Nepali players and officials looked at each other in astonishment when the Players´ Village reverberated with the old national anthem during the hoisting of flags of the participating eight countries on the eve of SAG. [break]
Despite verbal complaints from Nepali officials, the same national anthem was again played on Saturday, the second day of SAG, during the inauguration of the badminton matches. “We were astounded,” said Birendra Shrestha, secretary of Nepal Badminton Association.
Nepal´s chef de mission Hari Babu Chaudhary blamed the Nepali embassy in Bangladesh for the faux pas. “We had given all responsibilities to the embassy,” said Chaudhary.
However, Nepali ambassador to Bangladesh Pradeep Khatiwada said the embassy had nothing to do with the blunder and held the organizing committee responsible. “We had already provided them the new national anthem,” he said. He also accused Bangladeshi authorities of addressing the Nepali embassy as “Royal Nepali Embassy” regardless of their objections.
The embassy´s relations with the government of Bangladesh have not been as smooth as they used to be after the embassy introduced strict visa regulations for Bangladeshi nationals.
Mohammad Imdadul Haque, first secretary at the Bangladeshi embassy in Nepal, had earlier expressed his grievances with Nepali journalists who had gone to obtain visas for SAG participants. He said that though his country did not charge visa fees for Nepalis, people from his country were subjected to such fees.
However, the current national anthem was played at the football match between Nepal and Bangladesh on Saturday evening.
In 2006 at the 10th SAG also, playing of the old national anthem during a football match had created controversy.
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