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Daily Chatpat
Today's Chatpat: September 24th, 2023

1. The Asian Games has begun in China. 12,000 athletes are participating and China as always does a great job hosting sporting events. Nepal is also participating and as usual, tons of officials use such events to get their free vacation while our athletes without any resources participate without any hopes of winning any medals.

Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) concluded its elections and Paras Khadka, the former men's national team captain has been elected as the Secretary whereas Mr. Chatur is once again elected President. I think it's about time, we strictly enforced a 'athletes and coaches' only rule for anybody to represent any sports associations. But like in India, we too face similar problems where politicians and criminals head most of our sporting bodies and use the organization to attend sporting events around the world, misusing the funds meant for the athletes and coaches.

2. It seems that permanent teachers of our government schools are on their way back to their schools after signing off some deals with the government but thousands of temporary teachers still remain in Kathmandu, carrying out their protests for their own sets of demands. Do expect the Maitighar-New Baneshwor area to be blocked and seek alternative routes to get around if you want to visit the area.

3. As expected, the US has sided with Canada and has asked India to be forthcoming and accountable in the death of a Sikh activist, a Canadian citizen in Canadian soil. Indian media and many of its Twitter or X users are fuming and ranting but what we must understand is that the West will indeed support its allies and use India or any third-world countries to extract financial benefit or political dominance. India fired back by suspending visa services and expelling a few Canadian diplomats but it is now in a difficult position on how to fight back the sudden approach of Western countries, now suspecting possible link of Indian intelligence agencies in the death of the Sikh activist.

So far, the Western countries have stayed silent even when the Indian government has been more authoritarian and has failed to defend the rights of women and minorities in the country. But, it seems that this Canadian issue could now be an excuse for the Western countries to pile pressure on Modi to control his right-wing cadres and agendas as well.

4. Sandeep Lamichhane's rape case has once again been postponed by the courts. Sandeep was accused of raping a minor and was sent to judicial custody but the Supreme Court decided to allow him to play for the men's national cricket team and travel overseas for cricket games. According to media reports, the Kathmandu District Court has only 35 justices where 8 positions remain vacant. Only 18 justices were present today and none of the justices decided to pick up his case files which is done in some kind of a lottery system. The final verdict was supposed to be conducted last week.

5. Dashain is coming and as usual, our byaparis are bringing in 50,000 bokas, khasis and chyangras as well. The mood this Dashain is gloomy and many small businesses are suffering as consumers are not spending freely as they did in previous years. The global economic recession has also hit Nepal but most of the consumers here depend on the remittances sent by their loved ones and do not seem to prefer to splurge this year. The prices of daily essentials have also increased by more than 30% this year while the government still tells us that inflation is only around 6 to 7%.