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The ruling coalition of Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), CPN (Unified Socialist) and Rastriya Janamorcha Party are busy negotiating seats for the upcoming elections to the federal parliament. The main opposition, CPN-UML, meanwhile, is seeking to forge electoral alliance with fringe parties, especially in Madhes. Pratik Ghimire of ApEx talked to political analyst Vijay Kant Karna to know what he thinks holds for the parties in Madhes in the Nov 20 polls.

How do you think the ruling coalition will settle the seats in Madhes?

Considering the population of 20 districts in the Madhes belt, it does not have enough constituencies. There are around 75 seats from the region, and the top leaders of the ruling coalition have been meeting regularly for a seat-sharing deal. Initially, they seemed to have a formula to divide the constituencies, that those who had won in the 2017 parliamentary elections would get the respective constituencies. But the Nepali Congress is reluctant to do so because many of its leaders would not get election tickets. The JSP has asked for 16 out of 32 seats in Madhes Province, but my prediction is that the party will settle for 12 or 14 seats. The Congress will have the second most number of seats followed by the Maoists.  It has been easy for the major partners in the ruling coalition to negotiate with the JSP since the other major Madhes-based party, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP), is not in the alliance. Also, the JSP has no valid grounds to claim the seats won by LSP in the 2017 polls.

Will the ruling coalition outshine other political parties in the Madhes region?

It would have been no problem for the ruling coalition to get perfect election results if the ruling coalition had won all the seats in the Madhes region in the local polls. But that is not the case. They should convince their provincial leaders and cadres if they are to win all the seats in the federal polls. If the influential leaders do not get the election tickets, there will be many rival candidates who will split the votes. It all depends on how these parties will manage the alliance and their intra-party disputes. Yet, the chances of the ruling coalition performing better in the Madhes region are good compared to other parties.  

Where does the UML stand in Madhes?

UML Chairman KP Oli recently visited Madhes and tried to convince the voters. A few of the leaders from other parties have also joined the UML in recent times. But the UML position on the bill to amend the Citizenship Act and the move of the president not to authenticate the bill could affect the party’s election outcome. Many Madhesi voters are not pleased with what happened with the bill. 

Is there any hope for small parties and independent candidates?

I don’t think so. There are no real independent candidates in Madhes that I can think of. They are either established politicians who have changed or quit the party due to intra-party disputes. In the local election, too, a couple of candidates from the Janamat Party of CK Raut won the election. This victory was not due to the party’s organizational strength, it was due to the popularity of the candidates among voters. They would have won from whichever party. The same happened when Manoj Sah won the mayoral seat in Janakpur. He was a popular local Congress leader but his party did not give him the election ticket. So, he contested as an independent candidate and won. Remember, he was already an established politician. So, unlike in Kathmandu, Madhes is yet to see the rise of purely independent candidates.

Are the Madhes agendas still relevant for the voters?

The Madhes agendas will never be irrelevant for the voters in the region. But for the political parties, it will be difficult to collect votes by advocating those agendas as they had done in the 2017 polls. The Madhes-based parties did not get the votes in the previous election so that they can expand their bargaining power while forming government. The voters wanted their representatives to advocate for their agendas in parliament. So, yes, the Madhes agendas are still relevant to the voters. But whether they trust the political parties to champion those agendas is a different issue entirely.

Nepal government has appointed Milan Raj Tuladhar as its new Ambassador to Russia. Tuladhar assumes his office amid a critical time in history. Russia is waging a war in Ukraine, much to the disapprobation of the democratic countries around the world. Kamal Dev Bhattarai of ApEx talked to Tuladhar about the ongoing war, its implications to the larger world and the bilateral ties between Nepal and Russia.  How do you see the current state of Nepal-Russia relations?  Nepal and Russia share a deep and meaningful relationship since its establishment in 1956. Even during the difficult years of 1990s both in Nepal and Russia, we continued our bilateral engagements. Some of the countries had closed their embassies in Moscow during the period.  Russia has changed as a country since 2001 when the country started seeing a rapid growth in its economy. It, once again, became a superpower in the present multipolar world. So, our relationship with Russia is very important. Both countries place high priority on maintaining good relations. How has the ongoing war impacted bilateral relations?  Well, I have to explain what Russia has to say in this regard. Russia does not call it a war, but it is "a limited military operation". The insurgency in the eastern Ukraine called Donbas has been a well-known reality since 2014. In fact, the predominantly Russian-speaking people there have maintained their apprehension ever since the separation of Ukraine from the Soviet Union in 1991. In recent times, the situation has gotten more complicated for various reasons.  We have always stood for peaceful settlement of all conflicts. One notable point here is that Russia has been advocating for increasing cooperation in Eurasia, which also offers us a good opportunity to augment our cooperation. The ongoing situation in east Europe should not come in the way of the development of our mutual relations. What are your key priorities as a new ambassador to Russia?   Promotion of tourism is one of my key priorities. As per the record of the World Trade Organization, Russia was one of the largest tourism exporting countries before the covid pandemic. Post-pandemic, there is great potential in store for us. After I arrived here in Moscow, I have seen many such interests from the people here. In view of this, we have made available relevant materials in Russian language on our embassy website. I would also like to request hoteliers and other tourism entrepreneurs of Nepal to take some proactive action such as using Russian booking websites like Travel.ru and yandex.ru for providing links to their business and also establishing contacts with agents here.  Recently, there were issues with using booking.com and other sites here. Doing direct marketing with Russia would be highly profitable. We are talking about the market of 60m potential tourists here. I also see a scope for religious relations. Out of 22 republics, four republics have a dominant population of Buddhists. In other places also, there are a large number of Buddhist followers. As Nepal is the birthplace of Shakyamuni Buddha, there is a great potential of their interest in Nepal.  I recently visited one of the oldest Buddhist temples of the country in Saint Petersburg. I conducted Buddha Puja to consecrate the Buddha statue that I had brought from Patan as a gift to the temple.  I saw great interest from the monks and other large numbers of visitors there. This weekend, I will be visiting another Buddhist dominated area in Buriyati, in the Baikal region of Russia. The Russian Buddhists are also making a Russian temple in Lumbini. With all these activities, I hope that the peaceful path of Buddhism can help further strengthen our relations. [caption id="attachment_31763" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Tuladhar handing over a Buddha statue to the head priest of the Buddhist Temple in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 2 Sept 2022.[/caption] What about cooperation in Trade and Investment? Russia is the biggest exporter of fertilizer, wheat and many other products in the world. It has been organizing distribution of 300,000 tons of fertilizer to Africa for free as international trade with Russia has been restricted as a result of sanctions. I see that direct trade with Russia can meet some of Nepal’s dire needs.  Similarly, there is also a great demand for Nepali tea, coffee, handicrafts, etc. There has to be an initiative from our side to find a long term-solution to our acute fertilizer shortage. I hope that there will be an increase in trade in the coming days. It is reported that Russia is unhappy with Nepal’s position in the Russia-Ukraine war. Do you sense that?  Nepal is a non-aligned country. We have committed to non-alignment, Panchasheel and adherence to the UN charter by enshrining their principles in our constitution. It is true that our position in February 2022 in respect to the Ukraine conflict did not go down very well here. Despite that, our long-standing ties with Russia need to be further developed for our own benefit.  What is the current status of Nepali students and workers in Russia?  There is a large number of Nepalis living in Russia. It all began with thousands of Nepali students coming here during the 1960s and 1970s for their studies. There are almost a dozen former ministers in Nepal who were ex-students of the Soviet Union. You will find hundreds of good doctors and engineers who were educated in the Soviet Union and later in Russia. Some of the Nepali people have settled in Russia. Because of a large number of Nepali diaspora, the Non-resident Nepali (NRN) movement started from Russia and it has become a worldwide organization now. Similarly, the high quality educational institutions in Russia are attracting more and more of Nepali students here. All interested students are requested to directly contact the institutions through emails if they wish to study here. The Russian Cultural Centre in Kathmandu can also help them. Here, I feel it is also important to talk about the recent phenomenon of distortions and extortions by some manpower agencies. They have been wrongly advising the Nepali youths that Russia can be a conduit to enter into other parts of Europe with present conflict as a pretext. This misinformation and exploitation have resulted in many innocent people landing in difficulty here. The rules here are very strict including the border security. Some of such misguided visitors were stranded without money and food here. So, I request the general public to be aware of such unscrupulous agents. We have placed a notice in this regard on our website as well.

Ashraf Shikhaliyev is the ambassador of Azerbaijan to India. He also holds concurrent accreditation to Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. Shikhaliyev was in Kathmandu last week to attend Nepal Infrastructure Summit 2022. Kamal Dev Bhattarai caught up with him to talk about the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Nepal and possible areas of cooperation between the two countries. How do you evaluate Nepal-Azerbaijan relations?  Relations between the two countries are developing mainly in international and multilateral forums. In the United Nations, we have excellent relations. Nepal is a founding member of the non-alignment movement and Azerbaijan is the current chair of this movement. So, we have excellent cooperation in our delegations and other areas.  On the bilateral front, we have good relations that we need to build on further. We need to expand economic cooperation, for example. Both countries are land-locked and depend on transit countries. That is why for landlocked countries like ours cooperation in the areas of information communication technology is important. In these areas, borders do not matter and we can do cooperation. We can cooperate particularly in the areas of electronic governance. This is an era of digitalization and every country is paying attention to building infrastructure for it. We have made some achievements in Azerbaijan, and we are willing to share them with Nepal if they are interested. What is the current state of trade relationship between the two countries?  The economic collaboration between the two countries is very minimal. This is because of geography. The two countries are land-locked and there is a huge distance separating them. But we have to start with something. The realistic sector where we can collaborate is information and communication technologies, and e-governance. Nepal needs investment to develop its infrastructure, are there any prospects of cooperation from Azerbaijan?  As I said, we can begin with cooperation in the area of information technology first. We can then move on to infrastructure development. Azerbaijan has many good companies with vast experience in big infrastructure projects, such as building large international airports. Those companies can come to Nepal for the development of infrastructure. Development of infrastructure is important for every country and Azerbaijan is keen to contribute to the development of infrastructure in Nepal. Could you share with us about the ASAN service of your country that won the United Nations award?  State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations known as ASAN is a brand name in Azerbaijan, which we are extremely proud of. This is implemented under the president of our country. The basic concept of this project is to make the life of people easier in service delivery. ASAN service was created in 2012 and three years later, it won the United the best service award from the United Nations. The project was picked from among 800 nominees from all over the world. It has been lauded for its transparency, making service convenient to all, and for its role in combating corruption. People are fully satisfied with the service. The project united our 10 ministries as well as some private companies to provide services under the umbrella of ASAN. Every service it offers is transparent and quick. There are volunteers who check the quality of service and they assist the people. For example, if you need to renew your license, the process does not take more than 10 minutes. Acquiring a passport, getting a visa or any other services are also equally swift and easy. Can Azerbaijan assist Nepal to launch such a project? We are ready to share our experiences with Nepal to create a similar project in Nepal. In 2019, the ASAN delegation visited Nepal and made their presentations. In 2020, we shared a draft of a Memorandum of Understanding proposing to work together in this area with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But we did not hear anything from the Nepali side. We are always willing to share our experiences and assist Nepal.

As Nepal qualifies for the SAFF Women’s Championship 2022 semi-final [for the fifth consecutive time], Anita Basnet proves to be a key element of Nepal’s attacking force. She has come a long way from her debut in 2014 vs Pakistan, to a senior and almost irreplaceable figure in the side. I sat down with the 28-year-old midfielder for a candid conversation. Here’s what she had to say.  Can you describe how it feels to represent Nepal? When I first played for the U-14 national side, I was a child and couldn’t even imagine how [significant] it would feel to wear the national colors. But when I put that jersey on, it felt incredible. I was really emotional on that particular day. What is your favorite position to play on the field? I started playing as a striker and now I enjoy playing in midfield. I often wonder if midfielders enjoy scoring goals more or assisting them. Many of them have the clinical skillset to get on the scoresheet. Basnet certainly does. But not everyone has the selfless mindset to set it up for someone else. So, I had to ask: Do you enjoy scoring or assisting them more? Scoring goals is more important to win games for the team, so scoring is the priority. But if my assists help the team score a goal and contribute to the team, then I’m satisfied. Basnet mentions that she doesn’t have hobbies outside football because that is all she has known since childhood. She likes watching Brazil at the World Cups, while on an individual basis, enjoys the way Paulo Dybala plays.  Basnet and Sabitra Bhandari were the first women from Nepal to play abroad, in India. They played for Sethu FC in the Indian Women’s League (IWL) wearing jersey number 10 and 9 respectively. How was the IWL experience for you? I got to play on an international platform for the first time coming from Nepal. Bala Devi, Ashalata Devi, Ratanbala, Sweety, Grace–I got to play with or against all the senior Indian players, and learnt a lot from them. When we play international matches, we are opponents, but through the IWL, I got to learn their strategies and brought some of those things back to my Nepal teammates. What is your main aim going forward? First, I want to win a gold medal with the Nepal team. We haven’t won a gold medal yet, so that is the aim of my career. Further on, it may be in football or not. I will see when it comes to that. Will the gold medal be in this SAFF Women’s Championship edition? We don’t think any team is weaker than us. Every team we face is tough, but we expect a gold medal this time. We have worked hard, so let’s see how it goes. There were 2,000+ people in the stands for the opening match, did you feel their energy? Obviously, it’s a good feeling to play in front of your home crowd. The number was smaller than we expected, but we were happy to see at least 2,000+ turn up for the game. The last edition of SAFF, the final, had a sell-out crowd. Can we repeat that? We have always had a huge crowd wherever we play. We had a great crowd in Biratnagar for SAFF 2019 and Pokhara for the South Asian Games 2019 (both finals had India as opponents and a 10,000+ crowd). We expect a very good crowd at Dasharath Stadium as it is one of our few international stadiums. We are keen to see more love from the audience in this tournament. Everyone in Nepal seems to love football. Has that love been inculcated in you from a young age? We don’t have a strong grassroots system, and we don’t play in many domestic matches, but our age groups still have gifted players. Many young players love and strive to play for their country. The number is huge. It’s an easy sport to understand and pick up, maybe because they think it’s only about scoring goals. Everyone finds it fun to experience scoring goals, so it’s appealing.  You are so soft-spoken in person, is that your nature? I’m naturally like this. On the field, I try to stay normal but a little aggressive side automatically comes out. Who is your inspiration? My family is, first and foremost, my biggest inspiration. Without the help of my family, I could not be where I am now. They deserve all the credit. Nobody in my family is involved in football or any other sport, but because I was interested in it, they encouraged me to play outdoors from a young age. Tehrathum, in northeastern Nepal, where I come from, doesn’t even have a district football association. Coming from such a remote place, they are very proud of me. I was known by my father’s name before, but now they all know me as a player. It makes me very proud. I’m very grateful for the support of my family. A message to Nepal to come and support the team at Dasharath Stadium?  You have always had our backs. We are here only because you support us on the pitch. You have supported us passionately in the past, but we still need you here more than ever. So, I’d like you to come and support us for it would mean a lot and give us an extra boost of strength. Basnet’s message was pretty clear. The players feed off the crowd’s energy. The tickets start at Rs 300 and I hope Kathmandu locals head to Dasharath Stadium to support this group of talented and inspiring individuals. Nepal has made it to the semi-final, and she has played every minute so far. The aim ahead? Gold.   Special mention to Manila Kafle and Sandesh Sidgel for assisting with the translation Twitter: @radhalathgupta