New Delhi, Sep 18 As Nepal picks its way to peace and democracy, reports of a conflict among constituents of the Gen Z movement have made the region wary, with India watching the situation closely.
The Nepal Stock Exchange tumbled on Thursday, losing 160.33 points. Trading was halted for the day after the index tumbled 6 per cent to close at 2,511.91 points.
The sudden fall reflects heightened uncertainty among investors, with many reacting to the political unrest and its potential impact on the economy, reported the Kathmandu Post.
Young protesters who toppled the government are not a single cohesive bloc; they are divided between multiple leaders, platforms, and tactical goals.
Trouble began early this week with a group of demonstrators led by Sudan Gurung gathering outside interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki’s official residence in Kathmandu.
They were protesting against the appointment of Om Prakash Aryal as the country’s Home and Law Minister in the interim cabinet.
They warned that it was they who made Karki the Prime Minister, and if need be, they can remove her too.
A section of the protesters had raised their voices against naming the septuagenarian earlier, demanding “a younger person as Prime Minister”.
The other name as a PM candidate that had surfaced was that of the 54-year-old engineer Kulman Ghising. He is part of the current cabinet, in charge of three portfolios. Ghising, who previously led the Nepal Electricity Authority, has been instrumental in solving Nepal’s power situation.
Incidentally, Aryal is said to have close ties with Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah. He is alleged to have entered the cabinet through “self-nomination”. Some Gen Z movement participants view this as a betrayal of their movement’s democratic ideals.
Shah, 35 -- an engineer-turned-rapper-turned-politician -- won the mayoral contest as an independent candidate. He has a wide following among Nepal’s youth.
Shah was a major force behind the Gen Z movement. He was named as the initial choice of the protesters to lead an interim government. But he refused, with a social media post in support of Karki as Prime Minister.
Gurung -- another leading face in the uprising -- is the founder of the youth-led non-profit organisation, Hami Nepal. The NGO is involved in social work and did extensive work in the 2015 earthquake.
The 36-year-old activist Gurung was earlier an event organiser and a DJ, but the 2015 Nepal earthquake changed his life.
He is known to be steadfast and sometimes emotional. A video went viral showing one of Gurung’s supporters pushing a journalist on the ground, purportedly at a press conference organised on Sunday, September 14, in Kathmandu.
The video shows journalists later assaulting the perpetrator, as chaos erupts at the venue.
In the current situation, security watchers are wary of the youth leaders falling out with each other. With Pakistani net users already instigating online, the situation may be used by countries with vested interests.
It raises risks of a return to unrest and a spillover, worry experts, raising the chances of arms smuggling and infiltration across the porous Indo-Nepal border.
Foreign powers, who are ready to exploit the situation, can mislead Gen Z to create a parallel authority and long-term unrest.
Reports of such situations have come from other neighbouring countries earlier, they warn.
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