Shashwat Pant
March 10, 2021
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Photo: Mark Horrell/Wikimedia Commons
In mid-January, Sudhir Chaudhary, an Indian journalist, flew to Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar on a Simrik Air helicopter. To many, his visit was seen as an excursion of Nepali tourism’s USP, the Khumbu valley. As Chaudhary is the Editor-in-Chief of Zee News, there were no further questions to him regarding the purpose of his visit; he went and came back without much trouble.
But, a few days later, on his prime-time programme, Chaudhary released a sensational piece in which he stated India also had the right to claim Everest as theirs. While Chaudhary and the piece even made it to the front page of a national daily in Nepal, yet another controversy surrounded his visit.