Has the Aragalaya been contagious?

The question arises whether the youth, especially the Gen Z, are taking over the political fate of countries, particularly those in South Asia with the recent regime changes and efforts to that effect in countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal.

- By M.S. M. Ayub

Except for Indonesia, in all other three countries governments have been toppled by youth uprisings during the last four years, though the trigger in each case was different. Yet, interestingly, the catchword of all four protest campaigns was corruption.

It was originally not a conflict between the state and the people in Nepal, but one between the government and Western social networking companies over regulation of social media in the country. In the context of misusing social media by millions of people across the world, the Nepalese government of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli wanted to register those networks with relevant authorities. Only a few companies responded positively while other pushed the government to an awkward position.

The government responded to the tech companies by banning 26 of them within Nepal on September 4, unable to foresee the repercussions of this action as it was unprecedented. The youth who were addicted to social media as in any other country were enraged, and launched a protest campaign on September 8 in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, accusing the government of stifling social media platforms in order to cover up its corruption.

The protests met with a brutal crackdown by the police. Clashes followed where initially 19 young people lost their lives, making more people join the protest.

Buildings of Parliament, the Supreme Court and houses of politicians, including two former prime ministers, were torched during which the wife of one former prime Minister sustained severe burn injuries and later succumbed to them.