Former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and newly appointed Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai had a teary mentor-apprentice exchange during the meeting of International Relations Committee of the parliament on Sunday.
Nepal, who is member of the parliamentary committee, spoke for almost 40 minutes at the start of the meeting spending most of the time advising Bhattarai to maintain his clean image even as a minister. Nepal suggested Bhattarai, who has been in the former's group for most of his political career, to not recruit persons who have already been tested and have failed.
"Many persons return a stained person after going to a ministry. Let there be no stains," Nepal told Bhattarai as the latter listened attentively.
Bhattarai became emotional when his turn to speak came and reminisced how Nepal had come to visit him when he was critically ill 23 years ago.
"I was critically ill. I was taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) for treatment. I stayed there for 60 days," he remembered the time when he was in Kathmandu for election campaign as per the party's strategy to use election during the Panchayat regime.
"The doctors had given up. Madhav comrade came to visit me. He visited in another name. He touched me in a way. That gave me hope to live."
Nepal became overwhelmed on hearing Bhattarai say that and started to cry.
Bhattarai pointed that their relation is like that of a mentor and an apprentice or a teacher and a student, and added that he will follow Nepal's instructions.
Other participants in the meeting also turned emotional on hearing the teary exchange.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tculDb_lsK4
