The Sushila Karki Cabinet is still incomplete, though she has included ministers in two lots. Perhaps, she is finding it difficult to choose ministers as she has to balance between the nominees of different GenZ groups on the one hand and their efficiency and honesty, on the other. The GenZ movement overthrew the Oli government through mass protests held on Sept 8 and 9 after the government crackdown on social media, which had been giving a people fed up with rampant corruption, bad governance, nepotism, lavish lifestyles of political leaders and their near and dear ones, political instability and an uncertain future, a platform to vent out their anger and frustration.
The rally, which saw a significant number of students in school uniform, was almost without any leadership. The unleashing of the police force in the massive protest resulted in the death of 19 protesters, which sparked counterviolence that turned government buildings, media, business houses, banks and hotels etc into a cinder throughout the country.
Sadly, the mass, which lacked leadership, was hijacked by those groups who wanted to take revenge against not only the political leaders but also against government institutions and commercial institutions against whom they had some grudges like those who were dissatisfied with the present democratic setup, living standards of the leaders and their relatives and deprived of misusing of the state fund and natural resources. The security agencies were unable to stop the arson and vandalism.
The present condition is not the outcome of the failures of one government or two. It is an accumulative effect of the past, as rulers did not care for the welfare of the commoners. The Nepali state always remained a political project and never became a peoples’ project. Of course, the present predicament hastened the scenario to unfurl. The country has enough foreign exchange due to increasing remittances, on the one hand and about 5-6m workers working aboard and about two thousand departing daily by air despite a large number of people from the western districts going to India, on the other.
The Nepal valley (the Kathmandu valley) became a Nepal state with the political project of Gorkha King Prithvi Narayan Shah of expanding the boundaries of his tiny principality. It materialized with the capturing of the Kathmandu valley, in 1769. Its boundaries went on expanding until it was stopped by Kangra (India) and the British East India Company, which was equally expanding its territories. The company squished the border through a (controversial) Treaty of Sugauli in 1816. The Rana regime extended support to the British in both World Wars to keep them in good humour and keep their political project intact.
However, the resentment among the people, dissatisfaction of King Tribhuvan and Nepali Congress’ armed revolution in 1950 needed negotiations in Delhi, which resulted in a ‘Compromise Formula’ that pledged to establish democracy through a constitution promulgated through an elected Constituent Assembly (CA), provide recognition to the King, give continuity to the Rana Prime Minister and form a coalition government with the Nepali Congress. The deal was not fully implemented.
The resurrected Shah dynasty continued its earlier stand on its political project. King Mahendra ignored the CA issue and proclaimed a constitution to hold parliamentary elections. Within 18 months, he dissolved the elected government and parliament, and introduced a partyless Panchayat system. King Birendra followed suit.
The 1990 people’s movement reintroduced the parliamentary system. But it could not last long due to the internal bickering of the Nepali Congress and the decade-long Maoists insurgency. After the assassination of King Birendra, King Gyanendra, who sought to rule directly, forced the seven political parties to join hands with the Maoists against the monarchy. Consequently, another people’s movement in 2006 overthrew it. The elected CA adopted an all-inclusive constitution with federalism in 2015.
During the last 74 years (1951-2025) there were 59 changes of government. Significantly, the instability continued as the latest government is the 15th since 2006.The frequent changes were necessitated only to satisfy the insatiable greed of leaders to acquire power and continue to hold as long as possible and also to accumulate unlimited wealth by any means that led to corruption and misrule.
The challenges before the GenZ movement are enormous. It was easy to overthrow a beleaguered government but eradicating deeply-entrenched corruption will be a Herculean task. The strong collusion between politicians, bureaucracy, security agencies and judiciary will not allow any effort to eliminate it, as each of them will defend the rest for its own safety. To ensure that the government does not deviate from their chosen direction, GenZs have to keep a close watch; otherwise their sacrifice will be fruitless.
Views are personal
