Nepal-India’s ‘Love & Hate’ Neighbor

SALEEM SAMAD

India is in a diplomatic quagmire with its neighbors in a series of political crises of ‘youth quake’ by Gen Z (generation Z), which have struck Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal in South Asia.

South Block in New Delhi, before it could understand what was happening in Kathmandu, Nepal’s elected government, headed by Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, collapsed and fled to an unknown destination. India miscalculated its steps in response to the uprising among its neighbors. Delhi is having hiccups with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal joining the bandwagon, after its recent political turmoil.

For 14 months since becoming the prime minister of Nepal last July, Sharma Oli kept knocking on the door of South Block in New Delhi. This September, the door was supposed to swing open to let him in. His political mistake with its giant neighbor, according to New Delhi, the newly elected Prime Minister Sharma Oli made his first official visit to China, instead of her neighbor India.

China’s inroads into Nepal with mega projects, offers, and connectivity irked India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership. China’s massive infrastructure investments under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including projects like the cross-border railway and road networks, are seen by Nepalese as tangible signs of development and economic opportunity, further enhancing China’s appeal over India.

“Oli knew his premiership would remain shaky without New Delhi’s backing. India, which has deep trade and cultural ties with landlocked Nepal, has traditionally been a big determinant of the longevity of governments in Kathmandu,” wrote The Diplomat news portal.

Alas, the planned visit of Sharma Oli to Delhi has been dented by a two-day youth-quake by Gen Z (Genji) street protest. Interestingly, China’s response to Gen Z to the current political developments appeared cautious and calculated, reflecting its broader regional strategic interests.

Finally, on 10 September, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson issued a statement saying, “China and #Nepal are each other’s traditional friends and neighbors. Hope the various sectors in Nepal will approach the domestic issues properly and restore order and stability in the country soon.”

After 2008, Beijing has carefully treaded with the Communist leadership in Nepal to deepen its diplomatic ties and goodwill in Nepal. The move has been viewed as a key element for strategic influence over the region. Leaders like Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda did not hesitate to use the China card to stoke the nationalistic sentiments in Nepal.

Rishi Gupta, commentator on Global Affairs with India’s The Print portal that a day after the protests began in Nepal on 8 September, India stated the next day that it was “closely monitoring the developments in Nepal…(and) our thoughts and prayers are with the families and deceased. India also added that “as a close friend and neighbor, we hope that all concerned will exercise restraint.”

The same evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “The violence in Nepal is heart-rending. I am anguished that many young people have lost their lives. The stability, peace, and prosperity of Nepal are of utmost importance to us. I humbly appeal to all my brothers and sisters in Nepal to support peace.”

In the same statement, India had urged that “issues on which there are differences should be resolved through dialogue in an atmosphere free from violence and intimidation and institutionalized in a manner that would enable broad-based ownership and acceptance,” as it was deemed as external interference. It would not be an exaggeration to say that small-state syndrome became an intense public mood in Nepal as it approached relations with India, especially after Nepal promulgated the constitution in 2015, wrote Gupta.

There was a divided crowd on social media about India’s approach, whether it was helpful and friendly or interventionist, but this came as no surprise, as the so-called border blockade of 2015 had already set the social media toolkit on India with hashtags like #BackoffIndia #GoBackIndia, wrote The Print.

For most who are watching Nepal closely, glimpses of the street protest and follow-up that unfolded in Kathmandu were reminiscent of the uprising that gripped Bangladesh in 2024 and Sri Lanka in 2022. In four years, three street protest movements showed how public anger against political corruption toppled the heads of government of Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, and led to their capitals.

The three South Asian countries are bedecked with corruption, nepotism, and favoritism by party leaders, lawmakers, and their family and relatives, who enjoyed the luxury and comfort from the perks from state exchequers, handsome commissions from government contracts, and sharks of bank loans.

Though Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also India’s closest South Asian neighbors, Delhi’s relationship with Kathmandu is special because of historic people-to-people, economic, and strategic ties, wrote the BBC news portal. The protests in Nepal were initially seen by India’s political leadership as just young people upset at not being able to use social media. Delhi woke up when the government collapsed after the uprising escalated quickly.

On September 11, Kantipur, the country’s leading daily, reported that while Western media explored corruption, unemployment, and the social media ban as triggers, much of the Indian media pushed conspiracy theories – claiming either foreign powers like China and the US or a “deep state,” a conspiratorial term denoting bureaucracy and security forces, were behind the protest.

Nepal’s government has officially announced a total of 72 fatalities from the recent protests led by Gen Z. The total casualty of the nationwide Gen Z protests has reached 72. Newly appointed Prime Minister Karki of the caretaker government has declared that bereaved families of those killed in the protests will be compensated, while 191 still receiving treatment in hospitals will be treated for free.

The protesters killed during the Gen Z movement have been declared martyrs and cremated with due state honors. On 17 September, the nation paid tributes to the fallen protesters and declared the day a national holiday.

Viral videos on TikTok and Instagram have contrasted the lavish lifestyles of political families, with trends and hashtags #NepoKids #NepoBabies, #PoliticiansNepoBabyNepal involving designer clothes, foreign travel, and luxury cars, with the harsh realities faced by young people, including unemployment and forced migration.

Nepal is fraught with frequent political instability, and each prime minister’s tenure has lasted just a year or two since the new constitution came into effect in 2015. The country abolished its monarchy in 2006, after a violent uprising that forced its former king to give up his authoritarian rule, the American-based Associated Press (AP) writer said.

South Block and the ruling BJP are intensely watching political developments across the border, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi swiftly reacting to the unfolding events and writing his feelings on Twitter (X). “The violence in Nepal is heart-rending. I am anguished that many young people have lost their lives,” Modi wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

The Gen Z youth leaders protested during a scheduled meeting with the country’s Indian trained military chief, Ashok Raj Sigdel, over why Indian media had been given clearance to attend the meeting at the military headquarters, where a planned dialogue was scheduled, while Nepali media were barred.

While selecting the possible candidates for the prime minister, the youth leaders struck names for the premiership, who are pro-Indian and have close ties with Delhi. What angered the Gen Z protesters was that the Indian television channels declared the protests they had joined were not about inequality but about restoring Nepal’s monarchy.

While right-wing television led the charge, newspapers and digital outlets also amplified the narrative. In the process, their coverage downplayed the protesters’ actual grievances, corruption, inequality, and economic hardship by focusing on the theme that was never central to the demonstrations.

Nepali youth demanding accountability versus Indian media, especially outlets close to the ruling BJP, eager to weave the protests into its own narrative, wrote an Indian media outlet.

Indian pro-establishment “Godi Media” was actively downplaying the Gen Z movement in Nepal. Fuelling the narrative are allegations from Indian broadcasters and politicians that rioters vandalized Nepal’s Pashupatinath temple, a revered Hindu site in the Himalayan nation, BBC reported.

“Some rioters, hiding within the crowd of protesters, attempted to vandalize the temple, and it was only after this incident that the army was deployed,” an anchor for the right-wing Zee News, a staunch ‘Godi Media’ television channel, said in a report featuring a clip of people climbing onto the temple’s gate and violently shaking it. KN Swami, a respected monk in the Pashupatinath temple, also posted clips on social media to refute claims it had been attacked by protesters.

Jivesh Mishra, a member of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in eastern Bihar state, which shares a border with Nepal, told reporters last week, “An attack on a temple is an attack on (the) Hindu faith.” Hundreds of social media posts have claimed without evidence that the protests were “instigated and funded” by “anti-Hindu forces and Islamists” to attack religious sites.

The French news agency, AFP fact-checkers, traced the footage to a religious ritual called Naxal Bhagwati Jatra, filmed weeks before the violence. Similarly, the Godi Media have been actively doing the same with political developments in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Other posts viewed thousands of times on Twitter (X), Instagram, Threads, and Facebook have compared the unrest in Nepal with protests in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country where a student-led revolt ousted long-time leader Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the founder of Bangladesh.

Why is India worried about the instability in Nepal? Delhi deems direct and indirect security threats to India’s interests. In the political crisis in Nepal, the 1,700-kilometre open border with India could be a security threat to the region. Political chaos and a breakdown of law and order can lead to a surge in cross-border smuggling, human trafficking, and an increase in the activities of anti-India elements, wrote the popular NDTV network’s opinion column.

The potential for a security vacuum in Nepal could be exploited by hostile actors, particularly Pakistan’s ISI, to foment trouble in India, cautioned opposition Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor, a popular writer and commentator.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, 17 November 2025

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist based in Bangladesh and a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and the Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleem.samad.1971@gmail.com>; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

https://stratheia.com/nepal-indias-love-hate-neighbor/

Nepalese Protesters Cries 'Don't Mess With GenZ'

SALEEM SAMAD

We know that the Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has resigned and fled on a military helicopter to an unknown destination amid the nation reels from its worst two-day unrest in decades, and 19 people have died in the streets of the capital Kathmandu. The 73-year-old Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, known as K P Sharma Oli, leads a coalition government that includes the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and the staunchly pro-Indian Nepali Congress.

Many South Asian political scientists and observers have noted that the people’s uprising against corrupt and autocratic governments has shadows that occurred in Sri Lanka (2022), then Bangladesh (2024), and now Nepal.

The curious question is, where will the people’s revolution strike next? The uprising will spark only where social media is curbed and corruption among politicians in alliance with bureaucracy and police administration becomes unbearable for the ‘aam janata’ (general public), says Dr Rakim Al Hasan, Executive Director of Centre For Partnership Initiative.

Nepal’s political legacy is no different from the South Asian nations. The country erupted into riot after a social media ban was clamped as an online anti-elite movement was gaining traction.

The Himalayan country is currently witnessing one of its most widespread youth uprisings in modern history, triggered by a government-imposed social-media ban and later followed by growing anger over corruption and nepotism. What sparked Nepal’s Gen Z protests and the rise of the ‘Nepo kid’ campaign?

The ban came just as a viral online movement targeting political elites and their children – dubbed “nepo kids” was gaining traction. Borrowing from the Hollywood term “nepo baby,” Nepali users began exposing the lavish lifestyles of politicians’ children, accusing them of misusing public funds.

Posts on TikTok and Reddit, some viewed over a million times, highlighted foreign trips, luxury purchases, and perceived entitlement, sparking outrage among young citizens. While the social-media shutdown served as the immediate catalyst, protesters say the deeper issue is systemic corruption, inequality, and discrimination.

The Kathmandu government argued it is not banning social media but trying to bring them in concurrence with the Nepali laws. The social media users in the Himalayan country challenged the constitution and traditional laws of the state.

The uprising broke out after the government last week blocked access to 26 platforms – including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Alphabet’s YouTube, China’s Tencent, Snapchat, Pinterest, and X (formerly Twitter) following a directive requiring all social-media companies to register with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

Thousands of young Nepali people, many in their 20s or even younger, got together to protest in the capital Kathmandu and other cities in the Himalayan country. Many of the protesters were students and joined the demonstrations in their school or college uniforms. The organizers called the protests “demonstrations by Gen Z”.

The government quickly lifted the ban and launched an investigation, but it is too little and too late. The agitating youths demanded the removal of political parties from power and the establishment of a civilian government. The youth representatives have urged during the dialogue with the state party and the Chief of Nepal Army Staff, Ashokraj Sigdel.

The army has urged the protesting youths to remain calm and hold peace talks, but said the youths that after Parliament has been dissolved. The army has been deployed since 10 September morning. The curfews remain in place as discontent continues to simmer.

The army has warned of strict action against vandalism, arson, looting, and violent activities in the name of agitation as punishable crimes. As a result, life in the valley is gradually returning to normal, and the situation has significantly calmed down.

Many of the youth protesters have voiced support for Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah, a former popular rapper and engineer by profession, to lead the dialogue for peace and security, which covers issues such as forming a civilian government, dissolving parliament, and holding fresh elections.

Meanwhile, the chaotic city of Kathmandu has begun to be cleaned up after the violent protests. Locals and agitating youths are taking to the streets to clean up the mess after the street riots. Last week, Nepal’s government blocked access to several social media platforms after the companies missed the deadline to register under new regulations, aimed at cracking down on misuse.

A government notice directed the regulator, Nepal Telecommunications Authority, to deactivate unregistered social media. The services will be restored once the platforms comply with its order, the government said. Local media reported that the banned platforms include Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, Alphabet’s YouTube, China’s Tencent and Snapchat, Pinterest, and X. Blocking the platforms had hit content creators, influencers, and cut small businesses from reaching customers.

The government says it took the action after repeated warnings to the platforms to open offices in Nepal, a Cabinet decision last month setting a deadline, as well as a 17 August Supreme Court ruling that undermines Nepal’s open society, and also requiring them to register and pay the requisite taxes.

However, the Bill cited in the ban, ‘The Operation, Use, and Regulation of Social Media in Nepal’ has not yet been passed by Parliament. Some social media platforms, which were already paying taxes in Nepal even though they are not officially registered, have also been blocked.

The Regional Director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Beh Lih Yi said ‘Nepal’s sweeping ban on social media sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom. Blocking online news platforms vital to journalists will undermine reporting and the public’s right to information.’

The rights activists have said that while there is a need for the government to regulate extreme content and hate speech, officials appear to be more intent on clamping down on free speech and trying to force platforms to share the revenue.

Nepal’s youngsters say the protest is an expression of their widespread frustration over the social media ban. The widespread arson was sparked by the killing of at least 19 young protesters as they tried to storm the century-old old magnificent parliament building.

A peaceful rally by youth against corruption and nepotism by Nepal’s Gen Z (Generation Z) movement in Kathmandu escalated after the killings. With the prime minister and other ministers having fled the capital, the government not visible and the security forces in retreat, protesters have had the run of the three cities of Kathmandu Valley – Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, and Kathmandu.

As protests spread, police withdrew from guarding official buildings, and thousands of protesters entered the federal government secretariat at Singha Darbar, ransacking and setting fire to buildings and the Parliament building, homes of ministers, hotels and other properties.

Kathmandu Valley was shrouded in smoke under heavy monsoon clouds with a pungent smell in the capital. Many people in Nepal think corruption is rampant, and the government of Prime Minister Sharma Oli has been criticized by opponents for failing to deliver on its promises to tackle graft or make progress in addressing longstanding economic issues.

All members of the opposition RPP (Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) is a constitutional monarchist and Hindu nationalist political party in Nepal, and the RSP (Rastriya Swatantra Party, a National Independence Party) have resigned from parliament. The headquarters of all three main political parties were also set on fire.

Some of the protesters also want an end to federalism, which was also the demand of opposition parties like the RSP and the pro-monarchist RPP. Although the protests were sparked by Gen Z protesters, disparate groups, including monarchists, anti-federalists, disgruntled Maoists, dissidents from the mainstream parties, and others, have joined the protests.

One thing that united them is extreme frustration with the mainstream parties and their leaders, past and present, who have taken turns running and ruining the country. Nepal has struggled with political instability for decades and has seen 14 governments in 17 years.

Nepal’s people’s revolution in 1950–1951, called the Anti-Rana Movement, reduced the king to a figurehead. With support from India and Nepali Congress activists, the revolution ended the Rana autocracy.

The 1990 People’s Movement, a mass uprising, forced King Birendra to end the absolute monarchy. Nepal became a constitutional monarchy with multi-party democracy. The 2006 People’s Movement, after King Gyanendra seized direct power in 2005, ignited mass protests. In April 2006, the king was forced to restore parliament and hand power to the people.

This paved the way for the monarchy’s abolition in 2008, when Nepal became a federal democratic republic. Thus, the final revolution against the king was in 2006, and the monarchy was officially abolished in 2008. Once again, the revolt against corruption, nepotism, and inequality has gripped Nepal.

Nepal is not alone in regulating social media. Most of the dictatorial, autocratic, and totalitarian regimes, including China, ban most Western platforms, and Russia and Turkey regulate them and require platforms to locate their data servers in the country. The regimes in Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Afghanistan have shut down social media apps and blocked current affairs news. Gulf countries allow social media but keep tight control on dissent.

Nepal’s uprising is expected to bring freedom, but history warns. After the revolution and street protests, the countries have fallen back to the same old tradition of politics and governance. Meanwhile, neighboring India and China, the regional powers, are monitoring the unrest that toppled the Sharma Oli government due to potential implications for regional stability.

The GenZ movement in Nepal is entering a critical juncture in its transition to democracy. The task of restoring law and order, addressing youth-led reform demands, and navigating political transition, all under close regional scrutiny.

Himalayan GenZ protests toppled a failed political order but left deep scars of destruction, loss, and chaos. The real test now lies in whether the youth can transform their zeal for protest into the discipline of governance, wrote Nepal’s popular English daily The Republica.

First published in Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, 12 September 2025

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist based in Bangladesh and a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders. He is the recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship and the Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at <saleem.samad.1971@gmail.com>; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Nepal: ‘Eyes of Buddha’ watch over India’s evil

SALEEM SAMAD

The tourist season for Indians begins in the month of June. To beat the summer heat, they visit Nepal, despite the monsoon season, they prefer religious tourism. For tens of thousands of Indians pouring into Nepal for pilgrimage pleasure and extreme sports, the nights are very cool, which they enjoy the most.

Day after day, the Indians go from one mountain to another mountain, from one Hindu temple to another Buddhist pagoda, offering flowers and incense for spiritual gain and well-being of their families and businesses.

While in the capital Kathmandu, picturesque Pokhara, Nagarkot and elsewhere, most of the hotels, restaurants, rental vehicles, taxis and tour operators often refuse to accept Indian currency Rupees (IRs).

They explain that Indian Rupees is no more an official exchangeable currency, which is not well understood. Well, tourist can pay bills to hotels, taxis, and restaurant in US Dollars, Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound and Chinese Yuan. However, the money changer or money exchange kiosks accept IRs at the rate of 1.5 per cent exchange rate in Nepali Rupees (NRs).

India and Nepal has century old love and hate relationship. Nepal a landlocked country in the Himalayan range is interdependent on India for imports.

Recently, despite the scornful eye of India, Nepal dared to open up and neighboring China made inroads into once a Hindu Kingdom.

In recent times, Nepal has gradually moved from India’s influence towards its arch rival China. The new ‘all weather friend’ has made significant investments in infrastructure in terms of aid and loans.

China’s involvement in Nepal’s infrastructure projects through its controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) poses a threat to Nepal’s role as a buffer state between India and China.

India’s engagement with Nepal is limited to defense cooperation, disaster management, infrastructure development, water resources cooperation, education and cultural exchange, which a Kathmandu based trekking operator Prabesh Banjara said.

However, the challenge with India is with the Peace and Friendship Treaty signed in 1950, which guaranteed Nepali citizens free movement across the border and employment opportunities in India. However, many perceive this treaty as unequal and imposed by India.

The porous and poorly guarded border between India and Nepal is a security threat. It is known that the border allows the underworld mafia to exploit it for smuggling weapons, ammunition, trained members and fake currency, which poses a significant security risk to India.

Nepal also has territorial disputes with India. Kalapani at the India-Nepal boundary remains a disputed territory and unresolved. Nepal claims these territories as part of its own, while India argues that it has inherited them from British colonialists.

The trust between India and Nepal has weakened over time due to India’s slow implementation of projects. Some Nepalese ethnic groups feel that India interferes too much in Nepal’s politics and undermines their political independence, leading to a dislike for India.

The Nepalis love to hate India. It seems that the Nepalese, which cuts across all sections of the people, has not forgotten the nightmarish “economic blockade” by India in March 1989.

After enduring more than a year of extreme hardship, Nepal has learnt a bitter lesson: the rest of the world wouldn’t come to their aid when they were bullied by India. The blockade inadvertently hastened the restoration of democracy, but it did not nuke India-Nepal relations any less rocky. India did not extend landlocked Nepali trade and transit treaties, wrote CK Lal in a prestigious newspaper, the Nepal Times.

Aditya Gowdara Shivamurthy writes in Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a Delhi based think-tank and the neighborhood has undergone shifts since the beginning of the millennium. By the end of the decade, the democratic transition in Bhutan, political instability in Nepal, the Maldives, and Bangladesh, and civil war in Sri Lanka had posed dilemmas and new challenges to India.

Narendra Modi’s government in India offered an opportunity for an emerging China to make inroads in these countries through economic assistance and investments. Most of these projects were later institutionalized and categorized under Beijing’s flagship BRI.

ORF writes that the policy balances coercion and inducement, although the former (India) have become more subtle in the years since the policy was initiated.

While earlier coercion measures included alleged blockades in Nepal and military posturing against the Maldives, the focus has now shifted mainly towards granting and denying access to Indian markets and assistance. There is a growing understanding that the use of coercive measures and becoming involved in neighbors’ domestic politics would only drive the South Asian neighbors away from India and further come closer to China.

India believes that interdependencies will counter Chinese influence in the region, strengthen its security, and further its interests.

ORF study also highlights crucial challenges and missed opportunities in India’s policy. First, India has not been able to counter its negative perceptions, as it is still viewed as an interventionist power.

Second, India’s security-oriented outlook for the region, including offering alternatives to China and pushing back against China through diplomatic means, has continued to foster suspicion towards India’s intentions.

It is clear from his Divyopdesh (Divine Sayings) that Nepal’s great unifier, a Gurka King Prithvi Narayan Shah, didn’t quite trust the big neighbor to the south.

At the level of the nation-state, Nepal has a litany of injustices it has suffered from high-handed Indians, wrote CK Lal.

There is a strong impression in Nepali minds that they have got the short end of the stick in almost every border river project-from Kosi and Gandaki in the past to Pancheshwar in recent times.

All Himalayan rivers originating in Nepal drain into the Ganges. When Indians try to tame some of these rivers, the trouble is transferred upstream, and submergence takes place in Nepali territory, the Laxmanpur Barrage being the most recent example.

A hotelier in Pokhara said, the Chinese invested multimillion dollars in building a new Pokhara International Airport, which has yet to begin operation.

India has threatens that any international airlines which has plans flights to picturesque Pokhara would not be given authorization for over-flights to the airport. “It is pity that India envy’s that the airport was built by her arch enemy China,” said the hotelier.

A private airline in Bangladesh requested Nepal to introduce flights to Kathmandu and Pokhara. Kathmandu’s Triubhuvan International Airport is crowded by scores of international flights and unable to provide a slot for the Bangladeshi airlines.

Pokhara, the second destination, has been blocked by Indian’s arrogant policy. The flight will have to make fly Indian air space to reach Pokhara. Beleaguered Pokhara International Airport is only serving to domestic flights to Nepali private airlines. What a waste of a mega infrastructure investment!

Politicians like to repeat that the love-hate relationship between Nepal and India is “age-old” and has stood the test of time, says CK Lal.

In a piece of advice, he said the Indian government should engage constructively with the new leadership in Nepal and work towards enhancing cooperation in various areas. This will benefit India’s long-term interests.

The Eye of Buddha or “Wisdom Eye” in the heart of Kathmandu represents the enlightened perception of reality and the nature of existence. The eyes are traditionally watching towards the south – India. The eyes protect Nepal from the evil.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, on 24 May 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

No Justice for Victims Under Nepal’s Maoist Prime Minister

SALEEM SAMAD

Nepal’s decade-long Maoist insurgency ended 16 years ago, but war crimes victims are still seeking justice. The government, headed by the same party leader that carried out the insurgency, has largely refused to prosecute alleged war criminals. If the international community does not change its tack, this situation will doubtlessly continue.

Once popularly known as the Himalayan Kingdom, Nepal transformed by fits and starts from a Hindu nation-state to a secular, democratic state through the 20th and early 21st centuries. From 1996 to 2006, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), or CPN (MC), waged a bloody insurgency against the royal government. The civil war took some 17,800 lives. In 2008, Nepal finally abolished thousand-year-old monarchy and the official Hindu kingdom, introducing secularism and a fragile democracy, for better or worse.

The current Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda, began his third non-consecutive term in December 2022. He was and is the leader of the CPN (MC) since its founding. He has recently refuted allegations that his party recruited and used child combatants during the insurgency and the years of the peace process. Dahal made the claim in an apologetic response to a petition filed at the supreme court in Kathmandu. The petition claimed that child combatants were used during the Maoist insurgency. Dahal pointed to the documents of the peace process, insisting that the term “child soldiers” was not used.

By documents, he meant the Comprehensive Peace Accord, the Agreement on Monitoring of the Management of Arms and Armies, the Interim Constitution, the 2015 constitution and other authentic documents, where “child soldiers” had indeed not been mentioned.

Nearly three decades after the Maoists launched their armed struggle on 13 February 1996, Nepal is still haunted after 27 years of conflict and violence.

Of the 17,800 Nepalis, including civilians and armed forces, who were killed during the conflict, Dahal admitted to being responsible for only (if that word can even be used) 5,000 of the deaths.

Decades later, victims still seek justice

Dahal has left many wondering what it was all for, writes Sonia Awale in Nepali Times. When heinous crimes against humanity including summary executions, torture, disappearances and war rape by both sides go unaddressed and unpunished, it creates a sense of impunity for unpunished war crimes, she wrote.

Families of the victims worry that with the Maoists now in the governing coalition with their erstwhile nemesis, the Nepali Congress, justice may never be served.

Suman Adhikari’s father was brutally killed by the Maoist foot soldiers. He was a popular school teacher at Panini Sanskrit Secondary School in Duradanda in Lamjung district. His crime? Refusing to contribute a quarter of his salary to the so-called people’s war fund.

Adhikari and his family members petitioned the independent Nepal Human Rights Commission (NHRC) but have little hope in justice for the murder. They pled with the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The members of these latter two commissions were selected on the governing party’s recommendation.

Adhikari believes that both of the commissions are more interested in letting war criminals off the hook than in providing justice and protecting the perpetrators. He is worried by reports “that they want a blanket amnesty for all war crimes by both sides in the conflict,” he lamented.

In another case, nearly 3000 child soldiers were disqualified for integration into the Nepal Army by the United Nations Missions in Nepal (UNMIN) during the verification process in 2007. After being blocked by UNMIN, several of the child soldiers demanded adequate compensation and also demanded punishment for Dahal and his second-in-command, Baburam Bhattarai. The aggrieved young persons claimed that the Maoist leaders committed war crimes using children in the armed conflict.

These thousands of victims are still waiting for justice 17 years after the signing of the historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement. What they need is an investigation through a tribunal, like the trials in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Yugoslavia. The government’s unresponsiveness has lost it the victims’ trust.

On October 15, 2020, the NHRC published a major report evaluating government responses to its recommendations over the last two decades. The commission said that, out of 286 individuals whom it said should face legal action, only 30 had been held accountable. The list of those identified includes 16 civil servants, 98 policemen, 85 Nepal Army personnel and 65 Maoists.

Of a total of 1,195 recommendations made by the commission over the last 20 years, the government failed to act on half, and only 163 recommendations were fully implemented.

A mentality of violence lives on

The Maoist insurgency has profoundly shaped Nepali political psychology. The Maoist rebels still believe in the ideology of violent revolution to bring about what they term “people’s government.” Poor governance, corruption, government apathy towards integrated socio-economic development and, most importantly, political instability have contributed to the continuing growth of Maoism, says researcher Smruti S. Pattanaik, writing for Strategic Analysis Journal.

Former insurgents continue to address political rallies and blatantly boast that they killed 5,000 people. People like Adhikari and the former child soldiers are being ignored while those responsible for conflict-era crimes are walking openly in broad daylight.

Dahal’s decision to declare February 13 as a national holiday marking the start of the “people’s war” in 1996 “sparked outrage in Nepal’s cybersphere and brought conflict survivors out into the streets,” according to Nepali Times. Glorification of the violence continues to come from the highest levels of government.

Meanwhile, Dahal has claimed that he will complete the transitional justice process. In a statement on November 20, 2021 English op-ed in The Kathmandu Post, he termed Nepal’s peace process a successful “home-grown model” that avoided heavy-handed Western intervention.

We must not ignore Nepal or expect the government to police itself of its own volition. I will conclude with the words of an editorial from Nepali Times:

The international community, which was once so vociferous on transitional justice, has suddenly gone quiet.

Nepal’s conflict ended without a victor or vanquished. The former enemies are now the state. Neither they, nor the police, nor Nepal Army generals or former guerrilla commanders, want to rake up wartime atrocities. They have colluded to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as well as a Commission on Enforced Disappearances, both of which can offer amnesty to those found guilty. If something is not done, the victims of brutality may be waiting forever.

[Anton Schauble edited this piece.]

First published in Fair Observer, United States, 01 SEPTEMBER 2023

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent columnist and media rights defender based in Bangladesh. He became an Ashoka Fellow in 1991, and won the Hellman-Hammett Award in 2005. He could be reached at <saleemsamad@hotmail.com>; Twitter @saleemsamad

What will President Joe Biden’s strategy be for South Asia?

President Joe Biden signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington/ Photo REUTERS

SALEEM SAMAD

Hours after President Joe Biden took oath in Washington DC, the leaders of South Asia showered tribute to the new leadership of the United States.

Months before the formal swearing-in on January 20, there were frantic exchanges of diplomatic cables from the capitals of South Asian countries to the United States capital, eager to know the 46th US president’s strategy for South Asia.

Most South Asian think-tanks were of the opinion that the policy would be different from the outgoing president, Donald Trump. The regional leaders and think-tanks have mixed feelings on Trump’s policy on South Asia, which was dubbed as “out of focus.” Most of the think-tanks on South Asian affairs were confident that Biden’s foreign policy would be far more pro-active and pragmatic.

The new US president is likely to engineer a full-scale foreign policy plan to augment cooperation with the 8-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), 11-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 55 member states of the African Union, 21-member state Organization of American States (OAS), 22-member Arab League, 6-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and so on and so forth.

Michael Kugelman, deputy director for the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, DC, believes that Biden will fully back a rapidly growing US–India partnership that enjoyed much forward movement during the Trump years -- just as it had throughout every previous administration back to the Bill Clinton era.

Incidentally, Biden is a long-time friend of India’s, who once described the US–India partnership as the defining relationship of the 21st century.

On the other hand, thousands of bipartisan Indian expats in America, who are effectively influential in American politics and administration, were able to churn hard facts into a pro-active foreign policy towards India in South Asia.

The two countries have a shared concern over combating terrorism and the challenges that the emerging Chinese hegemony pose -- these will have Biden’s full-throated support. He will also increase pressure on Pakistan to shut down the India-focused terror networks on its soil, especially with the receding US footprint in Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, Washington’s delicate relationship with Pakistan won’t be upended by abrupt moves, such as a sudden decision to cut security aid. Like Trump, however, Biden strongly supports total withdrawal from Afghanistan.

However, when he was vice president of Barack Obama’s administration, he was a vocal opponent of his policy regarding additional troop deployment to battle the Taliban and the remnants of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

He is expected to toe the line of Trump for a workable relationship with Pakistan that revolves around securing Islamabad’s diplomatic support in advancing a fragile peace process in Afghanistan with the jihadist Taliban.

Meanwhile, the rest of South Asia will receive strategic focus, as it did during Trump’s era. The attention will be largely framed through the lens of the US-China rivalry and, increasingly, the India–China rivalry amid Beijing’s deepening footprint across the region, fuelled by its controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), says Kugelman at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre.

Washington’s radar will once again lay emphasis on democracy and human rights issues in South Asian states, an emphasis which was often overlooked by the previous administration.

Biden is likely to go relatively easy on India for strategic reasons, but Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka could find themselves subjected to sharp and frequent criticism.

Fortunately, climate change is another priority for Biden, which is a major threat to South Asia, especially Bangladesh, Maldives, India, and Sri Lanka, and this offers an opportunity for less tense US engagement in the region.

In short, the South Asian policy under President Joe Biden will be a rare case of a continuity program. It will definitely have an impact upon the incoming administration and will reset the US foreign policy, presenting both new opportunities and fresh challenges for the region.

First published in the Dhaka Tribune, 26 January 2021

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, and recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He can be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter @saleemsamad

Bangladesh speaks no evil about illegal immigrants

SALEEM SAMAD

Bangladesh authorities do not have any data on immigrants or migrants who have illegally entered or are staying after their stay permit or tourist visa has expired.

The illegal immigrant issue was never a concern for the government, politicians, research outfits, nor the media. No wonder, the issue of illegal migration was never on the political agenda of the ruling party or the opposition.

Most critics do not want to understand that there are illegal and legal migrants in Bangladesh. The illegal migrant is not unusual when the migrant's countries such as India and Myanmar share porous borders, despite having barbed wire fences and stringent border management and border guards along both sides of the international border it is still not easy to seal the difficult terrain.

Countries in this region for more than seven decades are prone to the smuggling of contraband goods, human trafficking, and cross-border terrorism ----- activities which make the border and adjacent regions sensitive.

On both sides, there are many people whose livelihoods are dependent on the non-formal trade along the border.

Indian authorities in the last ten years have raised the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh at bilateral talks. Meanwhile, the Indian National Register of Citizens (NRC) has made an outcry in both India and Bangladesh media, among political parties and government.

Bangladeshi media debates the issue of illegal immigrants, who have allegedly settled in Assam from Bangladesh.

Nearly one million expats are legally and illegally working in garments, composite textile mills, knitwear, sweater, buying houses, merchandiser companies, fashion houses, food processing and marketing, poultry, tannery, and research organisations, according to a security agencies report.

A recent report in Obhijatra, a Bangladeshi news portal, argues that illegal immigrants are a huge burden for Bangladesh’s economy. The report identifies Afghanistan, Algeria, China, Congo, Ghana, India, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Somalia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, are major countries from where illegal immigrants come into Bangladesh.

According to a study by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Indians in Bangladesh sent more than $126 million back home in 2017, while Bangladesh got $4,033 million in remittances from India the same year.

The national census and other surveys carried out by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) do not indicate any illegal migration.

Neither India nor Bangladesh has any specific official data on illegal immigrants. The Indian government has time and again reiterated that the country lacks an official database of illegal immigrants.

Researchers argue that migration takes place for either economic reasons or due to compulsions arising from persecutions. It appears that Bangladesh has crossed the economic threshold, and if anything, people from poorer countries are migrating there in large numbers.

First published in Bangla Tribune online edition, 31 October 2019

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, also a recipient of Ashoka Fellow (USA) and Hellman-Hammett Award.
He can be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com

Victims of abduction in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Nepal & Ugyhur

Women shout slogans during a protest following restrictions after the government scrapped the special constitutional status for Kashmir, in Srinagar August 14, 2019. Photo: REUTERS

SALEEM SAMAD

As the world observes the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on Aug 30, another hundred or more people will be abducted silently by state security agencies globally.

Their relatives will hold portraits of disappeared family members and call upon governments to stop such abductions, and seek accountability for the enforced disappearances, killings, and abductions, in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Palestine and elsewhere.

Families cry for answers on International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30, a day declared by the United Nations.

Since its inception in 1980, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has registered 56,363 cases across 112 countries — but thousands of other cases were simply not reported!

Unfortunately, governments are often reluctant to respond. Besides, security agencies engaged in enforced disappearances, while non-state actors also settle their scores in muddy waters. They enjoy their impunity as they rub shoulders with the mighty in the corridors of power.

The impunity is extended to these forces, often because their crimes against humanity may have had government sanction.

The legal explanation does not, however, convey the horror families endure as they try and grapple with the enforced disappearance of a loved one.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch says, under international human rights law, an enforced disappearance occurs when a person is taken into custody by government officials or their agents and the state refuses to acknowledge the person’s fate or whereabouts, placing the victim outside the protection of the law.

In South Asia, the recent history of violent conflicts ------ whether the war in Afghanistan; insurgencies in Balochistan, Pakistan or Kashmir, India; the civil war in Sri Lanka and Nepal; or political violence in Bangladesh and the Maldives------ has witnessed serious human rights violations including secret detentions and enforced disappearance, states the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Bangladesh authorities have traditionally trashed allegations of the disappearances even after the security forces have taken someone away in front of witnesses. Instead, the agencies claim that the ‘disappeared’ are hiding to evade banks loans or are felons dodging arrest.

In Indian administered Kashmir, they use the shocking word ‘half widow,’ for women whose husbands are missing.

In Kashmir, hundreds of unidentified foreign jihadists are buried in unmarked graves, but the government is yet to order forensic tests to determine whether the remains of "disappeared" Kashmiris also lie buried in those graveyards.

In Sri Lanka, families of the tens of thousands of people who disappeared during the three-decade-long bitter ethnic civil war are camped in street corner protests. The war ended in 2009, and these families are still hoping that their loved ones will be found.

In Nepal, a Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons received nearly 3,100 complaints but failed to explain the causes and origin of the scary social phenomenon experienced so widely during the country’s ten-year civil war.

The victims experience egregious form of human rights violation, removed from legal protections, remaining at the mercy of their captors, at severe risk of torture or inhumane treatment, and of extrajudicial killings, says Meenakshi Ganguly.

"The families of missing ones spend the rest of their lives waiting for their loved ones to return home, or at least be told where they are buried. This is a severe form of psychological torture," said Leonce Byimana, a psychologist and Executive Director of TASSC, a US-based Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition.

On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, human rights leaders will be speaking on behalf of missing loved ones---- for the Sindhis in Pakistan, the Kurds in the Middle East, the Tamils in Sri Lanka and Uyghur Muslims in China at the National Press Club in Washington DC.

Sufi Laghari, Executive Director of the Washington DC-based Sindhi Foundation also coordinating the Washington Press Club event, said: "We want people to understand how governments carry out enforced disappearances to silence their dissidents."

Until their whereabouts are determined, families of the disappeared should have access to effective remedies and reparations, including regular updates on the status of the investigations. This cruelty needs to stop.

First published in the Bangla Tribune, 30 August 2019

Saleem Samad, is a journalist, media rights defender, also recipient of Ashoka Fellow (USA) and Hellman-Hammett Award. Twitter @saleemsamad; Email: saleemsamad@hotmail.com

In Defence of Press Freedom in South Asia: Journalists Organise for a New Deal

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and partners in the seven-country South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN), affirm their mutual solidarity as the campaign for decent wages and working conditions for journalists in the region gathers momentum.

World Press Freedom Day on May 3 was marked by journalists’ unions and associations in the region with diverse observances. SAMSN would like to underline while the mood lasts, that all the sentiments expressed and resolutions adopted on the occasion will have little substantive impact, as long as journalists continue to be denied their rights.

Physical safety has justifiably gained attention as a necessity for press freedom in a region which has proven among the most hazardous for journalism. SAMSN reaffirms at this juncture, that security of employment and the assurance of decent wages and working conditions – the all too often neglected dimensions of press freedom – are also of extreme urgency in the South Asian context.

Bangladesh
A number of journalists’ struggles for fair wages and decent working conditions are currently underway in the region. Most recently, Bangladesh’s journalists forged a common platform, the Sangbadik Shramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SSKOP, or United Committee of Working Journalists and Newspaper Employees) and organised in early March to demand the formal notification of a new wage fixation body by March 10.

This followed the failure of Bangladesh’s Ministry for Information to formally constitute the Eighth Wage Board for the newspaper industry through gazette by the end of February, despite an assurance given by Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad to the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) on January 22.

Within days of Bangladesh’s journalists resolving to press their demand for a new wage deal, the Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) mobilised in opposition. "Forming a new wage board three and a half years after the seventh wage board award will put the newspaper industry into a big crisis," NOAB said in a statement issued on March 19.

The SSKOP responded within a day with the suggestion that the newspaper owners, rather than resist the formation of a body mandated by law, should adopt a strategy of cooperation in a spirit of transparency and openness.

Seven wage boards have been formed so far under a law adopted by Bangladesh’s Parliament in 1974. The newspaper industry has resisted each of these and only complied with the statutory wage awards decreed after losing legal battles that have reached the country’s highest courts. The record of compliance remains patchy and uneven, with several of the new media outlets that began operations in recent boom years choosing to ignore the imperative of decent wages.

The Eighth Wage Board was announced by the Government of Bangladesh after representations from the country’s journalists about increasing costs of living and growing job insecurity. A chair has been nominated for the board and the various stakeholders from the side of news industry employees, including both sides of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), have named their representatives for the board.

Yet the formal notification remains to be issued and the news industry owners continue to resist.

SAMSN calls on the Government of Bangladesh to do what is fair by the country’s media professionals and act as a force for positive change.

Pakistan
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), a SAMSN partner and IFJ affiliate, recently won a significant victory when the Supreme Court of Pakistan directed the body charged with implementation of statutory wage scales, to submit a report on the level of compliance in the news industry within a month.

The decision was handed down by a three-member bench of the court, headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, on March 22. At the urging of the PFUJ, the bench summoned the chairperson of the Implementation Tribunal for Newspaper Employees (ITNE), Nasir Hussain Haidri, to explain the situation. The report that the Supreme Court has asked for, remains to be filed.

On May 31 last year, the Sindh High Court in Karachi, dismissed identical petitions filed by the All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS) – the apex body representing the industry – and the Herald Media group, which sought to quash the Seventh Wage Award for journalists and newspaper workers, announced in 2000.

In welcoming this decision, SAMSN and the IFJ had called on the newspaper industry to accept the judicial ruling in good faith and implement the long-delayed wage award. The South Asian collectivity also endorsed the PFUJ demand that the Eighth Wage Board be constituted without further delay.

The matter though, has gone in appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which has declined to issue any form of temporary restraint against the implementation of the Seventh Wage Award. While hearings proceed, the ITNE would be authorised to ensure that the fair wage mandate is implemented, without prejudice to the final judicial outcome.

Nepal
Nepal’s journalists gained significant recognition with the major amendments to the Working Journalists’ Act (WJA) that were enacted in 2007. The law as amended has important provisions on security of employment and periodic wage revisions for media workers. A basic minimum wage can be specified under the act, subject to periodic revision. The law also makes it mandatory that working journalists be issued letters of appointment by all media establishments, assuring them of security of tenure. Short-term contractual employment would be permitted when circumstances warrant, but would not under any circumstances, exceed 15 percent of the total number of working journalists in the news organisation.

A committee formed under the WJA pointed out in a report submitted November 24, 2010, that 37 percent of the country’s journalists are paid below the prescribed minimum wage, while 45 percent are working without letters of appointment. Among the media houses surveyed, 48 percent had failed to introduce basic measures such as retirement and welfare funds, medical cover and insurance.

Among the media groups reported by the FNJ to be in default on basic obligations under the WJA is the government-owned Gorkhapatra. Though statutory wage levels are formally notified within this group, which publishes the Nepali language Gorkhapatra and the English-language Rising Nepal, a large number of working journalists – well beyond the 15 percent limit sanctioned under the WJA – are believed to be employed on contract.

SAMSN partner and IFJ-affiliate, the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of Nepal on January 26, seeking a direction to government to fully implement the provisions of the WJA in state-owned media organisations.

The FNJ petition highlighted that state-owned media enterprises in Nepal have been conspicuous defaulters on their obligations under the law. The media organisations named in the FNJ petition are the broadcasters Radio Nepal and Nepal Television, the newspaper publisher Gorkhapatra Corporation, the news agency Rastriya Samachar Samiti, and the Office of the Press Registrar.

No fewer than 45 percent of the journalists working in government owned media houses and 37 percent of the entire community of journalists in Nepal still do not enjoy the minimum salary fixed by a duly empowered committee. Only 14 percent of Nepali journalists have been receiving regular salaries.

India
In India, where the process of wage fixation through statutory bodies began as far back as 1958, the status of the most recent wage award remains ambiguous. On October 25 last year, India’s Union Cabinet formally approved the recommendations of the G.R. Majithia Wage Boards for Journalists and Non-Journalists, which laid the ground for an all-round increase in wages for newspaper workers.

India’s newspaper industry, both individually and collectively through the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) filed a petition before the Supreme Court of India, claiming an infringement of their fundamental rights in the statutory wage fixation process. It emerged at the first hearing of the petition in May 2011, that the administrative ministry of the Union Government dealing with the matter, had not provided copies of the report, submitted in December 2010, to the INS.

In July 2011, the Supreme Court declined to order a stay on the implementation of the wage award, preparing the ground for its formal acceptance by the Union Cabinet.

The record of implementation though, remains indifferent so far, with only two newspaper groups – Assam Tribune in the northeastern Indian state of Assam and Madhyamam in the southern state of Kerala – having done so. The Assam Tribune group has had a tradition of maintaining an open and cooperative relationship between management and unions. The state government in Assam has also been proactive in ensuring that newspaper managements remain accountable in terms of their statutory obligations.

In September 2010, the Assam state government constituted two “joint inspection teams” to survey the newspaper industry in the state and assess the level of compliance with the wage board stipulations. Each team comprised representatives of the larger newspapers, those belonging to the small and medium category, the government, as also the main journalists’ unions in the state – the Journalists’ Union of Assam, the Assam Union of Working Journalists, the Assam Tribune Employees’ Union, among others. All newspapers were given a date when they would be visited by the inspection teams and told to keep relevant records ready.

Following a comprehensive process of inspection and assessment, the two teams concluded early in 2011, that barring two – the Assam Tribune and Prantik – no other newspaper had implemented the wage scales proposed by the R.K. Manisana Singh wage board as far back as 2002. They recommended that the state government initiate measures, if necessary by withdrawing advertisements and other forms of implicit support, to induce a more cooperative attitude on the part of the newspaper industry.

Other sanctions were recommended against the newspaper groups that had failed to provide the needed information to the inspection teams.

Alarmingly, news agencies such as the Press Trust of India (PTI) and United News of India (UNI), have departed this time from their tradition of being among the first to implement wage awards. On April 20, 2012, employees nation-wide at PTI went on a day’s strike to protest this unexplained delay.

The Maharashtra Media Employees' Union (a composite union, i.e., one that includes both journalists and other employees of the Mid-Day group of publications) has filed suit in an industrial court in Thane, near Mumbai, asking for immediate implementation of the new wage award. And the Indian National Press Group Employees' Union (representing the Free Press Journal and Navshakti publications) has filed another in the Mumbai Industrial Court
.

The National Confederation of Newspaper and News Agency Employees, meanwhile, continues to argue its case before the Supreme Court.

As a positive incentive for honouring the wage award, the state government in Goa announced a matching grant to newspaper groups that implement the wage board award. This incentive was worked out after negotiations with the Goa Union of Journalists and is supposed to help media groups overcome the initial dent in its financial balances till the revenue streams adjust to the rise in employee costs.

The record of implementation of the Majithia wage award – especially the example set by the Assam Tribune and Madhyamam – which are both on the lower side of the medium newspaper category --  shows that it is not revenue that is the constraint here. Rather, the insistence of the bigger newspapers that they will not implement the award is more about their determination to keep independent journalism on a tight leash.

SAMSN and the IFJ believe that these struggles of South Asia’s journalists for decent wages and working conditions have a wider resonance, most notably in Sri Lanka. In other countries of the region – Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives – media industries remain weakly institutionalised, though the enforcement of core wage and labour standards should be an integral component of any effort to legislative an enabling and regulatory environment for media development.

SAMSN believes that the campaigns and struggles underway in South Asia have much to learn from each other. In the years ahead, SAMSN intends to function as a platform coordinating strategies and sharing experiences between its member countries.

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) published the statement on 08 May 2012

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific

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