Nepal’s Leaders Ousted by Groundswell of Protests

 By Henry Srebrnik, Fredericton Daily Gleaner

Rarely does the Himalayan nation of Nepal make international headlines. It’s often been seen as an idyllic Shangri-La, and the site of the world’s tallest mountain.  But seemingly out of nowhere, young people -- dubbed the “Gen Z” generation -- brought down the entire government of Nepal in just 48 hours.

With at least 72 people killed, the protests, which began on Sept. 8, were the deadliest unrest in the country in decades, and forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist, UML), to quit. Official buildings, residences of political leaders and luxury hotels such as the Hilton, which opened in July 2024, were torched, vandalised and looted.

Demonstrators set parliament, the prime minister’s office and other government buildings ablaze. The damage could parallel the toll of the 2015 earthquake, which took almost 9,000 lives, and the financial losses could amount to almost thirty billion dollars.

Nepal’s new interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki has pledged to fight corruption, create jobs and raise living standards. Parliamentary elections will be held March 5.

“The protests reflect the aspirations of the young generation, a growing level of popular awareness and dissatisfaction over the rising corruption,” she said. A former Supreme Court chief justice, Karki is the only woman to have held that post and is also the first woman to lead Nepal.

Of course this didn’t come out of “nowhere.” Such things never do. The protests represented “a wholesale rejection of Nepal’s current political class for decades of poor governance and exploitation of state resources,” stated Ashish Pradhan, a senior adviser at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Growing discontent among ordinary Nepalis has been escalating for nearly two decades due to political manoeuvering at their expense. Embezzlement and nepotism scandals in which leading figures of the government were involved finally caught up with them. The recent ban on social media may have been the tipping point that brought down the government.

Nepal became a republic in 2008, after a Maoist-led civil war that killed more than 17,000 people. But the promised stability never materialised. Nepal’s GDP per capita remained under $1,500, making it the second-poorest country in South Asia, behind only Afghanistan.

After decades of bloody struggle, the establishment of democracy in Nepal in 2008 marked a historic milestone. At a time when Communist parties globally were experiencing setbacks, the seizure of state power in Nepal under Communist leadership ignited renewed hope for the left.

However, in recent years, Nepal’s three major political parties -- the Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), and the Maoist Centre -- have engaged in a game of musical chairs for power. In 17 years, Nepal has had 14 governments, and no leader has completed a full five-year term.

Human rights organisations have accused the government of using force against peaceful demonstrators. Furthermore, the government’s failure to safeguard the rights of minority ethnic groups and Dalit Hindu communities became increasingly apparent.

In the 2022 mayoral election in Kathmandu, the triumph of independent candidate Balen Shah triggered an important change in Nepal’s political landscape. For an extended period, Communist parties had maintained a strong grip on the politics of both the capital and the country. Many believed that their influential role in local elections would persist. However, Shah’s victory challenged this assumption, acting as an early warning signal to Nepal’s Communist leadership.

Shah emerged as a symbol of protest and change. The results demonstrated that voters elected him as a means of rejecting the existing political system altogether. The faith in leftist politics, which had been evident during the 2008 fall of the monarchy, began to wane.

Economic inequality has continued to rise, with an increasing gap between urban and rural areas. In the 2022–23 fiscal year, the poverty rate for those living below the cost-of-living threshold was 18.34 per cent in urban areas, compared to 24.66 per cent in rural areas.

According to World Bank data, 20 per cent of Nepal’s population lives below the poverty line. The income of the richest 10 per cent of the country is more than three times that of the poorest 40 per cent. The urban elite have monopolised most of the wealth and benefits, leaving rural populations neglected. The agricultural sector has fallen into crisis, leading to a decline in productivity.

Many young people have sought to migrate due to a lack of domestic employment opportunities. Although remittances from migrant workers have kept the economy afloat to some extent, they have not succeeded in reducing internal economic inequality. Little wonder those still in the country rose up against this government.

Apart from internal conflicts, Nepal’s foreign policy has also attracted controversy. Governments have repeatedly struggled to manage relations with India and navigate the growing influence of China. Governments have at times capitulated to Chinese influence and, at other times, succumbed to Indian pressure, thereby limiting Nepal’s capacity for independent decision-making. Oli had a decidedly pro-China bent, but Karki reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India before anyone else.

 The promise of reform that began after the end of the monarchy has devolved into a pattern of unpredictability, intra-party conflicts and widespread dissatisfaction. This failure has eroded the credibility of political leaders.