Unease at slow pace of change in Nepal one month on from gen Z protests | Nepal

P.Rakash Bohora was one of the first among Nepal’s Gen Z protesters to feel the pain of a police bullet. Like thousands of young people, he took to the streets of the capital last month to protest corruption and a brutal ban on social media.

He had no idea that day in Kathmandu that the demonstration would turn into what is now described as Nepal’s Gen Z revolution, leading to the overthrow of the government within a day, the dissolution of parliament and the appointment of a new interim prime minister, anti-corruption hardliner Sushila Karki, by the end of the week.

Bohora was in front of the parliament building in Kathmandu on the morning of September 8 when he heard the gunshot and felt pain in his left leg. While his friend carried him to the nearby hospital, his bloody trainer was left behind amid the chaos. The photo of the shoe later went viral, becoming a reminder of the deadliest protest day in Nepal’s history, when 19 protesters were killed.

A month later, Bohora is still in the hospital as doctors fight to save his leg. Sitting in the trauma ward, he expressed frustration at what he saw as the slow pace of change in Nepal since the Gen Z uprising, for which he paid such a heavy price.

He was among those who called for the arrest of former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and former home minister Ramesh Lekhak over allegations of corruption and their roles in the police shooting of protesters on September 8. “It has been a month since the movement started, but most of our demands have not yet been met,” Bohora said.

Bohora was forced to angrily protest a system that made politicians and their children wildly rich while he himself faced unemployment and exploitation.

Despite qualifying as a healthcare assistant eight years ago, Bohora was unable to find work in Nepal’s struggling job market and eventually went to Russia for further training. But when he ran out of money, he found himself forced to join the Russian army, fighting on the front lines in Donetsk, Ukraine. He saw his friends killed and maimed. He finally escaped to Nepal after 18 months.

“I was lucky to get home alive,” Bohora said. “After I returned, I took to the streets hoping for a better country without corruption.”

Many of the young people who took to the streets on September 8 say they only wanted to speak out against corruption and never intended to create wholesale regime change, let alone decide the next prime minister and the future of the country.

Their movement had, and to a large extent still has, no single leader, no manifesto, and no singular demands. Even the decision to name Karki, a former chief justice, as interim chief minister came after he emerged as the favorite in online discussions and polls of thousands of Gen Z protesters on social media platform Discord.

With elections promised for March, Karki is under increasing pressure from Gen Z groups to show he will tackle corruption as promised. But major bureaucratic hurdles remain in implementing sweeping reforms, and the lack of high-profile arrests of former Oli government ministers is also a matter of growing controversy.

“Our main demand right now is to control corruption,” said Amit Khanal, 24, of the Generation Z Movement Alliance. Although there is no appointed name from Generation Z in Karki’s cabinet yet, Khanal said that they remain in close talks with the government.

“This government was formed under special circumstances and must investigate major corruption scandals, primarily involving former senior leaders,” he said. “If there is no investigation, the entire purpose of this mass movement will remain meaningless.”

Om Prakash Aryal, Karki’s appointee as home minister, said one of the interim government’s first moves was to “remove obstacles and disconnect political connections” that prevented the most powerful political figures from being investigated for corruption.

“An environment is being created where the commission can accept and investigate complaints about anyone,” Aryal said. He stressed that it would take time for authorities to conduct a full and independent investigation into decades-old allegations of corruption, but added: “There are also things that need immediate action. The government will leave no room for impunity.”

In the background, efforts by Nepal’s largest political parties (Nepal Congress, Communists and Maoists) to question the legitimacy of Karki’s interim government are increasing. After the dissolution of the parliament, all three parties made statements that this move was unconstitutional and dangerous. In a notable break with tradition, no one attended Karki’s swearing-in ceremony.

In an incendiary speech this week, Oli accused Karki and Generation Z protesters of having ulterior motives. “There is an attack on this country,” he said. “There is an attack on the sovereignty of this country. There is an attack on its territory. There is an attack on the country’s interests.”

Analysts have warned that the rift between the interim government and political parties could be bad news for Nepal’s political stability and the success of elections in March.

Lok Raj Baral, professor of political science and former ambassador to India, said the Gen Z uprising should be a moment of reckoning with Nepal’s political old guard rather than blame.

“This is an opportunity for old parties to reform themselves, transfer leadership, renew and regain credibility,” he said. “The old leaders were busy fighting for their seats. They must have learned their lesson by now.”