Minister for Youth and Sports Bablu Gupta has postponed his upcoming visit to the United States, which was scheduled for January 17.
According to his personal secretary Binod Rimal, the visit has been postponed due to insufficient time.
“Visa and other processes would take time. Since there wasn’t enough time, he will not be traveling to the US for now,” Rimal said.
The issue had earlier drawn attention after the Cabinet approved Minister Gupta’s participation in an event in the US titled “Role of Youth in the Development of Nepal Post–Gen Z Revolution.”
The event was to be organized by a faction of the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) led by Bikash Upreti. However, another NRNA-USA faction headed by Satendra Sah issued a statement saying Minister Gupta had not been invited, making the minister’s scheduled US trip further controversial.
There are currently three NRNA groups in the US, one of which is led by Upreti. Earlier, Upreti said that the event was being organized by their group’s youth department.
“This event is being organized by our youth department in Dallas, Texas,” Upreti told Setopati. “It is a youth conference focused on the role of youth after the Gen Z movement.”
From inviting Minister Gupta to planning the event, everything was handled by the group’s youth member Ashish Sangraula.
Since Minister Gupta had not finalized his travel schedule, the venue and date for the event had not been fixed.
As filing of nominations for the House of Representatives election is scheduled for January 20, the minister had wanted to return to Nepal before that date. Although the government is non-partisan, Minister Gupta is considered close to the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).
He had been actively involved during the unity talks between RSP President Rabi Lamichhane, Balen Shah, and Kulman Ghising, and had even taken photos with them after the agreement.
It was revealed earlier that Prime Minister Sushila Karki had asked for his resignation, citing concerns over his proximity to a political party while serving in a non-partisan government.
Rimal said the US visit had been finalized three weeks earlier, but the Cabinet approved it only a few days ago since there were no Cabinet meetings in the intervening period.
“The proposal wasn’t included in the Cabinet’s agenda at one point, and then no Cabinet meeting was held for about 10 days. The Cabinet had granted approval to his America visit three days ago,” Rimal said. “He was not going on the government’s expenses, the organizers in the US were to cover the costs.”
At the event, Minister Gupta was scheduled to present his views on the Gen Z movement.
“The minister was invited to speak on the participation of non-resident Nepali youth after the Gen Z movement and the contributions they can make,” Rimal said.
He also clarified that Minister Gupta was scheduled to travel to the US alone.
