emissions, targets for remaining carbon-intensive sectors will be announced in line with current guidelines from the Net Zero Banking Alliance, before the first quarter of 2024.

We are sharing our methodology transparently in a white paper to help collective learning and encourage discussion and debate. As standards and methodologies evolve, and data quality and availability improve, we will refine our emissions calculations further. To ensure transparency, we report yearly on progress, in detail, as part of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial

Disclosures process:

Catalyse finance and partnerships to scale impact, capital and climate solutions to where they are needed most, including a plan to mobilise USD300 billion in green and transition finance

Our new Transition Finance Framework sets out how our transition finance will be governed by alignment to the NZE and a set of well-defined principles that help guide our clients onto a low-carbon pathway.

Accelerate new solutions to support a just transition in our markets, including a new dedicated Transition Acceleration Team to support clients in high-emitting sectors, and launch sustainable products

The Transition Acceleration Team will provide our clients in carbon-intensive sectors with deep expertise on how to accelerate their low-carbon transitions, and tools to measure their progress. We will launch a Universal Climate Finance Loan to incentivise clients to outpace national decarbonisation rates, as well as sustainable retail products such as green mortgages in key markets. In wealth management, by 2025 we aim to double sustainable investing assets under management and integrate environmental, social and governance considerations into our advisory activities.

José Viñals, Group Chairman, commented: “Following engagement with clients, shareholders and NGOs, we are today setting out our methodology for how we intend to reach net zero by 2050.

We are motivated by a belief that we can and must address the need for decarbonisation as a result of greater climate-related risks, which increase financing costs and hamper emerging markets’ long-term economic prospects.”

Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive, added: “We’re confident that we’re on a science-based trajectory toward net-zero financed emissions by 2050 that is consistent with the Paris Agreement.

As we reduce the emissions associated with our financing activities to net zero, we will also tackle financial barriers to the transition, including by making more green and transition finance available. This will help clients on a path to net zero while maximising the benefits of a just transition for people and communities.”

In the 18 years he played for Nepal, two distinct avatars of Paras Khadka emerged. The middle-order batsman and medium-pacer who captained the national men’s cricket team for a decade was a brilliant all-rounder, leading Nepal to some unbelievable wins, most notably during the T20i World Cup in 2014. His second avatar was that of a fearless speaker who never stopped talking about the need for sweeping reforms in how Nepali cricket has been run over the years. He repeatedly took on the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) bigwigs, his employers who were mostly political appointees.

It thus comes as music to the ears of Nepali cricket fans that Khadka, after his retirement at the age of 33, is now interested in serving in the association. In fact, even though he has not said so publicly, his constant tussles with CAN administrators might have contributed to his relatively early retirement. Perhaps he had had enough. Khadka had given up captaincy in 2019 and would have retired the same year had there been other players in the pipeline to fill his giant boots.

In many ways Khadka was Nepal’s first sporting idol, loved across generations. The millennials could easily identify with his fearless persona. The ease with which he presented himself abroad was also something of pride for the whole country. The body language of the whole team had changed under him. The new message: they would be pushovers no more. Khadka, as captain, was also a master at working the media, a trait that helped bring much-needed attention to the dysfunctional state of national cricket.  

We here at ApEx would like to wholeheartedly thank Khadka for the countless moments of joy he brought to us while representing Nepal. You were a treat to watch. We also hope that you get into cricket administration soon. We need administrators who know the game, who can work in cricketers’ interests, and who can fend off political interference. Again, Captain Nepal fits the bill perfectly. 

President of Bibeksheel Sajha Party Rabindra Mishra has every right to freely explain his vision for the country, however odious his prescriptions may sound to many. Mishra urges the country to ditch federalism and hold a referendum on its secular status. These are valid political propositions. He is also right that there have not been enough informed public debates over these vital issues, neither at the time of constitution promulgation in 2015 nor after that. All those trying to shout him down because of his ‘regressive’ ideas are also into a kind of regression: stifling free speech.

Now, let’s get to some of Mishra’s ideas. He says federalism should be scrapped by the sovereign legislature. His main premise is that federalism was something imposed on Nepal and that it poses grave risk to Nepal’s territorial integrity. Secularism, another imposition, will meanwhile in his view tear apart the country’s social fabric. His high praise for monarchs also suggests he sees a place for monarchy in his imagination of Nepal.

There is little to suggest federalism is a greater risk than a unitary state. Since its independence in 1947, India has had a disproportionate sway in Nepal, a unitary state for most of this period. As Mishra himself says India in this period had proposed some treaties that threatened Nepal’s very existence. So it is disingenuous to argue that federalism, only installed in 2015, has already emerged as a bigger threat. Nor is his argument that the nascent federalism is unaffordable sound. In fact, devolution of power to the lower rungs have already sped up service delivery and eased public access to vital services. How do you put a price on that?

On secularism, too, some of Mishra’s claims are dubious. It was under the monarchy-run Hindu state that Evangelical Christianity spread in the country like wildfire. Secularism seems to have made no material difference in its spread or in the ‘breaking apart’ of Nepal’s social fabric, as Mishra puts it. Nor does Nepal’s post-1950 history suggest monarchy is somehow uniquely suited to protecting Nepali interests. Just like politicians today, the erstwhile monarchs acted more often in self than in collective interest. Rabindra Mishra has started an important debate (and ApEx only scratches its surface in this editorial). This is also the perfect time to prove him and the adherents of his beliefs wrong.

Consider the paradox: A constitutionally ‘socialism-oriented’ country continues to pour billions of rupees of taxpayer money, not into vital health and education sectors, but a perennially loss-making airline. In the pinch of the Covid-19 pandemic, the national flag carrier lost Rs 5 billion in the last fiscal year. Its total debt comes to Rs 47 billion. Yet the unions of the various political parties insist that the way forward is to continue with business as usual. They are now protesting against the organization’s planned part-privatization, as ‘privatization has never worked in Nepal’.

This is a specious argument, given the wretched history of the airline. Even before the pandemic, it was struggling to balance its books after the entry of better-managed private carriers. This was not just the case in the domestic sector but, increasingly, also internationally, as even here the entry of Himalaya Airlines challenged its monopoly on lucrative international routes such as Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. The purchase of four Airbus jets and the grounding of turboprops procured from China, both on pandemic-eve, only added to its burdens.

There can be no reason to continue with the failed formula applied to the NAC over the years. This entailed appointing political cronies, using them to channel airline procurement and leasing funds into the coffers of ruling parties and giving lucrative bonuses to politically inclined employees, even as the organization’s collective debt continued to mount. Other potentially workable plans such as handing over airline management to a foreign company were shelved too. If the NAC were to be run like a well-oiled private enterprise, more than a handful of greedy middlemen stand to lose their access to easy money.

Reform efforts have been initiated at various times by various governments, from across the political spectrum. But then the bureaucrats and union bosses of the same political parties have stymied such efforts each time. Either Nepal Airlines has to be permanently grounded or, more desirably, obstacles for its part-privatization must be cleared. There can’t be two ways about it. We cannot have a purely business-minded national carrier, as private airlines tend to shun difficult and less-profitable routes. But we can’t afford to lug along this white elephant any longer either.

Birth: 15 June 1947, Gulmi
Death: 15 July 2021, Kathmandu

There are perhaps only a handful of Nepali politicians who think well of their political foes. Ashok Kumar Thapa, chairperson of Gulmidarbar Rural Municipality, was one of them.

After the 2017 local government elections, the municipalities of the Gulmi district were dominated by representatives from CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center). Gulmidarbar was the only municipality in the district that elected chairperson as well as four of seven ward chairs from the Nepali Congress.

Following the elections, everyone thought that a political tussle would ensue between Thapa, the lone Congress chairperson, and other representatives. But nothing of the sort happened.

Thapa allocated more budget (almost double) to the communist-led wards compared to those led by his party. His fellow party members criticized him for this, but he argued that the budget was being allocated considering the wards’ needs.

Thapa was also known for treating officials, bureaucrats, and the whole citizenry like his own children. Even when he was out of power, Thapa made his presence felt by participating in social work—people considered him as more of a social worker than a politician.

Before his time in government, Thapa worked as a secondary-level teacher at a community school. He gave up teaching after being elected the district coordination committee member.

Despite his old age, Thapa was full of energy. His iconic initiatives included a drive to make the municipality thatched roof-free, providing free beds and ambulance facilities to pregnant women and planning to have drinking water taps in every household. Under his leadership, the rural municipality provided free sanitary pads for female students, conducted menstruation health awareness programs as well as regular free health camps. He also started a campaign to promote Ruru-Resunga as a tourist destination.

Thapa rolled out scholarship programs for students in community schools. He also proposed collaboration between private and public schools in order to recruit teachers to teach English in public schools.

Thapa recently passed away at a hospital in Kathmandu. The 74-year-old asthma patient had been bedridden for three months. He is survived by his wife and four sons.