Nepali Sherpa guide climbs Mount Everest 24th time, breaks own record
Kathmandu, May 21: Kami Rita Sherpa, the 50-year-old veteran Nepali mountaineer, scaled Mount Everest for the 24th time Tuesday as he guided an Indian police team atop the world's highest peak, breaking his own record for the most Everest ascents within a week.
Kami, who conquered Everest 23rd time on May 15, scaled the 8,848-metre peak along with the Indian team, becoming the only mountaineer in the world to hold the record for most Everest summits.
According to Mingma Sherpa, Company Chairman at Seven Summit Treks, the Nepali veteran from Thame village of Solukhumbu district successfully climbed Mount Everest at 6:38 am from Nepal side.
"Kami Rita along with the Indian Police team from the Seven Summit Treks expedition has stood atop the roof of the world," Mingma told The Himalayan Times.
Kami reached the top of Mount Everest guiding an Indian team, he said.
He started his summit push from Camp IV on Monday night and reached the summit point on Tuesday morning, said Gyanendra Shrestha, a liaison officer at the base camp.
Kami has already climbed most of the peaks above 8,000 metres, including K2, Cho-oyu, Lhoste and Annapurna among others.
The climbers have now been descending to the lower camps safely, Mingma said, adding that Kami wanted to climb Mount Everest for at least 25 times.
Kami has been climbing Mount Everest since 1994. He could not climb the Everest in 1995 after his client got sick on the way to summit. In 1995, he abandoned the summit bid after the deadliest avalanche killed expedition teams.
Nepal opened the climbing route to the world's highest peak on May 14, when a team of eight Sherpas successfully scaled the Mount Everest, becoming the first team to reach the summit.
Hundreds of climbers flock each year to Nepal - home to several of the world's highest mountains, to scale Himalayan peaks during the spring season that begins around March and ends in June.
According to Nepal Department of Tourism, more than 4,400 people have scaled the summit since Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first conquered the mountain in 1953.
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Sujit Nair raises concerns over speculation of DMK-AIADMK understanding to block TVK
Chennai: Journalist and political commentator Sujit Nair has expressed concern over speculation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam could explore a post-poll understanding to prevent Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from forming the government in Tamil Nadu.
In a social media post, Sujit Nair said the election verdict in Tamil Nadu reflected a clear public demand for political change and argued that the mandate should be respected irrespective of political preferences.
Referring to reports and political discussions surrounding a possible understanding between the DMK and AIADMK, he said he hoped such developments remained only speculative conversations and did not turn into reality.
Nair stated that if such an alliance were to take shape, it would raise serious questions about ideological politics in the country. He said TVK had emerged through a democratic electoral process and that the legitimacy to govern in a parliamentary democracy comes from the people’s verdict.
According to him, attempts to prevent an electoral winner from forming the government through unexpected political arrangements may be constitutionally valid, but many people could view them as politically opportunistic.
He further said that such a move could particularly affect the political image of the DMK, which has historically projected itself around ideology, social justice and opposition politics. Nair said that in ideological terms, the DMK appeared closer to TVK than to the AIADMK, and joining hands with its long-time political rival only to remain in power could weaken its broader political narrative.
He added that the same questions would apply to the AIADMK as well, as the party had spent decades positioning itself against the DMK and such an arrangement could create discomfort among its cadre and supporters.
Drawing a comparison with Maharashtra politics in 2019, Nair said he had expressed similar views when the Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after the Assembly elections.
He said post-poll alliances between long-standing political rivals often create a public perception that ideology and electoral mandates become secondary when political power equations come into play.
Nair also said such developments increase public cynicism towards politics and reinforce the belief among voters that ideology is often sidelined after elections.
He maintained that the Tamil Nadu verdict was emphatic and said respecting both the spirit and substance of the mandate was important for the credibility of democratic politics.
