KATHMANDU: Soon after stepping into the lively bustle of Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal, and its bustling media corridors, a phrase caught my ear, as though it captured the very essence of Kathmandu’s journalistic culture.

Having grown up in Biratnagar, traveling the roads and villages of Jhapa and Ilam, and writing all kinds of news, I was neither confined to any single journalist’s beat nor could its definition stop me. In the capital, however, journalism seemed to be a world where one had to be caged within the box of a beat.

Here, being flexible is considered a weakness. A journalist who covers all subjects is reportedly called an ‘Aalu Patrakar,’ which literally translates to ‘Potato Journalist,’ implying a worthless or ineffective journalist. I, that very ‘Aalu Patrakar,’ started opening every door of news and stepping inside.

I crossed the path from Biratnagar and entered Kathmandu somewhere around April 2016, seeking a new world of journalism. Since arriving here, I have not remained confined to any one journalist’s beat. I could not become the correspondent of any single chamber. It is my nature not to tolerate injustice.

That is why in around 2011, I experienced the dual behavior of the law up close. One class of citizens was above the law, and another class was below the law. We wanted to learn the lesson that democracy is a system where everyone is equal. But in Biratnagar, the rule of Bahubali (gang leader), known as the Crime-Politics Nexus, who was more powerful than the law, prevailed.

The police and administration, who should have been for the safety of the people, stood not with the people but in the shadow of power. Gangsterism, smuggling, and looting flourished under a political guise.

After coming to Kathmandu, I became a roving journalist. Since I myself was a victim of a criminal offense, I was interested in the work and actions provided by the Security-Crime Home Administration.

As I continued working, curiosity grew in me for those sectors. Nevertheless, I wrote on other specialized subjects: education, health, defense, the army, the Home Ministry, employee administration, agriculture, the Department of Roads, money laundering, the Department of Revenue Investigation, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, contracts, aviation, and the arts. Occasionally, I also managed to gain experience reporting on the courts.

Now I am starting to understand the atmosphere of the capital city slightly. In the course of pursuing various media houses and utilizing opportunities, I am associated with Nepalnews.com, Nepal’s first online portal.

I still recall an incident immediately after arriving in the capital from Biratnagar. At that time, I reported on the Airbus-220 that Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) was planning to purchase. I had no information about the aviation sector. But it was not, and still is not, my habit to refuse my editor’s command.

Seizing the opportunity of being in the capital, I went to Nepal Airlines Corporation. The then-General Manager, Sugat Ratna Kansakar, explained in detail how the Airbus 220 was being brought to Nepal. After that reporting, I became a preferred person to instantly transmit information whenever an incident occurred or an emergency arose.

After joining Nepal News, my editor proposed that I report on the civil aviation sector, along with other areas. Based on my small previous experience and efforts to increase contact with senior pilots through minor tasks, I was ready. In my eagerness to present credible material based on the information provided by the editor, on July 7, 2025, I was able to write a story about Nepal Airlines Corporation’s Wide-body-330 Makalu aircraft flying for 300 hours by skipping its C-Check (full maintenance).

The headline was “Former PM Oli’s risky intervention in air safety.” Deck: ‘Following orders from then-Prime Minister KP Oli, Nepal Airlines Corporation’s wide-body aircraft Makalu flew for more than a month while bypassing its C-check.’

This story exposed the fact that the aircraft in a C-Check condition was flown not by regulation, but by coercion. The risky flight of an aircraft carrying 274 passengers internationally was done under the pressure of the country’s prime minister, which posed an extremely high risk to aviation safety.

The permission given to fly the Widebody Makalu-330 aircraft by skipping the C-Check on July 23, 2024, and the very next day, a Saurya Air aircraft crashing at Tribhuvan Airport while being flown to Pokhara for C-Check maintenance, had already exposed the negligence in flight safety.

I started questioning and meeting with experienced pilots, engineers flying NAC’s large aircraft, high officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), and former NAC officials. No one said that an aircraft that had reached the C-Check condition could be operated by adding flight hours. If it’s not allowed, under what laws, rules, and conditions was it flown? I started asking.

Former NAC officials would say: an aircraft in C-Check cannot fly with passengers except for that specific test; there are no rules or regulations to fly it that way. This is playing with the lives of the aircraft and the passengers.

One engineer argued: an aircraft cannot fly in C-Check, but the aircraft manufacturer does provide some ‘grace period’ regarding flight hours. It can be flown in an emergency only with permission. That, too, is only possible for the purpose of completing the C-Check.

However, no one could clearly explain that ‘grace period.’ Wherever I searched for answers, they were stuck in the rules and regulations. For a story with facts and documents, it was necessary to understand the regulations of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and the aircraft manufacturer.

I concluded that since the NAC was the main responsible body for the information, I should start the initial search from them. The information received from them should then be confirmed by the regulatory body, CAAN. I visited both bodies one by one. Both bodies argued that it was not possible to fly an aircraft in C-Check. I reached out to NAC Spokesperson Subas Dangi and Information Officer Dikpal Subedi.

I requested information from CAAN Information Officer Gyanendra Bhul. Subedi requested me to submit an application for information using the Right to Information (RTI) Act. When I asked for details, he requested the information on the institution’s letterhead. Following his instructions without being annoyed, I submitted an application to NAC on June 4, 2025. Meanwhile, Subedi from CAAN, though hesitant, WhatsApped me the document showing the 300-hour flight extension for the C-Check-due Makalu aircraft.

I find the Right to Information Act insignificant. Any ordinary citizen can obtain information by using the Right to Information. A journalist is someone who brings information without even having to use the Right to Information!

In my 18 years of journalism experience, until today, I have only submitted a total of five RTI applications to government bodies, all within this fiscal year 2024/25. Wherever I have submitted an RTI application, I have not received clear and structured information from anybody. The deadline for information under that right is one month.

I kept pushing NAC Information Officer Subedi. But Subedi kept placating me: “It will happen; it will come.” I needed to transmit the wide-body information as soon as possible, but I didn’t get it from NAC. I gathered documents and information about rules and regulations from CAAN and various sources. Based on those documents and arguments, the news was published stating that an aircraft in C-Check condition should not be flown.

Four months after the information was requested, when the story was published, a female NAC employee called the next day, July 9, 2025, and said, “Sir, the information based on the application you submitted has been prepared; please come and collect it.”

“It came very late; why the delay?” I asked.

“Sir, the information you requested was related to the Safety Department and the Corporate Department, so it took time as everyone had to be consulted before providing it,” she said.

In addition to the Makalu aircraft’s C-Check, I had requested information from NAC regarding the five-year financial progress report and the destinations of the aircraft.

A week after the employee told me to come for the letter, I reached NAC on October 19, 2025. The information was not as requested. I had requested information on what rule and law permits the extension of flight hours for a C-Check-due aircraft. The letter replied: The approval of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal was obtained to extend the maintenance period. Of the five-year NAC report card, only the report for the fiscal year 2022/23 arrived. The current fiscal year is 2025/26; submitting details from three years ago could raise general questions about the story.

Because I had been experiencing NAC’s procrastination, I had already inquired about the C-Check aircraft with a high official of CAAN before the story was published. The official had replied to my inquiry, “They pressured us to let them fly for 500 hours; we only allowed 300 hours of flight. We actually minimized the risk. It seems that rules and regulations cannot be followed by the regulator alone; we are mere gnats against the pressure of the country’s executive prime minister.”

I first entered the Nepal Airlines Corporation office in Sundhara once in around 2016. At that time, Sugat Ratna Kansakar was the General Manager of NAC.

The second time I entered NAC that same year, the Airbus-220 had already arrived. When 12 Nepalis were killed in a terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Airbus-220 was chartered to Afghanistan to bring back the bodies of the deceased Nepalis.

I went to NAC the third time in Jestha 2082 B.S. (May/June 2025 A.D.), carrying an application requesting information on the wide-body aircraft. The fourth time, I went to meet the executive head in August 2025 and expressed concern about the work I was doing and the C-check of the wide-body aircraft. The fifth time, I went in mid-August to mid-September as well, requesting the financial progress report of Nepal Airlines Corporation along with the report on the Chinese aircraft.

The sixth time, I reached NAC on October 19, 2025, when the female employee called me to receive the reply to the RTI application.

Every time I visited NAC in 2025, I met a wrestler-like security guard at the first-floor desk. He ‘deals’ with the individuals/service seekers who reach the NAC front desk. He collects the details of the person to be met, contacts the concerned person, and only proceeds with the process after the person to be met grants permission.

This guard and the guards under him (excluding NAC employees) check everyone’s bag. They do not allow people other than NAC employees to enter carrying a bag.

“I don’t just have my bag; I have important documents, a diary, a laptop, everything. Please guarantee the security of these items,” I would say, opening the bag’s chain. “If there is anything unsafe inside, don’t let me enter.”

“Sir, this rule is made from the top; you should ask the people at the top,” he would say politely, “We have to obey the orders from the top, don’t we!”

“Shouldn’t this level of security be felt when entering the aircraft door?” I had questioned.

“That, too, is a question for the people at the top,” he would reply with the same politeness.

I had no reason to question his job, duty, and authority. The last time I went to receive the reply to the information application, he asked, “Sir, you must be going upstairs; please leave the bag here.”

I silently thanked him. The security continuously enforced by a guard at the office’s front desk is only for office purposes. The security he maintains at the front line is commendable.

If the high-ranking officials of NAC and high-ranking government officials provided the same level of security for the safety of the aircraft and the advancement of the corporation, everyone would praise the progress of Nepal’s flag carrier.

A journalist’s beat draws boundaries in journalism, but curiosity, zeal, and responsibility can break those boundaries.

I do not want to be stuck in the limited confines of any one beat; my identity is that of the exploring journalist who can reach wherever the news is. Whether it’s exposing sensitive issues like aircraft being flown by skipping the C-Check or writing about the pain of rural roads not being paved, my relationship with news is greater than subject-matter limitations.

After all, the value of journalism is not measured by the beat, but by the courage and persistence in seeking the truth.