Nepal cable operators bar Indian TV channels

Cable operators in Nepal on Thursday decided to stop airing all Indian television news channels except Doordarshan to protest against their “misleading’’ coverage of the Himalayan country, particularly the insinuations about Nepali Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli.

The immediate trigger appears to have been a programme called, Oli ki Ishqiya, which said that the Nepal Prime Minister was working against India at the behest of the Chinese ambassador in Kathmandu who happens to be a woman. Over the past few days, the Chinese ambassador’s meetings with different factions of the Nepal Communist Party attracted a lot of attention in the Indian TV media. Some of the coverage has bordered on the salacious.