KATHMANDU, July 13: While taking a strong exception to the blasphemous materials about Nepal and Nepal’s political leadership, Nepal has sent a ‘diplomatic note’ to India, urging New Delhi to take steps against the broadcast of such obscene materials disseminated by a section of Indian media.
In a diplomatic note to India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) via Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said that the materials disseminated are fake, baseless and insensitive as well as abusive to Nepal and Nepali leadership.
“Such materials tend not only to mislead and misinform but also impair the sense of minimum public decency,” it said in the note.
India sends ‘diplomatic note’ protesting against Nepal’s decisi...
The MoFA in its diplomatic note also said that such motivated smearing campaign unleashed by a section of Indian media has deeply hurt the feelings of Nepali people and persona of Nepali leadership. The embassy also requested Indian authorities to take steps against these obscene materials about Nepal by a section of Indian media and make sure that such materials do not find space in the media.
"Such false, concocted and obnoxious materials purportedly broadcast to humiliate and insult Nepal and Nepali people are contrary to the declared pronouncements of the two countries to consolidate the solid foundation of bilateral relations for the benefit of media outlets synchronized against a friendly neighbor and its leadership will only serve the opposite. They sow anguish and aversion among the ordinary people for generations," the letter further adds.
Meanwhile, Nepal's ambassador to India Nilambar Acharya telephoned Punit Goenka, managing director and chief executive officer of the Zee News TV channel, to express the country's serious objection to a recent imaginary and defamatory show run by Zee News which linked Prime Minister Oli with Chinese ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi.
In the 16-minute show with a headline offensive toward PM Oli and Ambassador Hou, the two anchors tried to give an impression to the Indian audience that PM Oli is working at the behest of China and Hou is doing her best to meddle into Nepal's internal affairs. They even accused the Chinese ambassador of hatching conspiracies to harm Nepal-India relations.
Earlier last week, The Times of India published a disrespectful picture of Prime Minister Oli in its editorial. Indo Asian News Service, India Today, WION, Times Now and Republic TV are other Indian media outlets which ran baseless reports linking PM Oli with the Chinese ambassador to Nepal.
The Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Press Council Nepal and other media organizations also vented ire against the Indian media reports which ran news on PM Oli, linking him with the Chinese ambassador to Nepal.
However, this is not the first time that India media made such allegations against the Nepal government and Prime Minister Oli. Earlier in May, Nepal's objection to India's unilateral inauguration of a road through Lipu Lekh, a sovereign Nepali territory, was horribly misinterpreted in Indian media. Basically, they said that Nepal is taking up this issue at someone else's behest.
