Kathmandu, Sept 17: The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has objected to a statement made by Pinki Gurung, the President of Blue Diamond Society, relating to the recently-held first International Rainbow Tourism Conference. Gurung accused the organisers, including Mayako Pahichan Nepal, NTB and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), of excessive spending on the event.
NTB categorically denied all these allegations, saying that no separate budget was allocated for the event. Potential participants were informed beforehand that the organisers could only serve snacks,” said a NTB officer to Pahichan, adding that Pinki’s such statement was prejudiced and unfounded.
“UNDP supported only for trekking guide training. BDS was also part of the training,” said the official.
Before organising a national consultation for the conference that aimed at promoting rainbow tourism in Nepal, NTB conducted a trekking guide training for sexual and gender minorities with the support of UNDP.
A reliable source claimed that Gurung’s recent remarks might be an attempt to divert attention from allegations of irregularities against her. She has been accused of involvement in many irregularities, including lack of transparence at BDS, embezzling millions of rupees from SGM members promising them shares in a hydropower company, and promoting gender reassignment and hormone therapy despite their ambiguous legal status.
Some SGM organisations, including BDS, have been accused of violating the principles of “Conflict of Interest” and lacking transparency. They are working on the same projects funded by the same donor agencies, and their members and staff are violating conflict of interest norms, according to SGM activists.
For instance, they have presidents and board members who work in parallel roles, participating in decision-making processes that, de facto, control all these entities. This clearly breaches the conflict of interest principle, as they influence and execute the decisions that benefit only these leaders.
Examining the composition of these organisations reveals a small team controlling the majority of funding and mutually supporting each other. For instance, the BDS president, Pinki is a Technical Advisor of Cruiseaids Nepal, and the president of Cruiseaids Nepal is in the programme team of BDS. Similarly, the BDS director is the president of the Federation of Sexual and Gender Minorities-Nepal (FSGMN), so on and so forth.
This close-knit group safeguards each other, and is adept at propaganda by planting stories and orchestrating meetings with donors and government representatives using misleading facts, often playing the victim card and vilifying good leaders from the community to serve their purpose.
Notably, BDS has been charged with misappropriations and misconduct. Monika Shahi, a rights activist for the third gender, was reportedly removed as an employee at BDS when she demanded transparency and democratic procedures in selecting the leadership within the organisation. BDS retaliated by preventing her from participating in related programmes, said Shahi.
Recently, BDS faced criticism for organising an extravagant event to mark the Hindu festival of Teej, allegedly spending over Rs 1.2 million on the occasion.
” After the community members raised questions about spending thousands on the Teej event, Pinki got upset,” a source said.
At present, the Commission of the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Nepal’s anti-graft body, has carried investigations into all these irregularities committed by BDS.
Relating to the Teej spending controversy, Pinki reportedly issued threats to the media, maintining, “We spent what fund was received from the donor. We have not committed any corruption.”
