Today, when I wake up at around 10 AM (that?s my usual time) I hurriedly looked for Kantipur (that?s what I do, always). First, I was happy that the paper was slowly emerging out from the cruel censorship since Feb 1. The main news was about pro-democracy arrests and a fabulous photograph of Bala Bahadur Rai hoisting the four-star Nepali Congress Party flag in Indra Chowk yesterday. Chandra Shekhar Karki clicked that picture. After seeing that picture for about 4 minutes, I concluded why CSK was one of the brilliant photojournalists of the country. But I was shocked to see a small news item on the front page of Kantipur. The title of the news was, within the inverted comma, ?Baburam Expelled?. Baburam Bhattarai, second most senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and Hishila Yami, his wife, expelled from the party? I eagerly went through the 2 sentence 2 paragraph news and find, in the first sentence that the source of the news of not the CPN M but the Royal Nepalese Army?s Public Relations Directorate. Humm? Then my mind started series of analysis. I was alone in the house and I was conversing with myself. Army started using media; they have started taking advantage of the censorship that is still effective since Feb 1. They are now exploiting the media. After they effectively barred Nepalese media from publishing anything related to Maoist, they are now disseminating information themselves. I wanted to see the Himalayan Times but for some strange reasons I couldn?t find that paper in my house today. May be my brother misplaced that one? May be my sister put that somewhere? Don?t know. I couldn?t figure that out. It took me no time to conclude that all other newspapers have carried the news, and most possibly, on the front page. I also thought that Gorkhapatra, the government mouthpiece, must have made that main news. Later I found that all my guesses were true. In my house, while preparing myself for office, I was thinking every possible angle of the news and it?s impact in the days to come in Nepali journalism. My brother Email came back from college. Seeing Kantipur on the gate, he started conversation by uttering the headline of the main news, ?Deshbyapi Pradarshan". (Countrywide Demonstrations) ?Waw!? he said. ?What a nice piture yar,? that was his compliment to CSK. Then I too started praising CSK and his ability to capture such a scene. ?I too was there yesterday,? I told Email, ?But you see I couldn?t click such a fantastic shot. CSK is indeed a great photographer. The situation was very tense and it was very difficult to click pictures. Still, CSK did such a nice job. He has another shot as well and that?s published in the 3rd page. I too captured the same scene and posted that in blog but mine is not so good.? Then, after what Email said made me pale. ?You know what,? he said, ?They expelled Baburam.? ?How do you know that?? ?Well, Kantipur says so.? Now, I needed to be playing the role of his older brother. ?Read that again boy. And see what is the source of the news.? He ran outside from the room and grabbed the paper. ?Oh..ho,? he said ?The source is Army. I thought that I was peoples? army. He he he he. So, the Army wants to divide and rule. he.. he..? Thank god, my brother got the point. Now I started pondering into the fact that how many Emails in Nepal today have been ?misled? by such reports. I don?t know if they have really expelled Bhattarai but I think the new is not true. But all papers have carried the news on their front pages, with Gorkhapatra making that main news of the day. However, there are some reasons for people to easily believe such news. Firs, there already had been some reports in independent media well before any kind of censorship about the internal conflict between all powerful Maoist Party Chairman Prachanda and the Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. Some reports at that time even claimed the same thing about Baburam being expelled from the party. Dr. Bhattarai who is considered the spokesperson of the party and is also considered as having mild views regarding war. Reports indicated that militarism is more influential in the party than the political ideology. Still, the news of Baburam being expelled from the party hasn?t been verified independently. And I don?t think Nepalese media can report the truth even if today?s news is verified as being wrong. And I really don?t blame them. I know we are in the emergency. The situation is not normal. Thanks to a blog reader called X for sending me this news item issued by the state news agency Rastriya Samachar Samiti. X also sends the English version of the RSS news that could be found in the comments section. I have confirmed that both news posted by X are correct, ie, they are issued by RSS. Here is the Nepali version: - www.blog.com.np