Nepal’s uncertain course after the Gen Z protests

The protests foregrounded the disillusionment with the ruling class, but the country must now confront questions on the path ahead

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There are decades when nothing happens and days when decades happen.

Nepal has literally lived these lines from Lenin in the past week. Deeply entrenched crony capitalism and a nexus between businesses, political parties, and their close circles of party workers suddenly found themselves at the receiving end of youth-led protests.

This Gen Z Revolution is perhaps the shortest-lived groundswell in Nepal, one that started on a Monday afternoon and led to the collapse of a three-party regime the very next day. By late afternoon, the seemingly defiant Prime Minister (PM), KP Sharma Oli - who had ordered the shutdown of 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and X midnight on Thursday (five days ago) - had gone into hiding. He had fled Baluwatar, the PM's official residence. The PM-inwaiting, Sher Bahadur Deuba, and his wife, Arzu Deuba (also the foreign minister), were attacked at home by an angry mob. Countless political party properties and private residences of party heavyweights were ransacked across the country. Also set on fire were the Supreme Court, Parlia-

ment, and Singha Durbar, the seat of government.

While many of the old-party leaders had gone underground overnight amid the youth charge, the angry crowd refused to be cowed down by the police, even the day after the protests broke out. The brutal police crackdown on the young protesters, many of them in school uniforms, on the first day of the protests, had galvanised people across the country. Confined to their homes by curfew, Nepali people were in total disbelief.