KATHMANDU: Government spokesperson and Education Minister Sasmit Pokharel left an event in Siraha’s Aurahi Rural Municipality midway after protests and heckling broke out.
The event was organised by the rural municipality’s Education Section. Local leaders and cadres of the minister’s own party protested, arguing that the programme had been organised unilaterally without coordination with the party’s local leadership.
The participants complained that visiting leaders had been given prominent respect while local leaders were not even given seats on the dais.
The minister left the programme after facing strong opposition while he was speaking.
Meanwhile, Minister Pokharel said it was inappropriate to form an opinion based on a short video without understanding the full context or to follow a deliberately misleading narrative.
He said no misinformation or misleading propaganda could derail the government’s core objective of education reform. He added that, even after the incident, the team visited a school for deaf children and a madrasa in Siraha and interacted with students.
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