Lawmakers have taken umbrage at the ungracious design of the new emblem with the new Nepal map and national flag that the Parliament Secretariat distributed to them on Monday.

“I accepted it as a respect to the labour the craftsmen have put in,” Ram Kumari Jhankri, a lawmaker from the ruling Nepal Communist Party, told the Post. “This depicts the incompetence of our Parliament Secretariat.”

The new emblem has become an object of ridicule since it came into the public domain on Sunday for its multiple flaws and design.

The emblem depicts neither the map nor the national flag accurately and lacks elegance and appears to be a slapdash work by a novice craftsman. Two hands, one of a woman and another of a man, which are holding the map and the national flag look like artwork by a schoolkid–too garish and tacky.

The new emblems were made to show the new Nepal map that the Oli administration published on May 2o. Subsequently, the map, depicting Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura as Nepali territories, was endorsed by the federal parliament. Nepal’s move of adopting a new map came in response to India’s inauguration of a road link via Lipulekh to Kailash Mansarovar in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

Parties from across the spectrum overwhelmingly supported the Oli administration’s move of publishing the new map.

According to Secretariat officials, the logo was designed by Tek Bir Mukhiya, an octogenarian artiste. After accepting the design, it asked the Cottage and Small Industries in Lalitpur to make the badges with the design.

Lawmakers described it as a piece of clumsy work.

“It is distressing to see the distorted map and national flag. The Parliament Secretariat is responsible for all this mess and it needs to correct it,” Prakash Pantha, a National Assembly member from the Nepali Congress, told the Post.

The Secretariat has spent Rs2 million on the new badges.

Each emblem has one tola (around 11.5 grams) of silver and plating of two lal (each lal is one tenth of a gram) of gold.

According to Dashrath Dhamala, information officer at the Secretariat, each emblem cost Rs5,527.86, including Rs2,500 as fee for the craftsmen.

The Cottage and Small Industries, situated within the premises of Patan Industrial Area, had delivered 350 emblems on Friday for 334 members of the House of Representatives and National Assembly.

“These are handmade items so they may lack the perfect finishing,” said Dhamala. “They might look different in photos due to camera angling. The real ones don’t really look that bad.”

Jhankri said some may call the clunky emblems a small issue, but it displays how state machineries function in the country.

“This is emblematic of a larger problem in Nepal,” said Jhankri. “There is a lack of sensitivity, effort and integrity. This tendency is not limited to Parliament; it’s the same everywhere.”

Political analysts say the graceless emblems have not only shamed the Nepali people but also undermined the country’s rich artistic heritage and craftsmanship.

Rajendra Maharjan, a political commentator, said had officials from the Secretariat consulted some experts, including Satya Mohan Joshi for instance, they would not have made such a bungle.

“I think everyone in power here thinks they know everything,” said Maharjan. “That is not just limited to the executive head of the country. It applies to all others who head their respective agencies.”

Even though officials from the Parliament Secretariat refused to accept that the emblems were unappealing, officials at the Cottage and Small Industries admitted to the flaws.

Ganesh Raut, chief of the handicraft unit at Cottage and Small Industries, Lalitpur, said they had to engage inexperienced people in colouring and had to plastic coat it without letting the ink dry, as they were pressured to make the delivery early.

Following criticism from lawmakers and members of the public through social media, the Secretariat has started to sort out the most defective pieces.

Raut said they are ready to refine the colouring if they are asked to do so.

“It needs at least 48 hours for the paint to dry but we had just 12 hours,” Raut told the Post. “We would have delivered fine pieces only if we had more time, at least one more week until August 23.”