ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
August 18, 2014
Indian leader warms
ties during Nepal visit
By Binaj Gurubacharya
The Associated Press
ATHMANDU, Nepal — Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
wooed
his
country’s
tiny
Himalayan neighbor, Nepal, during a
two-day visit aimed at boosting ties with a
country that India has long ignored and
where China already has a strong
presence.
In the first visit by an Indian prime
minister in 17 years, Modi addressed par-
liament, speaking briefly in the Nepali
language, and stopped to meet delighted
crowds. He offered $1 billion in low-
interest development loans and visited a
revered Hindu shrine.
While China has built power plants,
highways, an airport, and telecommuni-
cation facilities, and given airplanes to
Nepal, India has made promises in the
past but has not always delivered.
Analysts said the visit hit many of the
right notes.
“This was the most successful trip by
any Indian leader to Nepal,” said Dhurba
Hari Adhikary, an independent analyst.
“There has been a big gap of 17 years, so
people here in Nepal felt they were not
being considered a good friend for quite a
while,” Adhikary said. “This gap has been
breached.”
Thousands of people lined the road to
cheer as Modi’s motorcade passed. At one
point, he stopped his armored car to get out
and shake hands with the onlookers. The
footage, recorded by people on their
cellphones, was quickly posted on social
media sites.
Modi met with the prime minister, the
president, and other leaders, and visited
Pasupatinath, a temple for the Hindu God
Shiva.
Modi, a devout Hindu, offered prayers
and presented the temple with 5,500
pounds of sandalwood worth 30 million
rupees ($306,000) to be used for rituals.
In his speech at the Constituent
Assembly, he promised to aid Nepal’s
economy and offered $1 billion in loans for
development,
including
hydropower
plants in the energy-starved Himalayan
nation.
K
NEPAL PRIDE. A participant poses as hundreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transvestites parade
through the streets during Gaijatra in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Hindu festival to remember the dead is gleefully
overtaken each year by the country’s gay community in Nepal, a socially conservative Hindu-majority nation.
(AP Photo/Bikram Rai)
Nepal gay community
parades for same-sex marriage
By Binaj Gurubacharya
The Associated Press
ATHMANDU, Nepal — Tooting
horns and ringing chimes, hun-
dreds of lesbians, gays, bisexuals,
and transvestites paraded through
Nepal’s capital for the colorful celebration
of Gaijatra, a Hindu festival to remember
the dead that is gleefully overtaken each
year by the country’s gay community.
In this socially conservative Hindu-
majority nation, the festival was
traditionally the only day people felt free to
cross-dress. But social norms are changing
fast as the fledgling Himalayan democracy
emerges from centuries of religious
monarchy.
A government committee is recom-
mending same-sex marriage be guaran-
teed in a new constitution — an unprece-
dented move that would give gay and
lesbian couples the right to adopt, buy joint
property, open joint bank accounts, and
inherit from one another. All of the
country’s political parties have already
backed the idea, and many within the
small gay community hope the new
constitution can be passed this year.
“When we gather again next year, we
hope we are able celebrate the new law,”
K
said 28-year-old Bipin Lamichane, who
wants to marry the partner he has lived
with for five years. But changing laws may
be easier than changing minds in a country
where arranged marriage is still the norm,
and up to a decade ago homosexuals were
routinely jailed for up to three months on
accusations of “unnatural sex.”
“Sometimes even if we get laws in
writing, there is a big problem of
implementation,” Lamichane said. “There
is still more that needs done.”
Bhakti Shah, who was fired from the
army in 2007 when officers suspected her
relationship with another enlisted woman,
is still hiding their partnership from
landlords and neighbors.
“People still think we are two friends or
sisters sharing an apartment,” Shah said.
“How can we tell everyone we are a couple
when we don’t have anything in paper to
back it?”
New legal rights and status would give
Shah and others the documentation they
need to prove a union. Hindu priest
Laxman Acharya said he expected most
Nepalese to accept the change, given their
cultural diversity and youth; the median
age in Nepal is 21, and some 35 percent of
Continued on page 8
INDIAN OUTREACH. Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi waves to the crowd after offering
prayers at the Pashupatinath Hindu Temple in Kath-
mandu, Nepal. Modi arrived in Nepal to meet with top
leaders, offer prayers at the revered Hindu temple,
and address parliament. (AP Photo/Kiran Panday)
Millions of people in Nepal face up to 12
hours of power outages each day because of
an inadequate number of power plants.
“After hearing his speech in parliament
I have become Modi’s fan. I am convinced
he will regard us in Nepal as equal
partners and not treat us like someone
inferior as past Indian leaders did,” said
Shyam Karki, a garment trader who often
visits India.
There was some disappointment,
however, that a proposed electricity
trading agreement between India and
Nepal did not materialize.
No reason was given for the delay, but
officials said there was still work to be
done on the details.
“It was disappointing that India did not
even want to discuss the power trading
agreement draft that Nepal had sent
during Modi’s visit,” said Ameet Dhakal,
editor of the popular online news portal
Setopati.
U.S. immigration activist’s movie premiers in Manila
PHILIPPINE PREMIERE. Emelie Salinas, the mother of Pulitzer-
Prize-winning journalist and immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas,
poses for a picture at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, holding a cer-
tificate of recognition of her son’s autobiographical movie, Documented,
which recently premiered in Manila, the Philippines. The documentary
film by one of America’s best known immigrants living in the U.S. illegally
opened an independent film festival in his home country of the Philippines
to applause, laughter, and tears. (AP Photo/Teresa Cerojano)
By Teresa Cerojano
The Associated Press
ANILA, The Philippines — An autobio-
graphical documentary by one of America’s best
known immigrants living in the U.S. illegally
opened an independent film festival in his home country of
the Philippines to applause, laughter, and tears.
Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and immigration
activist Jose Antonio Vargas’ mother received a certificate
of recognition on his behalf at the 10th Cinemalaya film
festival in Manila.
“It’s my third time to watch it, but I still can’t stop
myself from crying,” said Emelie Salinas, Vargas’
56-year-old mother, who attended with her two other
children and other relatives.
Documented was written, directed, and produced by
Vargas, who has worked for The Huffington Post, the San
Francisco Chronicle, and the Philadelphia Daily News,
and was part of a Washington Post team that won a
Pulitzer in 2008 for its report on the 2007 Virginia Tech
shootings.
The 90-minute film tells of Vargas’ 1993 journey to
America as a 12-year-old unaccompanied immigrant to
join his grandparents, and his painful 21-year separation
from his mother.
In 2011, after wrestling with fear, he decided to come
out with his secret and to campaign for a citizenship path
for more than 11 million other “undocumented”
M
immigrants, 1.3 million of whom are Asians. Hundreds of
thousands of them were brought to America as children,
and, like Vargas, are trapped in their illegal status.
Vargas, 33, founded the campaign “Define American,”
speaking all over the United States on the plight of
immigrants who entered the country illegally, and
testifying at a U.S. congressional hearing last year on
immigration reform.
Last month, he was detained by Border Patrol agents at
McAllen airport in Texas, but was released several hours
later because he was not considered a security threat. The
incident was widely reported by media and Vargas’
supporters rallied for his release.
“Here in America, where people like me are called
illegal, this film is an act of civil disobedience,” Vargas
said in a taped message played before the Manila premier
of his film at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
He said that because he did not have the proper
documents, he could not join the audience in Manila,
which included his family, which he has not seen for 21
years. But the premier of his movie at the festival, he
added, “proves the power of film” because “movies travel
in all languages, bridging cultures ... and people.”
Filipino netizens have been tweeting kudos to Vargas,
with one describing the film as “enlightening,
entertaining, heartbreaking.”
Vargas’ sister Czarina said she was happy about the
audience’s positive reaction to the film.
“It is overwhelming that they liked the movie,” said
Czarina, a 23-year-old nurse. “It is such an uncomfortable
issue, but I am so thankful that they appreciated it and I
did not see any negative reactions from the people.”
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