NEW DELHI: Anger has been brewing for a long time against the lack of political morality in Nepal. We have seen 14 prime ministers over the last 17 years. All parties across the board are power hungry. In popular perception, they are extremely power hungry, corrupt, and nepotism is at its peak in Nepal.
An average of eight lakh youngsters leave Nepal every year in search of blue collar jobs, not even highly paid jobs or middle-level jobs. There is huge unemployment and poverty is rife.
This has bred a lot of discontent. The ban on social media by the Oli government, a year after the Supreme Court of Nepal passed an order to that effect, was seen by the youngsters, by Gen Z, as something aimed against them. That came as the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
In Nepal, like in all other countries, the youth rely a lot on social media to connect with others, for their entertainment, for communication, et cetera. Oli is seen as a highly authoritarian figure in the country. This particular step by him, to make social media fall in line with a lot of very stringent provisions that he brought about, was seen as an anti-democratic step by Gen Z.
There is a stench of a regime change operation here.
One is Rabi Lamichhane. It is very interesting that this person, who was Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister for a short period between December 2022 and January 2023, was imprisoned on corruption charges. The mobs yesterday broke into the Nakhu prison in Lalitpur district, adjoining Kathmandu or part of Greater Kathmandu. Among 1,500 prisoners who were released was this Deputy Prime Minister Rabi Lamichhane, who is seen to be a US stooge.
The second name is Mayor of Kathmandu Balendra Shah, again seen to be strongly anti-India. He has a map of Akhand Nepal, which includes large areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, in his office.
The third person is Harka Sampang, who is mayor of Dharan.
All these three are seen to be US stooges, whereas Oli seemed to be a stooge of China.
Another factor I must mention is that the US has been playing a huge role in Nepal ever since the earthquake in 2015. A huge number of Christian missionary organisations have infiltrated into the country and have carried out conversions without any checks. A large segment of the population is now Christian and highly evangelical. They are under the control of the American Baptists or the American Evangelicals.
Then there are NGOs. Nepal has a huge number of NGOs which are funded mostly by the US. There are social media influencers who play an outsized role in influencing public opinion, again with close links to the US. So, this as a regime change operation.
