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Journalism of Courage
A noted academic and former Nepalese Ambassador to India along with two of his colleagues were today stopped at Kathmandu airport from boarding the plane for Delhi. Just after they crossed immigration, they were told that they are in ‘‘the list’’ of persons who are to be confined to the Kathmandu Valley.
Political scientist Lokraj Baral never imagined that going to India for a professional conference would prove to be so difficult given that eight years ago his government trusted him to be its envoy in New Delhi. ‘‘There seems to be no difference between professionalism and activism today. I am a professional and still my basic rights are being violated,’’ he told The Indian Express from Kathmandu.
This morning, Baral, along with two other professors from Tribhuvan University, left for Kathmandu airport to take the Jet Airways flight for Delhi. The three had been invited to attend a workshop on the State of Democracy in South Asia organised by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies at Goa from March 27 to 29.
‘‘I was to inaugurate the workshop but was stopped from boarding the aircraft,’’ he said, adding that neither he nor his associates had any idea about the existence of a list of persons debarred from leaving Kathmandu.
So, they checked in, booked their baggage, completed immigration, when a couple of police officers walked up and told him that he was on ‘‘the list’’.
The two other professors Krishna Khanal and Krishna Hachhethu also discovered then that they too could not be allowed to board the plane. Khanal, incidentally, was once the political advisor to former Nepal PM Girija Prasad Koirala.
‘‘We told them that no one had informed us about our names being on the list and neither was this publicised for us to know in advance. Still, they did not agree and we could not board the plane. We were told that our movement is restricted to the (Kathmandu) Valley,’’ said Baral.
For Baral, today’s experience isn’t new. He was on the Palace’s radar screen after Gyanendra seized the reins of power on February 1. He was out of Kathmandu at that time and, in fact, participated in a seminar in Delhi soon after emergency was declared in Nepal.
On his return, he was placed under detention for 18 days and though he has been released now, Baral discovered today that he his under what has come to be known as ‘‘valley arrest’’. When asked whether he plans to take up the matter with officials, he said, ‘‘I can give a written application but then these are my rights. As a citizen of this country I am free to travel and this can’t be violated.’’
On being contacted, Nepal envoy in India Karna D Adhikary said he had no knowledge of the incident. ‘‘This is a matter of the Home Ministry and we usually come to know about it when it happens or after it has happened. Until now, I have no information.’’
