Ok Boomer, Time's Up

People and politicians came together to establish democracy, and then they parted ways. Now they are faced with the challenge of putting the democracy back together

- By Dinesh KafleIS A KATHMANDU-BASED WRITER AND ACADEMIC. A COLUMNIST FOR THE KATHMANDU POST, HE TEACHES MEDIA STUDIES AND CREATIVE WRITING AT KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

LAST Monday, on September 8, as my university staff bus whizzed past the Parliament House at Baneshwor Chowk in Kathmandu, I was gripped by anxiety and nostalgia at once. This was where, in a few hours, Gen Zs would congregate for what would be the largest protest in recent times, calling for an end to corruption, nepotism, and authoritarianism. This was also where, 20 years ago, I spent my days calling for an end to the despotism of the then-monarch.

Once in a while, I recount to my students my boyhood adventures of sloganeering and stone-pelting in the heady days of the mid-2000s when I had rallied behind leaders of seven parties, calling for the establishment of a “new” Nepal. King Gyanendra had taken absolute power into his hands, thrown political leaders behind bars, posted his army men in newsrooms, and blocked the Internet. The king relinquished the throne indeed, but he chose to stay on in the country, in the Nagarjun jungle on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley. He descends to the valley once in a while at the slightest hint of political unrest, as if he were an old jackal trying to steal chicken from households. He fails to make a kill and returns to his jungle mahal, like he did on the night of September 11, but not quite before ruffling a few feathers.

On September 8, many of my students had finally decided to descend on the streets, calling for accountability among the political leaders and their parties. The thieves on the block this time were the same old leaders who had sold me the dream of a new Nepal 20 years earlier. Those who had enlightened me with the democratic ideals of parliamentarism, democracy, republicanism, federalism, and constitutionalism had become caricatures of their own revolutionary selves as they became enmeshed in a game of thrones and left the citizens perennially disgruntled. But the kids this time said: “Enough is enough”.